Mediawan Buys Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine

Mediawan has acquired Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine at a fraction of the $900 million valuation the company carried when Blackstone-backed Candle Media bought a majority stake in 2021. Variety understands the Paris-based group paid on the lower end of tens of millions of dollars. Co-founder and chairman Pierre-Antoine Capton declined to confirm the figure.

The deal, unveiled this week on Mediawan's tenth anniversary, follows the group's purchases of Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment in 2022 and Peter Chernin's North Road earlier this year. As with those acquisitions, partly financed through stock, Witherspoon joins Mediawan's shareholder base. That roster already includes Pitt, Chernin, Plan B partners Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, See-Saw's Iain Canning and Emilie Sherman. Mediawan also launched LuckyChap International, the London-based arm of Margot Robbie's company, last November.

"For our 10th anniversary today, we're working with Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Reese Witherspoon — all three of whom are extremely creative and recognized as such — it defines the company's DNA in terms of its independence, its commitment to talent and its creativity," Capton told Variety in an exclusive interview, less than a day after announcing the deal.

What did Mediawan actually pay?

Capton would not disclose financial terms. "I won't confirm. The bottom line is that we acquired 100% of Hello Sunshine along with Reese and Mediawan, from Candle Media, and the money we're investing is going toward development and content creation. It's truly being invested in the company," he said. He credited Chernin and Jesse Jacobs, former Hello Sunshine shareholders, for bringing the opportunity to Mediawan. Capton worked on the deal alongside Mediawan CCO Elisabeth D'Arvieu and Guillaume Izabel, head of strategy and M&A.

The price gap tells its own story about the market. Candle Media, founded by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, had bet heavily on Witherspoon's star power, social media presence and book club. That model became harder to monetize after the streaming boom cooled.

Why does the price matter now?

Momentum has shifted toward European companies. Traditional Hollywood players are cutting costs, streaming platforms have grown pickier, and U.S. indie producers increasingly want to work in Europe, where production costs are lower and they can own IP. Another French-rooted giant, Banijay, which just merged with Britain's All3Media, is also targeting the U.S. scripted market, where it has not yet broken through.

On whether Hello Sunshine will fare better under Mediawan than under Candle, Capton pointed to the company's track record: "Big Little Lies," "The Morning Show" and the Apple TV series "Lucky," adapted from a Reese's Book Club selection. "They've really excelled creatively. That said, unfortunately, from time to time, there are investment deals with companies that may be perceived as financial strategies. That's not the case for us," he said. "With Reese, we're really looking for creativity, independence and vision. That's what interests us, so we don't put financial pressure on it."

What does this change for Mediawan's producers?

Capton said Mediawan intends to take Reese's Book Club international, including through potential productions in France and elsewhere in Europe. "For all Mediawan producers — whether they're Italian, German, British or Australian — access to all the IP that Reese can leverage through her book club is something very rare," he said. "Yesterday, when we announced Reese and Hello Sunshine's arrival at Mediawan, all our producers called us asking: 'How can we work with them? How can we access the IP? How can we co-produce with them?'"

"The goal isn't for Reese to produce more herself, because she's already produced a lot, but for this to also to fuel and create co-productions with our various producers. That's what we're hoping for," he added.

Skepticism greeted the deal, much as it did the Plan B acquisition. Capton answered with results: Plan B produced "F1" and "Adolescence" last year and has announced what he called a strong lineup of series and films. "We had to trust each other, and it also took time to show what Mediawan was all about," he said.

More U.S. moves ahead

Capton signaled further expansion. "Peter Chernin's arrival at the group has helped us become more ambitious, and with KKR's support and the help of our local teams, we're going to do something quite unique," he said. He declined to address rumors that Mediawan was circling Lionsgate, but added: "In our model, the more we can distribute worldwide, the better off we'll be. So, we're looking at all possible opportunities."

The executive, who splits his time between Los Angeles and Paris, sees opportunity in the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger even as Skydance prepares deep cuts. "Skydance has committed to producing a certain number of films each year. I believe we have a company built on the creativity of our talent, and so, together, we'll continue to develop and produce even more," he said, citing "Backrooms" (North Road), "Adolescence" (Plan B) and Florian Zeller's "Bunker" (Blue Morning Pictures), starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. He also revealed that Mediawan will soon announce a major deal on vertical formats. "I'm convinced that these successes will only grow with our global consolidation," Capton concluded.