- Insider chatted with the head of
Sony ,Tom Rothman . - Sony's movie boss opened up about the success of "
Bad Boys for Life ," which is currently the highest-grossing movie of 2020. - He also explained why he had to sell "
Greyhound " to Apple during the pandemic. - Rothman also said that going forward movies that go to theaters can't just be good, but great.
Despite the decades of experience that Sony Pictures
But that's a frustrating feeling for someone who is usually in a constant state of forward motion to stay one step ahead in the industry.
"I'm starting to go stir crazy," he admitted to Insider over the phone earlier this week.
Like the rest of the studio heads, Rothman is in a holding pattern. He's had to completely overhaul his 2020 slate due to the pandemic. That includes anticipated movies like the sequel to "Venom" and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" moving to next year.
But Sony does have a leg up on its competition in 2020 thanks to the success of "Bad Boys for Life." The long-delayed third movie to the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence buddy cop franchise surprised everyone (expect Rothman, of course) with a franchise-best $73 million domestic opening over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and has since taken in over $424 million at the global box office.
It is currently the highest-grossing movie of the year.
Now with the movie business beginning to reopen (Sony's anticipated titles like the long-awaited video game adaptation of "Uncharted" and "Cinderella" musical starring Camila Cabello and Billy Porter are back in production) Rothman's immediate thinking is less on big box office openings and more on how movies can build a lot of word of mouth so they become must-sees when more and more theaters reopen.
He thinks he has one with the rom-com "
Insider chatted with Rothman on what his plan is with releasing movies in a coronavirus world and why he had to sell Tom Hanks' war movie "Greyhound" to Apple.
'Bad Boys for Life' was a big hit in theaters, but because of the pandemic, Rothman said it was 'gigantic' on home entertainment
After years of a third "Bad Boys" movie being in development, "Bad Boys for Life" was finally released back in January and shocked everyone that 17 years after the release of "Bad Boys II" the movie didn't just find an audience but wowed them.
But Rothman was confident the movie would do well.
"That's one I wasn't surprised about," Rothman said. "We had done a lot of communicating with the fans beforehand and while the movie was being made. We knew that there was a tremendous reservoir of love for the brand and that audiences really really wanted to see Martin and Will back together again."
Rothman added that the pandemic led to the movie having an impressive surge in sales once it hit Blu-ray, DVD, and on demand.
"It was a gigantic hit because everyone was stuck at their homes at the time it came out," he said.
'The Broken Hearts Gallery' will be available at any drive-in that will have it
With more and more movie theaters opening across the country, the movie business is beginning to get moving again and Rothman sees Sony's upcoming rom-com "The Broken Hearts Gallery" being an option for some time.
"It's running the mile, not the hundred-yard dash," he said. "Our plan is that where theaters are safe to open that the movie will be there. We are in no hurry."
He added that typical metrics, like opening weekend numbers, also will become less relevant. Rothman says it's all about taking a larger view of a movie's success over time.
"To do that you have to have a movie that's going to have good word of mouth and we feel very confident in the word of mouth for 'Broken Hearts Gallery,'" he said.
But unlike the big-budgeted "Tenet," which is mostly playing at theaters and not drive-ins, "The Broken Hearts Gallery" is a small rom-com that is looking to be a fixture at not just theaters but also drive-ins.
"Yeah, we'll play at drive-ins," Rothman said. "What we're doing here is swimming against the tide. It would be very easy to have skipped theaters with this movie and just done what so many movies are doing now and just going direct to PVOD. But audiences love rom-coms and the romance of movie theaters and drive-ins are appropriate for it."
Why Sony had to sell Tom Hank's 'Greyhound' during the pandemic, and will it sell more movies?
Though Rothman is bullish on getting his movies in theaters, during the pandemic he had to make a tough decision. He had to sell off the Tom Hanks war movie "Greyhound" to Apple TV Plus.
It was a decision that even Hanks admitted was an "absolute heartbreak" that it didn't get to play in theaters.
Rothman explained to Insider what happened.
"In this business, there are only 52 weekends in the year and there's a limit to how much product there is," he said. "2021 was already full. We and every other studio have every weekend lined up with movies in 2021. Now you had to put the 2020 movies and mix them in. It felt that certain movies, 'Greyhound' being one of them, were not going to get their due by having to wait a year and then get shoehorned in somewhere."
"What I like is Apple made it special," he continued. "It wasn't just a movie thrown in with 100 other movies, which is what some of these services do. One of many on a menu that you can't distinguish."
After "Broken Hearts Gallery," Sony has slatted the animated movie "Connected" in October and the Kristen Stewart relationship comedy "Happiest Season" in November. Would Rothman consider selling either of those if coronavirus cases surge in the fall and theaters are forced to close again?
"You have to make that decision when it comes," Rothman said, adding that it could take "the next six months to a year before things stabilize."
Rothman says now more than ever, movies that are going to theaters have to be great — not just good
Rothman said that what has become evident from the halting of the movie business due to the pandemic — in which Premium Video On Demand came into full form and theatrical windows will be shortened — going forward, movies that studios want to show in theaters have to be top-notch.
"Unlike streaming where it's more about quantity than it is about quality, theatrical is all going to be about quality," Rothman said.
And in the competitive movie industry, "good isn't good enough."
"It used to be a decade or so ago where if the movie was good enough you could market your way into a success, you can't do that anymore," he said. "It has got to be great. It has to be a great horror movie, a great comedy, a great 'Bad Boys.' But I say bring it on. The audience has the right to demand that we have to bring our A-game."
Is Olivia Wilde making a Spider-Woman movie for Sony? Rothman won't say.
Closing our conversation we had to ask about those reports that Olivia Wilde will direct a Marvel movie for Sony.
Many believe it will be a Spider-Woman movie. Wilde even celebrated the news by tweeting out an emoji spider.
—olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) August 19, 2020
Can Rothman confirm that she's doing a Spider-Woman movie?
"I can neither confirm or deny," Rothman said slyly. "But I can understand why people would think that."