Rothman would not comment on that, but had plenty to say about the business.
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DEADLINE:How does it feel to preside over a centennial anniversary?
TOM ROTHMAN: Its important to note that the studio is 100, not me.
Tom RothmanSony
So, wheres the business going now?
ROTHMAN: Lemme just pause while I break out my crystal ball.
Ill just say this, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Rita Hayworth in 1946’s ‘Gilda’Everett Collection
What was true a hundred years ago is true today.
You have to make things that the audience responds to, passionately.
If theres a change, its been an evolution and Ive seen it through the course of my career.
DEADLINE: Whats the evolution?
ROTHMAN: There was a time when good was good enough.
Now, good Is death.
Good is not good enough.
We have to make great things and we have to make things that are culturally imperative.
Those two movies that came out on the same day last summer, thats a non-repeatable phenomenon.
But I do not believe that the success of Oppenheimer and Barbie is non-repeatable.
Great is hard, and the risks are very, very high.
So are the rewards.
DEADLINE:You mention evolution.
All of that has hit a wall.
Im a student of Hollywood history, and youre right, audiences affections have always gone in large trends.
I mean, Columbia is 100 years old, but were on the old MGM lot.
For 20 years, the MGM musical was a success simply because it was that.
And then it came a point where it was not a success simply because it was an MGM musical.
Those trends have always continued.
A movie of a comic book, a movie of a video game, a movie of a toy.
And yet most of the movies that really register and really move the culture are movies.
Theyre not really movies of something.
I think three or four years from now, that is not going to be true.
It will be maybe half.
I think were exiting the era of the tyranny of IP, if I may coin a phrase.
Still in all, I think that the audience is hungry.
At Sony, were certainly making that bet.
Now, I believe that for those to succeed, they have to be great.
And its only great filmmakers who make great movies.
DEADLINE: Name some that are doing projects youre excited about?
ROTHMAN: I have to preface by saying, I love all my children.
Lets be clear about that.
Talk about mayhem and being on the edge and on the inside of a revolution, an atom-splitting moment.
I was on the other end of that.
That was the whole thing.
They wanted Carson on Saturday night.
That was the only reason they let the lunatics in the building.
And its a fantastic ensemble, all these young actors.
You need that to be in the hands of a really talented filmmaker.
Its28 Years Later, but not in any way a literal sequel.
Great cast, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer… Will he be back?
Sometimes when you put a real signature director into a commercial arena, it elevates it.
So we have that Darren Aronofskys next film with Austin Butler, which is Darrens most commercial entry ever.
And he and Austin are very, very fired up about it.
But once again, its original.
The industry needs stuff like this.
Its one of the most poetic exquisite scripts Ive ever read.
The audience wont disappear, itll just narrow.
So, so that part of our slate is extremely filmmaker driven.
Whats the pecking order now?
Only movies make stars.
Stars are super valuable, in the right role.
Dawn Steel taught me this 30 years ago and its as true then as now.
So if you want a star, youve got to have great material.
And the great material will get you a great filmmaker and that will get you a star.
The stars that the audience want, they have their pick.
So at a good studio, were not sellers at that point in the process, were buyers.
We have to convince the best talent in the world to do it.
The two co-equal things, is the quality of the material and the quality of the director.
The idea and execution of it.
DEADLINE:Your director, Wes Ball, found a way to revive yet again thePlanet of the Apesfranchise.
The last trilogy by Matt Reeves was hard to top.
Going in, I thought, do we need more of this?
Turns out the answer was, yes, because of the unusual entry point.
How doesZeldaadhere to what youve said about freshness?
Hes a true genius in that world, and its really his strong vision that is motivating it.
He created it and understands it thoroughly.
You only to look at the results ofSuper Mario Brothersto see.
Its going to have a balance of big IP solid sequels.
And when all theKarate Kidstorylines come together with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan and a new young karate kid.
For those fans, thats going to be a significant moment.
The third and lastVenom, is going to be huge.
Theres a significant segment of the audience out there, which is underserved for adventurousness.
Theyre underserved for newness, theyre underserved for cultural urgency.
DEADLINE: For awards season, you haveHere, an adaptation of a celebrated graphic novel.
It reunites theForrest Gumpteam of Bob Zemeckis, Eric Roth, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.
ROTHMAN: We are distributing it in the U.S., thisForrest Gump.
In every movie I have ever seen, the characters go to various places.
It is deeply profound a depiction of the immutable impermanence of the human condition.
There are moment here that are emotionally shattering.
You mention Jason Reitman capturing young people coming over the wall.
And what are you doing to combat that?
This is different when we were in our twenties.
Movies were successful by default.
We went to the movies.
That was an activity.
If you wanted to date a girl, thats what you did.
You went to the movies.
The audience in general, but particularly a younger audience, no longer goes to the movies.
They go to a movie.
It is now a programmatically driven decision, not an overall behavioral decision.
But even then, you had to make stuff that people really wanted to see.
Thats more significant now.
And the bar is higher.
The bar is higher to get young people to be excited to go out, to care.
Thats what it was.
I think because you cant bottle these things, obviously.
And yes, we had the elements.
The direction by Will Gluck was excellent, and chemistry between the two leads was great.
Collectively, they just hadnt had that fun in a while, and they wanted to share it.
All your friends go with you and you experience it once.
Television advertising, completely irrelevant to that movie.
TikTok was everything on that film, and thats where we sold it and thats how we promoted it.
And the social promotion was terrific.
It wasnt an accident because we know thats where the audience for that movie lives.
DEADLINE:How much of the future of P&A does that represent for movies?
ROTHMAN: The answer to your question is yes, marketing will become much more efficient.
Linear television, especially live sports, is still relevant.
Youll see a lot of ads forBad Boyson live sports.
And its much more targetable across the board, across the board.
DEADLINE: If I spent $60 million on TV, how much is digital going to cost?
ROTHMAN: It depends on whether you have the right elements for it.
it’s crucial that you have talent thats game and willing and smart about it.
And then it’s possible for you to do a lot for a lot less.
Like 30% less.
But you have to be willing to take the leap and leave some of the old crutches behind.
Kids are not watching television, theyre on their phones and you’re able to reach them there.
And then, okay, what do you want to see?
Its not the way it works now.
Maybe it does for the boomers, but not younger audiences.
They are, what do you want to do this weekend, with our limited resources.
Tickets to a concert?
A new series dropping on a streamer?
Or, maybe there a particular movie I am dying to see because I heard its great.
Or Ive seen it on my feed and it looks really fun.
Thats the nature of choice.
What it means is to us is that the bar is high.
But you’ve got the option to still succeed tremendously.
We need for ticket prices to come down.
ROTHMAN: I think its not healthy.
I understand why it happened, and that exhibition went through a terrible near-death experience with Covid.
I get the instinct to raise prices.
Because of the half-price tickets.
Its fundamental consumer economics: just lower the prices and youll sell more.
Youll make it up in volume, and concessions.
I do think that is relevant for young consumers.
And movies, particularly in big urban markets, theyre expensive.
So that means it better be super special.
Well, whats a fair price to see a movie on a Friday night?
That I dont know.
And I guess it depends.
Youve got that series The Film That Lit My Fuse.
Theres a value proposition in pricing for two constituencies that are important to us.
Kids are trying to make rent, they dont have a lot of disposable income.
And the second very significant pricing-sensitive segment is the family audience.
I sound like Im arguing against my own business, but Im not.
Exhibition will argue, fair enough, moviegoing is still great value.
Its still a fraction of the cost of a Broadway show or a football game.
Mega-negatives became Giga-negatives, and budgets are up across the board.
This is not just bad for us studios, its bad for the audience.
Instead, it leads to repeating the tried and true, and the tyranny of IP.
DEADLINE: Best Cannes memories?
ROTHMAN: Ill give you two.
It was thought that movie was too outrageous, scandalous.
And the opposite happened.
I remember being in the theater at the end, through the standing ovations.
This was long before they timed them.
DEADLINE: It was hotter than Georgia asphalt.
ROTHMAN: Thats the line.
My first Cannes experience Ill always remember.
That was a Jim Jarmusch film I co-produced calledDown by Law.
Stop, turn around and look.
What youll see is the red carpet and a beautiful Mediterranean sunset and hundreds of film lovers all around.
And you’re gonna wanna stop for a minute and look.
And I did that that night, and Ive done it every night since when Ive been there.
DEADLINE:The studio hits 100 years old.
ROTHMAN: The truth is, they dont give a sh*t, right?
I give a sh*t, but they dont.
But because we are a hundred years old, we have two things.
They dont haveLawrence of Arabiato sell.
And the value that that library creates gives us the opportunity to make new things.
Thats the first thing our history gives us in value for today.
That library enables it.
The second thing is to take great filmed entertainment comes from a willingness to take risks.
A stable institution is better able to take creative risks.
The administration thats in place has been here 10 years.
Were solid, were profitable, and were stable.
And that enables us to be bold.
DEADLINE: Two more.
Still not troubled to be the major without a streaming service?
Some would say in the long term it makes you vulnerable because bigger is better.
ROTHMAN: I would say that the polite response is, theyre not paying attention.
The impolite way of saying they should get their heads out of their asses.
And you might quote me, obviously the opposite is true.
We did not lose billions and billions and billions of dollars on a general entertainment online grid.
Instead, we became a strategic content supplier, for lack of a better word, an arms dealer.
So our product is extremely, our content that we make is extremely, extremely valuable.
Its not really over the bar enough for theatrical.
It would make my job easier.
We dont have that.
Were in the burn the boats business.
If were in it, we got to win it.
But holistically, events have proven that its the right model.
DEADLINE: Last one: Deadline recently broke news thatQuentin Tarantino scrappedThe Movie Criticas his final film.
ROTHMAN: I would just say this.
And I think hes very, very determined that his 10th movie will be his last feature film.
And what are you going to say really to that?
Except, right on baby.
DEADLINE: And it will be with you?
ROTHMAN: Well, lets just say Mike, that Im very optimistic about that.
