LeBron James’ media company reportedly lost nearly $30 million last year

NBA star LeBron James’ media company lost nearly $30 million last year — and is on track to lose millions more, according to a report.

The 39-year-old Lakers star, who has won four NBA titles over the course of his legendary career, has struggled to achieve his hard success with SpringHill – the production company he co-founded with his longtime business partner Maverick Carter in 2020.

The company, which has produced films such as “Space Jam” and “Shooting Stars” as well as the talk show “The Shop,” lost $28 million on revenue of $104 million in 2023 and is expected to be in the red this year write, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing financial documents obtained by the publication.

“The entertainment market’s shift toward profitability in 2022/2023 brought rising costs, slower buyer decision-making and impacts from industry strikes, prompting us to rebalance, including writing off underperforming projects, to position ourselves for future growth,” said Carter, CEO of SpringHill, told Bloomberg, noting that the company is expected to beat forecasts this year.

SpringHill, one of many Hollywood production companies that have sprung up in recent years to meet the demands of the growing streaming industry, also lost $17 million in 2022 and never made any money, according to Bloomberg.

The company – which includes a manufacturing unit, a marketing firm and a clothing company – recently agreed to a merger with Fulwell 73, the British production company behind “The Kardashians” and the Grammy Awards, to give the combined companies more scale in a difficult business environment

The combined company, which will employ 250 people, is expected to be profitable by the end of next year after a series of staff cuts.

“The new company has the scale, investors and teams necessary to adapt to the direction of this change,” Carter said.

Although James’ fame helped launch SpringHill, Carter emphasized that the expansion wasn’t about the future Hall-of-Famer’s success.

“We built this business with LeBron, not around him,” Carter said, adding that James “remains heavily involved in advancing the vision and mission he helped create and focusing more actively on specific passion projects. “

Nevertheless, the superstar’s commitment helped SpringHill enormously to raise $15 million from Warner Bros. in 2015. In 2020, the duo raised $100 million from investors including Guggenheim Partners and News Corp. heiress Elisabeth Murdoch.

A year later, they added RedBird, Nike and the owners of the Boston Red Sox to their group of investors, striking a deal that valued the company at $725 million. According to Bloomberg, the company had revenue of less than $80 million at the time and was making a loss.

Still, other celebrity-backed production companies were surging at the time, such as Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, which was acquired in 2021 for about $900 million but has been in financial trouble ever since.