Box Office Bomb's Bring Bad News for Paramount Executives

Reeling from one of the first box-office bombs of the season, Paramount Studios didn't have many options to take. So it is with an apparent lack of remorse that Paramount Pictures fired one of its top production executives. He had only been on the job for 18 months.

On Friday, the studio said it would be replacing Paramount Film Group Presisdent John Lesher. In his place is Adam Goodman, a previous Dreamworks production chief. Also axed was Production President Brad Weston, reports Reuters.com.

Paramount has not yet given a reason for the shift in personnel. Despite the bomb of the Eddie Murphy comedy, "Imagine That," which has only grossed $9.2 million on a $55 million budget, "Star Trek," which at this point is the top film of the year, was also helmed by the studio. In fact, "Star Trek" was spear-headed by Brad Weston, one of the recently fired execs.

Productions from Paramount alone have been far and few. For the past four years, the major studio has relied on co-productions with other studios, primarily DreamWorks, for funding.

Despite this somewhat dour note on which to end the week, with the release of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," next weekend's profits should be looking sunny.