President of the Motion Picture Group at Paramount Pictures Emma Watts is exiting her position following the ouster of CEO and Chairman Jim Gianopulos, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.
Earlier this month, Brian Robbins, the head of Nickelodeon at ViacomCBS, was announced as Gianopulos’ replacement. Gianopulos took over at Paramount in 2017 after a lengthy stint at 20th Century Fox, where he was co-chair of filmed entertainment from 2000 to 2012 and was sole chairman until 2016.
In her position, Watts oversaw all film operations at Paramount and Paramount Players, the latter of which was actually founded by Robbins before he left to run Nickelodeon. She replaced Wyck Godfrey as president of the motion picture group in June 2020. Watts and Gianopulos hired Jeremy Kramer, who now runs Paramount Players, and now co-presidents of production Daria Cercek and Michael Ireland.
Before her stint at Paramount, Watts joined Fox in 1998 as a creative executive and in 2007 was promoted to president of production and later to vice chairman in 2017. In 2018, following the Disney-Fox merger, she transitioned to the newly rebranded 20th Century Studios and oversaw productions like “Ford v Ferrari” and “Free Guy” starring Ryan Reynolds.
Watts has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry and is best known for her tenure at 20th Century Fox, where her hits included “Night at the Museum,” “The Greatest Showman,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Martian,” “Deadpool,” “Logan,” “Avatar” and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film “West Side Story.”