LeBron James' media company lost $28 million in 2023: report
The raw numbers, in a vacuum, hit like a bucket of cold water. The SpringHill Company, the entertainment firm cofounded by Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, "has never made any money," according to a new report by Bloomberg.
"The company lost $28 million on sales of $104 million last year, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News. SpringHill lost $17 million in 2022 and is on pace to lose millions more in 2024," Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw reported this week.
Those numbers, of course, don't exist in a vacuum. The boom in streaming content that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic cooled off as viewers spent less time glued to their screens. The story of SpringHill's declining revenues is a typical Hollywood story; that the story involves a front-facing Hollywood icon is only coincidental to LeBron's contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
SpringHill recently agreed to a merger with Fulwell 73 in a deal that will give the combined company "more scale" during a challenging business environment. Maverick Carter, SpringHill's CEO, said in an email to Bloomberg that LeBron "remains deeply engaged in driving the vision and mission he helped shape, focusing more actively on certain passion projects.”
James has proven adept in helping raise money for SpringHill in the past. The challenge for SpringHill — and many other Hollywood production companies — is to make those passion projects profitable.
Bloomberg notes that Kevin Hart just brought in a new CEO to lead his entertainment brand (Hartbeat). TelevisaUnivision recently let go of its head of U.S. local after appointing a new CEO in September.
While broadcasters and producers look to new voices to solidify their business strategy, many Hollywood executives are banking on a new Trump administration to free up rules allowing for accelerated mergers and acquisitions to reorganize their businesses.
Against this backdrop, even the NBA's all-time leading scorer is not immune to the problems facing other business moguls in his adopted hometown.
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