Reese Witherspoon Suffers Huge Business Setback

Reese Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine is facing down a bleak end to 2023, but it does not appear to be the actress' fault. Witherspoon co-founded the company in 2016 and serves as its public face, but behind the scenes, it has come under new leadership in the last two years. According to a report by Bloomberg, Hello Sunshine will most likely finish the year with just 50 percent of the profits it was projected to make.

Hello Sunshine is known for producing TV shows and movies for all ages – particularly content that Witherspoon herself is passionate about. The company also hosts Witherspoon's beloved book club, and Witherspoon has helped adapt some of her favorite novels for the screen. Of course, behind the scenes, the company has always relied on corporate financiers, and in 2021 a large stake in Hello Sunshine was sold to Candle Media. Candle was founded in 2021 by former Disney executives Kevin A. Mayer and Tom Staggs using funding from Blackstone. Witherspoon and her co-founder Sarah Harden retained a set on the board, but Candle reportedly moved in to manage many of the day-to-day operations at the company.

Just over two years later, Bloomberg has reported a catastrophic year in earnings for Candle Media – about 50 percent below its projections for 2023. Sources close to the company said that Hello Sunshine and Moonbug Entertainment were the biggest shortcomings for the year, though they said that some of the causes were well beyond their control. Candle shut down Hello Sunshine's animation unit and integrated it with Moonbug in an attempt to eliminate redundancies.

Moonbug is the owner of the YouTube sensation Cocomelon, which is a massive sensation for young children. Insiders said that YouTube's changing policy on advertisements hurt the company badly, and that a general reduction in spending across the entertainment industry hurt Candle Media as a whole. Of course, when it comes to Hello Sunshine, they put some of the blame on the Hollywood labor strikes as well. Still, on the record Mayer told Bloomberg that they are not out of the game yet.

"It was a disappointing year for sure, he said. "But we like our position." It's notable that Mayer and Staggs have both returned to working for Disney on a part time basis now that the company is back under control of CEO Bob Iger. According to Bloomberg, both Mayer and Staggs "had reason to believe they'd be running Disney one day," but instead Iger was replaced by Bob Chapek, who was fired at the end of 2022 and replaced by Iger once again.

As for Hello Sunshine, the company has one movie in production and anothe in development, as well as three TV shows on the way. The timeline for those projects depends on the end of the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike. In the meantime, the company continues to work on "Reese's Book Club."