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Prima Donna

Donna Langley’s NBCUniversal anointment gives her full greenlight authority for movies, NBC, Bravo, and Peacock. It also ends a power struggle with fellow executive Mark Lazarus, now riding an ice floe of cable networks into uncertain seas.

Donna Langley
Mostly Langley just needs to make great content, and now she’ll have freer rein to do that. Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Kering
Matthew Belloni
November 22, 2024

Remember when the Wicked movie came out six weeks ago? I’m kidding, but however the film does in theaters—I’ve got it in The Town’s box office draft, so I’m rooting for it—the months-long marketing onslaught will go down as a campaign for the ages. Yes, Universal spent more than $350 million to make a lavish two-part fantasy-musical, the studio’s largest-ever up-front investment in a project. So eventizing the first installment with more than 400 brand partners, and those  painfully awkward Summer Olympics integrations—and these elegant “Elphaba Classic Clog Crocs” ($69.99!)—was crucial.