WME’s Dan Limerick on Megamergers and Tech Giants in Hollywood
For WME chief operating officer Dan Limerick, consolidation in Hollywood gave way to the tech giants that have encroached upon the territory historically held by legacy media.
Limerick, who joined The Hollywood Reporter co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan on Wednesday in a keynote conversation at THR’s annual Power Business Managers event, presented by City National Bank, likened the current state of the entertainment industry to the 2000s during the height of broadcast TV that started to see incumbents gobble up competitors.
“Times like this give rise to tech,” he said.
By his thinking, the shift isn’t all that bad. He observed that the companies that are now a part of the Hollywood landscape are contributing to solving the issues that the mergers and acquisitions feeding frenzy triggered. “As we consolidate, there’s a lot of sameness that starts to percolate,” he added. “With a more diverse slate of studios to work with, the programming gets better over time.”
Asked about industry contraction, Limerick noted that the tech giants brought a lot of money into Hollywood and that more content is being made now than ever before. On the challenges to greenlighting smaller titles due to the current state of production, he said that the agency will “have to take a bit less at times to have bigger backends.”
From left: The Hollywood Reporter president Joe Shields, WME chief operating officer Dan Limerick and THR co-editors-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Maer Roshan (Rodin Eckenroth/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
Tech companies that have made their way into the entertainment industry in recent years include Apple, which launched its own production arm and has been spending big money creating content, and Amazon, which bought MGM Studios in 2022 and has found a niche in producing small to mid-budget titles. The agreement to buy a controlling stake in National Amusements, the company that controls Paramount Global, by David Ellison’s Skydance is expected to close next year.
These transactions further consolidated a shrinking pool of content buyers that have caught the eyes of regulators and Hollywood’s unions. Disney’s series of acquisitions — Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and others — have led to ramped up prices for its streaming services, further vertically integrated the company, pushed creatives to give up revenue from future licensing of their TV content and “reduced output and innovation,” per a 2023 report from the Writers Guild of America. Netflix, meanwhile, once helped to promote a competitive environment but is “now using its position as the largest streaming service in the world to abuse its leverage as an employer, decrease innovative content spending and raise prices for consumers,” the report alleged.
Honoree John McILwee and Jane Lynch (Rodin Eckenroth/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
In October, Disney shut down its ABC Signature TV studio in the second such move by a media conglomerate this month. The reorganization includes a merging of scripted development teams at ABC and Hulu.
There are consequences to companies that take pride in disrupting the status quo becoming major players in Hollywood, Limerick said. Prompted by Roshan to share his thoughts on the scuffle between OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson, he pointed to the emergence of generative artificial tools that pilfer WME clients’ likenesses and works before calling for legislation to be passed that accounts for such theft.
“I also think it’s going to [stay] here,” Limerick continued. “The winners are going to be those that are able to use it effectively to do what we do in creative endeavors.”
JaHan Wang, executive vp entertainment banking at City National Bank (Rodin Eckenroth/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
The Q&A ended a breakfast at Spago Beverly Hills celebrating Hollywood’s Top Business Managers. THR co-editor-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody kicked off a lineup of speakers that included THR president Joe Shields and JaHan Wang, executive vp entertainment banking for City National Bank.
This year’s Business Manager Icon honoree was John McILwee, founder of J. McILwee & Associates, Inc. He’s appeared several times on THR‘s top Business Managers lists and counts Jane Lynch, Matt Reeves, Kevin Costner, Maura Tierney, Chris Olsen and Kerry Condon as clients.
Lynch presented McILwee the award. She emphasized his unrelenting optimism and work ethic, plus him being the “biggest name dropper I’ve ever met.”
She added, “He carpe diems the shit out of life. But what I love most about John is that when I present him with something that truly confounds me, which is easy to do, he says to me easy peasy.”
On the podium, McILwee attributed his success in the industry to creating win-win situations whenever possible. “A successful negotiation doesn’t mean someone else has to lose,” he explained.
And in the speech that drew plenty of laughs from the crowd, he concluded with, “When are we going to get our own IMDB category?”
