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The highest-paid executive in Hollywood last year isn’t a studio chief or a venture capitalist. It is Ari Emanuel, the chief executive of Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., the agency which he co-founded nearly three decades ago.
Mr. Emanuel’s 2021 pay package, revealed this month in Endeavor’s
EDR,
first-ever annual report as a public company, is valued at $308 million, including equity awards. That compensation is higher than that of any CEO in the S&P 500 reported so far this year, or last, and more closely resembles pay among executives at big tech firms in recent years than other industries.
The bulk of Mr. Emanuel’s compensation—about $293.7 million—comes from stock, most of it awarded to him as part of Endeavor’s 2021 initial public offering.
Endeavor reported that the CEO earned $67.5 million in recognized compensation, which includes Mr. Emanuel’s $4 million salary, a $10 million cash bonus, and equity awards that vested, or became fully his, in 2021. His reported compensation includes stock awards that vest in coming years and the value of which is tied to the company’s performance.
Patrick Whitesell, Endeavor’s co-founder and executive chairman, received pay valued at $123.1 million last year, $11 million of it in salary, bonus and pre-IPO stock awards.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.
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