Hiring #MeToo men as ‘distressed assets’ may help Paramount’s finances but it’s a myopic game to play

First, there’s Jeff Shell, president of Paramount Skydance, who was fired as CEO of NBC Universal in 2023 following an allegation of sexual harassment. Then there’s John Lasseter, Paramount’s head of animation, who left Walt Disney in 2018 after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Paramount brought on Max Landis, who faced accusations of sexual misconduct in 2019, to write a treatment of G.I. Joe—one the company has passed on. Filmmaker Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual misconduct by several women (allegations he has denied), is making Rush Hour 4 with Paramount as its distributor. (Amazon also hired Ratner, tapping him to direct Melania, a documentary.)

As The Wrap aptly pointed out, Ellison is essentially telling “Hollywood’s canceled #MeToo men: We’re hiring.”

The industry publication amplified a theory about why Paramount Skydance has hired controversial figures: The company isn’t trying to make a big point about redemption, the #MeToo movement or cancel culture. Instead, it’s just trying to get talent on the cheap. One top dealmaker it didn’t identify said, “Studios like Paramount Pictures are ultimately in the asset business. Hiring someone like Max Landis or Brett Ratner is more likely about acquiring distressed creative assets at a price below their historical market value.”

Ellison has a strong incentive to keep a tight leash on expenses. Paramount will have $79 billion in net debt after its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, which Ellison has promised to quickly pay down.

There are two ways to think about all this. The first is that Hollywood has always played a prominent role in shaping the country’s broader culture.

So what does it say that one of the world’s soon-to-be largest and most influential movie studios has hired these men? It was not long ago that almost no company would be motivated to bring on anyone accused of allegations during the #MeToo movement. The climate around accountability was so swift and public that association alone could end a career. Clearly, moral clarity has softened. What was once considered a clear disqualification is now framed by some as undervalued assets.

The second is that Hollywood in many cases seems more willing to grant second chances to men than first opportunities to women. Women held only nine, or 8.1%, of the 111 director roles attached to the top 100 US box office films last year, down from 13.4% in 2024, according to a study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California. The report also found that films by women received the same ratings from critics as those made by men; films by women of colour were the highest rated overall.

The study notes that Paramount, which Skydance merged with only in August, was one of three major distributors that didn’t hire a female director across the top films of 2025 that it evaluated. Since then, the company has greenlit several women-led films, including Billie Eilish’s concert film that the singer co-directed, Children of Blood and Bone directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and Teyana Taylor’s directorial debut. The company declined to comment.

In Hollywood, hiring decisions have an impact on the types of stories that get told. A separate report from San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that last year women who worked on the top 250 films continued to be wildly under-represented as producers (28%), executive producers (23%), writers (20%), editors (20%) and cinematographers (7%). Meanwhile, the percentage of top-grossing films with female protagonists dropped from 42% in 2024 to 29% in 2025. As the report put it, “Hollywood has never needed permission to exclude and diminish women, but it now has it.”

The one area in Hollywood where women aren’t under-represented? Viewership. Men and women were equally likely to report going to the movies in the last year, but an ability to capture a female audience can make a film. Last month, Wuthering Heights had the year’s biggest opening so far, with women buying some 75% of those tickets.

In such a fragile box-office environment, which has yet to fully recapture its pre-covid audience, failing to represent and tell the stories of this audience on the big screen will come at a cost—one no distressed asset can offset. ©Bloomberg

The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering corporate America.