Reese Witherspoon and Paris-based Mediawan have bought Hello Sunshine from Candle Media, Deadline reported on 13 October 2026. The actress, who founded the company in 2016, said she is investing alongside Mediawan and Pierre-Antoine Capton. Co-founder Seth Rodsky will join the board. This is not investment advice.

In 2021 Blackstone-backed Candle Media took control of Hello Sunshine at a valuation of more than $900 million, at the peak of the streaming boom. Five years later The Wrap and Axios wrote that the buyback was in the “low- to mid-eight figures”. Variety understood Mediawan paid at the lower end of tens of millions. Capton declined to confirm an exact sum.

Witherspoon called the move a “homecoming”: Peter Chernin and Jesse Jacobs backed Hello Sunshine from day one, and Mediawan recently bought their businesses. She thanked Blackstone and Candle. The company says it will focus on premium film and television and Reese’s Book Club, using Mediawan’s international network.

The slate includes Big Little Lies, The Morning Show, Where the Crawdads Sing and Daisy Jones & The Six. Mediawan has also taken Chernin Entertainment, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and See-Saw Films. Capton said the group keeps labels’ creative independence.

Candle Media, founded by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, also bought Moonbug. Streaming economics tightened after the pandemic. Deadline wrote that Hello Sunshine was an appealing bet but harder to monetise as platforms cut spending. Moelis advised Candle.

This article describes an announced deal, not an independently verified market value, and is not investment advice.

Image: R.A. Perquin, Universal Studios Lot, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive studio lot, not a photograph of the Hello Sunshine deal.

Sources consulted: Reese Witherspoon sold control of Hello Sunshine at a $900 million valuation in 2021… — Times of India; Reese Witherspoon Partners With Mediawan To Buy Hello Sunshine — Deadline.