Sony and Tom Rothman Agree to Multi-Year Contract Extension
Tom Rothman isn't going anywhere. The chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in charge of the studio's film output for years to come, Sony announced Friday. Terms of the multi-year extension, including compensation and the specific number of years, were not disclosed.
Rothman oversees all film brands under the Sony Pictures umbrella, including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures International Productions, and Sony Pictures Classics.
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The move will keep Hollywood's longest-tenured studio head in place for even longer during a time of increased uncertainty in the industry. Rothman has served as Sony's film chairman since 2015, adding CEO to his title in 2021. He first joined the company in 2013 following a multi-decade career at 20th Century Fox that saw him found the Searchlight label and serve as co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, president of Twentieth Century Fox Film Group, and president of production for Twentieth Century Fox.
While Rothman has greenlit his share of I.P.-driven projects like the 'Into the Spider-Verse' and 'Venom' franchises, his tenure has been notable for his willingness to take big swings on ambitious filmmaker-driven projects such as Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,' Greta Gerwig's 'Little Women,' and Sam Mendes' upcoming four-part Beatles biopic. As a famously devoted cinephile, Rothman's commitment to exclusive theatrical releases has made him popular among filmmakers, with Tarantino going so far to say that he would not work with any other studio at this point.
'I'm probably going to be doing the movie with Sony because they're the last game in town that is just absolutely, utterly, committed to the theatrical experience,' Tarantino told Deadline in a 2023 interview while discussing his hypothetical final film. 'It's not about feeding their streaming network. They are committed to theatrical experience. They judge success by asses on seats. And they judge success by the movies entering the zeitgeist, not just making a big expensive movie and then putting it on your streaming platform. No one even knows it's there.'
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