Sony Pictures Entertainment president Tom Rothman likes to make big, bold statements to show his faith in the company and his dominance of the theater business. “We’re not kidding here,” he said in a presentation at CinemaCon in April, as he unveiled footage of upcoming Sony releases like “Napoleon” and Ridley Scott’s “The Equalizer 3.”
However, in a recent conversation for our Screen Talk podcast, Rothman did his best to shut down the most pertinent topic facing the industry today: the WGA strike. The studio head told us at the start of the conversation that due to an agreement with the AMPTP, the entity that negotiates with the writers guild on behalf of the studios, he hasn’t been allowed to discuss the current situation. However, when it came to one of the most controversial topics related to the strike, Rothman couldn’t help himself.
“I think AI is scary as hell,” Rothman said. “For a while in my life, I worked on a movie with Steven Spielberg called ‘Robopocalypse.’ Trust me, bad things can happen. Do you seriously think a computer can’t crack nuclear codes?”
The WGA insisted that any AI material awarded to a writer by a studio must give the writer original credit for the idea. While Rothman didn’t consider that specific request, he implied that the studio wasn’t trying to displace writers with AI. “A lot of the panic about this is too much,” he told her. “I don’t think AI can replace creative genius.”
As for the studio’s recent output, while Jennifer Lawrence’s raunchy new romp “No Hard Feelings” may not reignite the commercialization of the R-rated comedy, Rothman has had other recent successes to brag about: animated sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” has already grossed more than half a billion dollars at the global box office, making it the third highest-grossing film of the year so far and already ahead of the $384 million box office of “Into the Spider-Verse” of the 2018” made in the same pre-pandemic period.
“It was a collection of an enormous amount of talent, money and time,” Rothman said. “I believe that theatrical films are a vibrant, strong, viable entertainment choice for cinema audiences, they have been and will be. This is a foundation of the philosophy of this company”.
At the same time, Sony has benefited from the streaming economy. Unlike other studios, Sony doesn’t have an in-house streaming entity, meaning it can sell its productions on the open market. “We’re in business with everyone because we’re content creators,” he said, adding that the studio plans to release “Napoleon” in partnership with Apple on Thanksgiving weekend. “This is a film that Ridley (Scott) made at Apple for Apple and they have determined that it is in the collective interest of their ecosystem to have a theatrical release. I believe that these ecosystems can coexist. I’ve always heard it.
He mocked other companies who rushed to change their models during the first few months of the pandemic. “People were making long-term conclusions in a short-term crisis,” she said. “When other entertainment companies were firing thousands or in some cases tens of thousands of people, we weren’t. We’ve invested in our people and we’ve invested in our content.”
He also bragged about the global box office performance of live-action ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ in 2021, well before ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ became the box office savior of 2022. “Everyone says Tom Cruise saved the box office,” Rothman said. I can tell you that ‘Spider-Man’ was first and proved that movies in theaters are enduring.
Rothman also called out Disney over its decision to release Pixar films like “Soul” and “Luke” directly on Disney+, diminishing their theatrical viability. “A lot of people were doing a lot of stupid things,” he told her.
However, the Sony boss recognized one important area where the market had moved significantly: the specialty business. Rothman, who founded Fox Searchlight in 1994 and oversees Sony Pictures Classics heads Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, said the traditional version of the platform isn’t as viable as it once was. “I really think the traditional long roll, what I’ve been doing for many many years in Searchlight, I actually think is in jeopardy,” he said, “not because those movies aren’t good, they are, not to say they’re not they have cultural impact, they do it for a certain segment of the audience, but really the delivery mechanism for that is better at home.
He added that “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, with its successful release on the platform in 2022, was the exception that proves the rule. “Obviously it happened, so it can happen, but it’s much less typical,” she said. “A lot of the older, more traditional ‘Tars’ and ‘Banshees’ movies fail to reach the box office levels they used to. You have to learn to monetize them in other ways.
Rothman also shared his perspective on movie stars like Jennifer Lawrence, his first producing credit since his indie days, and the rousing story of how he convinced elusive A-director Peter Weir to take the helm of “Master and Commander”.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on ApplePodcasts, Stitcher and Spotify and hosted by Megaphone. Browse past episodesHeresubscribeHereand be sure to let us know if you’d like hosts to address specific issues in future editions of Screen Talk.
