• by Wayne Friedman , April 24, 2019

Longtime veteran Warner Bros. senior media executive Lynn Whitney has moved to Lionsgate. She is now head of worldwide paid media, partnerships, promotions and consumer products.

Whitney departed Warner Bros. late last year after heading up the studios’ media responsibilities for its film and home-entertainment media business for 10 years. In her new Lionsgate post, she reports to Damon Wolf, president of worldwide marketing for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

Whitney will look to improve media campaigns using more data-driven efforts, including the Lionsgate Data Center.

From April 2018 through April 2019, iSpot.tv says Lionsgate spent $162.5 million in national TV spend for its theatrical movies -- with the biggest spend over that period for “Robin Hood” at $25.4 million, which opened in November 2018.

Two movies debuting in 2019 were next: “Hellboy” with a $18.4 million national TV spend and “A Madea Family Funeral” at $17.3 million.

Through April of this year, Lionsgate's biggest movies in terms of U.S. box-office revenues were  “A Madea Family Funeral” (which opened March 1) with $73.0 million; “Five Feet Apart” (March 15), $45.1 million; “Cold Pursuit” (Feb. 8), $32.2 million; and “Hellboy” (April 12), $19.7 million.

Whitney started at Warner Bros. in 1992, rising to senior vice president, worldwide media in 1999, then moving up to executive vice president, worldwide media in 2008. Before that, she held a variety of marketing positions at Fox Broadcasting Company.