Reese Witherspoon Is Buying Back the Production Company She Sold for 900 Million Dollars: According to Trade Media, It Is Now Worth 50 Million at Most

In the summer of 2021, Reese Witherspoon sold her production company Hello Sunshine for around 900 million dollars and became the richest actress in the world overnight. Around 120 million went to her personally. Five years later she is buying the company back - and according to trade media, the price is 50 million dollars at most.

The buyers were two investors who today make up the company Candle, backed by the Blackstone fund: Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, former executives at Disney and TikTok. Sources close to Candle told The Wrap that the deal was not a good one compared to the price paid - neither for them nor for Blackstone. Translated from corporate speak: someone paid for a dream and got a spreadsheet full of red numbers.

The fall is visible in the offices too. According to the same outlet, half the staff were laid off in a single weekend. The consumer and sales divisions were hit hardest, while film and TV production, the book club, social media and marketing were hit least. The company declined to comment.

And the catalogue is not small. Hello Sunshine is behind "Big Little Lies", where Witherspoon starred with Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz, behind the miniseries "Daisy Jones & The Six" with Riley Keough and Sam Claflin, and behind the recent series "Elle", a prequel to the Legally Blonde films that made her famous.

The part that suffered least is, paradoxically, the oldest format - the book. Reese's Book Club has been running since 2017: every month Witherspoon picks a title to discuss with her followers, and many of the chosen books become bestsellers. A large share are by women authors, the Instagram profile has more than three million followers, and the club has brought in advertising deals, including with Apple. November's pick is "The Great Wherever" by Shannon Sanders.

The story is familiar outside Hollywood as well: valuations that fly high while the euphoria lasts and come down to earth when somebody asks how much the business actually earns. From 900 to 50 million dollars in five years - is this the collapse of an empire, or just a return to the real price? Either way, Witherspoon is taking her own name back under her control, and for a fraction of what she was paid for it.