Bad Robot Productions

Bad Robot
Type	Private
Industry	Film; Television; Music;
Founded	May 27, 1999
Founders	Bryan Burk; J.J. Abrams
Headquarters	Santa Monica, California, United States
Key people	J.J. Abrams (Chairman and Co-CEO); Katie McGrath (Co-CEO); Brian Weinstein (President and COO)
Divisions	Bad Robot Productions; Bad Robot Interactive; Bad Robot Television; Bad Robot Games; Loud Robot
Website	www.badrobot.com

Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999 and led by Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series Alias, Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest, Revolution, and Westworld alongside the feature-length films Cloverfield, Star Trek, Super 8, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Star Wars Episodes VII and IX, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Star Trek Beyond, The Cloverfield Paradox, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and Overlord.

History

Bad Robot was originally based at Touchstone Television, but was moved by Abrams to Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Television, after his contract with ABC expired in 2006. Bad Robot produced Lost in association with ABC Studios, formerly Touchstone Television. The two companies jointly produced Six Degrees and What About Brian. The deal was first recommended and presented in 1999 as part of a presentation deal, with J.J. Abrams being contracted to Disney. In 2004, Thom Sherman joined Bad Robot Television as president of the studio. The company had developed presentation pitches for ABC and The WB, none of them would eventually got to series.

Abrams is Chairman and Co-Chief executive officer of Bad Robot, and Katie McGrath serves as the Company's Co-Chief executive officer. In June 2017, Bad Robot announced that Brian Weinstein would become President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing daily operations and spearhead the company's growth strategy in its existing businesses, while developing new areas of expansion across the entire Bad Robot platform and pursuing alternative financing options. In May 2015, Ben Stephenson left the BBC where he had been head of drama to helm Bad Robot Television. Lindsey Weber leads Bad Robot's feature film division.

The production logo has appeared since 2001, featuring a red rectangular headed robot running through a meadow silhouetted until it appears suddenly in front of the camera, followed by voices provided by two of Abrams's children, Henry and Gracie Abrams, saying "Bad robot!" Although some fans believe that the name comes from a line in the animated film The Iron Giant, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that it simply came to him during a writers' meeting.

In February 2013, it was announced that Bad Robot would be partnering with the Valve Corporation to produce possibly a Half-Life or Portal film in the distant future. In August 2015, Valve released a new beta game mode to Team Fortress 2, PASS Time, which Bad Robot worked on. On July 7, 2016, the PASS Time game mode became official. Bad Robot released a trailer entitled "Stranger" (otherwise known as S.), rumoured to be Abrams' next film or television project, perhaps even a Lost spin-off, but it was finally explained to be promoting S., Abrams and Doug Dorst's new novel, as a new trailer for S. was released. In February 2017, it was announced Julius Avery is attached to direct a Paramount coproduction, the World War II zombie film Overlord, from screenwriter Billy Ray.

Bad Robot Productions is currently based in Santa Monica, California, in a building which is incorrectly labeled on purpose as the home of the fictional "National Typewriter Company" because Abrams "likes typewriters — and misdirection."

In June 2018, the company announced a spin-off venture formed with the Chinese video game publisher Tencent to launch Bad Robot Games for the development of video games on mobile, computer and consoles, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment as a minority investor. Bad Robot Games will develop and publish titles related to Abrams' works and other Bad Robot Production contents, with Tencent holding the rights for distribution in China. The division will be helmed by Dave Baronoff, who has worked on the Cloverfield franchise and in developing Spyjinx as a joint project between Bad Robot Productions and Epic Games (also partially owned by Tencent), while Tim Keenan, who helped develop Duskers, will serve as the creative director.

In 2006, Bad Robot teamed up with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Television for a $60 million development deal that lasted through 2018.

In late 2018, it was announced that Bad Robot was leaving Paramount and seeking a new overall deal. In January 2019, it was announced that Universal, Disney, and Warner Bros. were the top three studios battling it out for what could be a record breaking overall deal including theme parks, music labels, TV, merchandising, and streaming services as Bad Robot plans on ramping up production significantly in the coming years. It was also announced that Bad Robot would be co-producing a remake of the British series The Wrong Mans for American network Showtime along with BBC Studios, but Showtime later cancelled the project.

Bad Robot launched a subsidiary record label called Loud Robot in late 2018, in partnership with Capitol Music Group. Loud Robot is headed by co-general managers McKee Floyd and Nicky Berger along with Charles Scott, who currently heads Bad Robot's music division and has been the leading music supervisor for the company's films. Artists signed to the label include Cleveland-born rapper Nnena, neo soul singer/songwriter UMI, Nashville, Tennessee-based alternative rock artist Chaz Cardigan, and London-based rhythm and blues artist DWY.

On September 12, 2019, Bad Robot officially announced a new five-year overall deal with WarnerMedia. According to The Hollywood Reporter, WarnerMedia agreed to pay Bad Robot at least $250 million (plus various financial incentives) to produce feature films, television shows, video games, and digital content.

On May 25, 2021, Abrams announced that a Portal film adaptation, which has been in development since 2013, was still in production and a script has been written for the film. In November 2021, the company launched its podcast division with a multi-year first-look deal at Spotify.

On April 25, 2022, it was announced that Bad Robot will team up with Mattel Films and Warner Bros. Pictures to produce a live-action Hot Wheels film based on the toy line of the same name.

Productions

Films

Year	Title	Director	Co-production with	Budget	Gross
2001	Joy Ride	John Dahl	20th Century Fox	$23 million	$36.6 million
2008	Cloverfield	Matt Reeves	Paramount Pictures	$25 million	$170.8 million
2009	Star Trek	J. J. Abrams	Paramount Pictures Spyglass Entertainment	$150 million	$385.7 million
2010	Morning Glory	Roger Michell	Paramount Pictures	$40 million	$60 million
2011	Super 8	J. J. Abrams	Paramount Pictures Amblin Entertainment	$50 million	$260.1 million
2011	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol	Brad Bird	Paramount Pictures TC Productions Skydance Productions	$145 million	$694.7 million
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	J. J. Abrams	Paramount Pictures Skydance Productions K/O Paper Products	$190 million	$467.4 million
2014	Infinitely Polar Bear	Maya Forbes	Sony Pictures Classics	$6.7 million	$2.1 million
2015	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation	Christopher McQuarrie	Paramount Pictures Skydance Productions China Movie Channel Alibaba Pictures	$150 million	$682.7 million
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	J. J. Abrams	Lucasfilm Ltd. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	$245 million	$2.068 billion
2016	10 Cloverfield Lane	Dan Trachtenberg	Paramount Pictures	$15 million	$110.2 million
2016	Star Trek Beyond	Justin Lin	Paramount Pictures Skydance Media Alibaba Pictures Huahua Media Sneaky Shark Productions Perfect Storm Entertainment	$185 million	$343.5 million
2018	The Cloverfield Paradox	Julius Onah	Netflix Paramount Pictures	$45 million	N/A
	Mission: Impossible – Fallout	Christopher McQuarrie	Paramount Pictures TC Productions Skydance Media Alibaba Pictures	$178 million	$791 million
	Overlord	Julius Avery	Paramount Pictures	$38 million	$41.7 million
2019	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	J. J. Abrams	Lucasfilm Ltd. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	$275 million	$1.074 billion
2022	Lou	Anna Foerster	Netflix	$36 million	N/A

Upcoming films

Year	Title	Director	Co-production with	Budget	Gross
TBA	Star Trek 4	TBA	Paramount Pictures Skydance Media	N/A	N/A
	Hot Wheels	TBA	Warner Bros. Pictures Mattel Films
	Billy Summers	TBA	Warner Bros. Pictures Appian Way Productions
	Oh, the Places You'll Go!	Jon M. Chu	Warner Bros. Pictures Animation Dr. Seuss Enterprises
	The Pinkerton	Jason Bateman	Warner Bros. Pictures
	Portal	TBA	Warner Bros. Pictures Valve Corporation
	Your Name	Carlos López Estrada	Paramount Pictures
	Untitled Cloverfield film	Babak Anvari	Paramount Pictures
	Untitled Elseworlds Superman film	TBA	Warner Bros. Pictures DC Studios

TV series

Year	Title	Creator(s) / Developer(s)	Co-production with	Notes	Network
2001–06	Alias	J. J. Abrams	Touchstone Television		ABC
2004–10	Lost	Jeffrey Lieber J. J. Abrams Damon Lindelof	Touchstone Television
2006–07	What About Brian	Dana Stevens	Sachs/Judah Productions (season 1) Touchstone Television
2006–07	Six Degrees	Raven Metzner Stuart Zicherman	Nosebleed Productions Touchstone Television
2008–13	Fringe	J. J. Abrams Alex Kurtzman Roberto Orci	Warner Bros. Television		Fox
2009	Anatomy of Hope			Pilot	—
2010	Undercovers	J. J. Abrams Josh Reims	Warner Bros. Television Good Butter Productions		NBC
2011–16	Person of Interest	Jonathan Nolan	Kilter Films Warner Bros. Television		CBS
2012	Alcatraz	Elizabeth Sarnoff Steven Lilien Bryan Wynbrandt	Warner Bros. Television		Fox
2012	Shelter		Warner Bros. Television	Pilot	The CW
2012–14	Revolution	Eric Kripke Jon Favreau	Kripke Enterprises Warner Bros. Television		NBC
2013–14	Almost Human	J. H. Wyman	Frequency Films Warner Bros. Television		Fox
2014	Believe	Alfonso Cuarón Mark Friedman	Esperanto Filmoj Warner Bros. Television		NBC
2015	Dead People			Pilot	The CW
2016	11.22.63	Bridget Carpenter	Carpenter B. Warner Bros. Television		Hulu
	Moon Shot			Web series	—
	Roadies	Cameron Crowe	Vinyl Films Warner Bros. Television Showtime Networks		Showtime
2016–22	Westworld	Jonathan Nolan Lisa Joy	HBO Entertainment Kilter Films Jerry Weintraub Productions (season 1) Warner Bros. Television		HBO
2018–19	Castle Rock	Sam Shaw	Old Curiosity Shop Darkbloom Productions Warner Bros. Television		Hulu
2020	Little Voice	Jessie Nelson	Dear Hope Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios		Apple TV+
	Lovecraft Country	Misha Green	Afemme Monkeypaw Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios		HBO
	Challenger: The Final Flight	Glen Zipper Steven Leckart	Zipper Bros Films Sutter Road Picture Company	Docuseries	Netflix
2021	Lisey's Story	Stephen King	40/60 Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios		Apple TV+
2021	UFO	Glen Zipper	Zipper Bros Films Sutter Road Picture Company	Docuseries	Showtime

Upcoming series

Year	Title	Creator(s) / Developer(s)	Co-production with	Network
TBA	Duster		TinkerToy Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios	Max
	Presumed Innocent		David E. Kelley Productions Old Curiosity Shop Productions Warner Bros. Television Studios	Apple TV+
	Speed Racer		Warner Bros. Television Studios	Apple TV+
	Untamed		Warner Bros. Television Studios	TBA
	Batman: Caped Crusader	Bruce Timm	6th & Idaho DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Animation	Amazon Prime Video

Shorts

Year	Title	Co-production with
2013	KRE-O Star Trek	Paramount Pictures Skydance Productions CBS Consumer Products Hasbro
2022	The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse	Apple Studios BBC NoneMore Productions

Video games

Year	Title	Platform
2011	Action Movie FX	iOS
2023	Silent Hill: Ascension	TBA
TBA	Spyjinx	TBA

Awards and recognition

Nominations

Wins