In the era rising left-wing political violence and liberals’ hero worship for murderers like Luigi Mangione, Hollywood executives have been increasingly spending millions on private security and bodyguards as threats against them soar.
Executives for OpenAI, Meta, Warner Bros., Fox, Netflix, Apple, Comcast and more are investing at double and even triple the rate they have been into security for CEOs and other high-ranking officials, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The report found that Netflix hiked its security costs by 30 percent year-over-year and spent $1.8 million last year. Amazon spent 50 percent move in the same period. Warner Bros. Discovery found it even more imperative to invest in security and spent an incredible 200 percent more. Many other corporations realized similar hikes.
“There’s a lot of anger directed at people leading these companies, and the threat vectors are coming from different places that we didn’t have, say, a decade ago,” James Hamilton, the founder of consultancy Hamilton Security Group, told the Reporter.
The president and CEO of AEGIS Security & Investigations Jeff Zisner added that threats from disgruntled former employees are growing, and so are the attacks by people who claim to have been wronged by corporations, but the biggest rise in threats started after Luigi Mangione murdered UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson in 2024.
A report from the Security Executive Council notes that Mangione’s crime is “an event that significantly influenced public and corporate perceptions of executive-directed violence,” and added that, “For many executives, the event prompted reflection on their overall risk landscape and the potential vulnerabilities of their families and assets.”
Security experts also note that the rising number of CEOs that become the news in and of themselves is also a key reason for higher security costs as some executives earn a name that makes them “synonymous” with the company they work for and makes them a high profile target for angry nuts. Executives such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bob Iger, and Elon Musk are particular targets for threats since they are quite often in the news as personalities in the own right.
“Fame is often a risk multiplier, requiring a different approach compared to protecting an executive with a limited public profile but operating in an industry with its own security risk factors,” said Crisis24 president Sid Kosaraju.
These costs aren’t going to subside any time soon, experts warn.
“This is going to be the reality for a long time, because the disparity in wealth is not getting more finite, it’s actually getting larger,” Hamilton adds. “Meaning the rich are getting a hell of a lot richer, and the poor are getting a hell of a lot poorer,” said James Hamilton, the founder of security consultant group Hamilton Security Group.
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