EXCLUSIVE: There was some earth-shattering news earlier this week when Neon‘s Chief Marketing Officer and Longlegs and Parasite campaign architect Christian Parkes left the arthouse distributor — but now we know where he, and two of his Neon colleagues Jason Wald and Spener Collantes are going: Warner Bros.
The trio are part of a new contemporary film label that Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are starting. Parkes will lead it, we hear, with the new brand focusing exclusively on smartly budgeted global theatrical releases with innovative marketing campaigns. De Luca and Abdy have a history of championing burgeoning filmmakers and this label provides an opportunity to discover new cinematic voices. In addition, the venture looks to meet exhibition’s demand for more product and diverse title offerings beyond blockbusters.
Wald will be Head of Acquisitions & Production with Collantes as VP, Marketing & Creative. Wald most recently served as EVP, Acquisitions & Production at Neon, and Collantes was most recently the VP of Creative Marketing at Neon.
The label is expected to be named officially by the time Sundance rolls around next month.
The idea of this new label was well in the works before the plans to split up Warner Bros. Discovery, before the acceptance of Netflix’s bid to buy motion picture, TV production and HBO Max assets. David Zaslav, DeLuca and Abdy saw an opportunity to bring more films to the theatrical marketplace that are smartly priced, applying innovative digitally focused and targeted promotional campaigns for each release.
The label will focus on lower cost films, targeting digital natives and Gen Z audiences with zeitgeist-driving fare utilizing highly efficient targeted marketing with both independently made and acquired projects, as well as new films developed in-house for global theatrical release. Warners’ used to have the classic labels, Warner Independent and Picturehouse. This new label will be very different as it’s super-focused to pulling in the demo to two-to-three titles a year; not the half dozen supply which Warner Independent historically released.
The filmmakers with pics at the new Warner Bros. label will join the ranks of the studio’s marquee directors, i.e. Ryan Coogler, Paul Thomas Anderson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emerald Fennell, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and others who got their starts in the independent films space.
In a Q3 2025 letter to shareholders, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed the film division’s future releases strategy will include one-to-two Warner Bros. Pictures tentpoles based on well-known Warner Bros. IP; one to two DC Studios films; three-to-four New Line Cinema releases (including horror and comedy); one-to-two WB Animation titles; and a select number of moderately budgeted original films. The label will further contribute to the studio’s slate of moderately budgeted original films, targeting two-to-three titles annually.
While there’s been concern from some over Netflix crunching the theatrical window, co-CEO Ted Sarandos has promised in recently that he’ll stay faithful to Warner Bros. theatrical titles; he sees the acquisition as an opportunity for the streamer to finally expand onto the big screen. That said, pay one movies continue to be a significant driver for consumers and reduces churn among streamers. A Parrot Analytics analysis of thousands of titles across Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix and HBO Max in the US found that “movies deliver disproportionately high engagement relative to the volume of content hours they represent. The recent narrative has been that movies, in contrast to TV series, were in decline…But there’s data that paints a different picture. In the constant battle against churn, movies are proving to be one of the most efficient tools streamers have to keep viewers coming back.”
