Sony Pictures

Did You Know?

• In 2014, the eight-story, 260,000 sq ft Sony Pictures Plaza building, originally designed by architect Maxwell Starkman and formerly MGM Studios' headquarters, was sold to Runyon Group and LBA Realty for $159 million.
• Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan was established on February 10, 1984, five years before Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment.

History

In 1987, Coca-Cola decided to separate from Columbia Pictures, which it had controlled since 1982. On September 1, the company announced it would hand over its entertainment holdings to TriStar Pictures, a studio it partly owned. TriStar would then become Columbia Pictures Entertainment, with Coca-Cola holding a 49 percent stake, its shareholders 31 percent, and TriStar’s shareholders 20 percent. The two television arms, Columbia/Embassy Television and Tri-Star Television, were combined into a new Columbia Pictures Television. Three TriStar executives kept their roles, while four from Coca-Cola’s entertainment division left. That December, a former Coca-Cola vice president joined TriStar Pictures, replacing another executive. Shareholders approved the deal on December 15, and it closed three days later. Within the new company, the Columbia and TriStar names remained separate production units. The merged entity also took over all of Coca-Cola’s entertainment assets, including film, TV, home video, and pay cable operations, plus a production deal with Nelson Entertainment, an investment in Castle Rock Entertainment, and the TeleVentures venture. Merv Griffin Enterprises stayed independent. A new company using the TriStar name was created in early 1988 to run the studio.

2014 hack

In November 2014, the Sony Pictures computer network was compromised by a group of hackers named Guardians of Peace, disabling many computers. Later that week, five Sony Pictures movies were leaked, including unreleased films such as Fury and Annie, along with confidential data about 47,000 current and former employees. Film historian Wheeler Winston Dixon said the hack exposed the studio's inner workings as 'not a pretty picture' and served as a 'wake-up call to the entire industry. The leak also revealed emails about Barack Obama's cinematic tastes and a possible partnership with Marvel Studios for Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, later confirmed in February 2015. On December 16, the hackers threatened moviegoers who saw The Interview during the holidays, urging them to 'remember the 11th of September 2001. Sony cancelled the film's December 25 release on December 17, 2014. On February 24, 2015, Tom Rothman became chairman of SPE's motion picture group, replacing Amy Pascal. On April 16, 2015, WikiLeaks published over 30,287 documents, 173 e-mails, and 2,200 corporate e-mail addresses, calling the content 'newsworthy' and in the 'public domain. Sony condemned the leak as a 'malicious criminal act.

Corporate structure

Headquartered in Culver City, California, SPE comprises studios and brands including Affirm Films, Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, TriStar Pictures, Crunchyroll, Game Show Network, and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Key executives include Ravi Ahuja (Chairman and CEO), Tahra Grant (EVP & Chief Communications Officer), Stacy Green (EVP & Chief People Officer), Jay Levine (EVP & Chief Strategy Officer and Business Operations), Jill Ratner (EVP & General Counsel), Drew Shearer (EVP & Chief Financial Officer), Tom Rothman (Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group), Keith Le Goy (Chairman, Sony Pictures Television), Katherine Pope (President, Sony Pictures Television Studios), and Michael Kustermann (CEO, Sony Pictures Experiences and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema). It owns studio facilities in the United States, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Japan. Columbia Pictures, founded in 1924 by Harry Cohn, was acquired by Sony in 1989 for $3.4 billion. Ghost Corps oversees Ghostbusters franchise projects. Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion operated from 1998 to 2003 and relaunched in 2008. TriStar Pictures, formed in 1982, became part of CPE in 1987 and Sony in 1989, and was relaunched in 2004. TriStar Productions is a joint venture between Tom Rothman and SPE.

Related Sony Pictures divisions

Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, or SPEJ, started out as RCA Columbia Pictures Co., Ltd. and was founded on February 10, 1984, five years before Sony bought Columbia Pictures Entertainment. In 1991, it became SPEJ after Columbia TriStar Japan, RCA-Columbia Pictures Video Japan, and Japan International Enterprises merged. Based in Tokyo, SPEJ handles the planning, production, manufacturing, sales, imports, exports, leasing, broadcasting, and distribution of movies, TV shows, videos, and audiovisual software across Japan. The California-based Sony Pictures Entertainment owns a majority stake. SPEJ also has joint ventures like Madhouse with Nippon Television and Music On! TV with Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Another division, Sony Pictures Digital Productions Inc., was founded in 1994 and was previously known as Columbia TriStar Interactive, Sony Pictures Interactive Network, and Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment. It is best known for creating the Sony Pictures website.