Sony Pictures, studio behind ‘The Crown’ and ‘Jeopardy,’ gets a new boss
Summary
CEO Tony Vinciquerra gave priority to selling content to streamers; President Ravi Ahuja will take over the top job.
The head of Sony’s movie and television studio is stepping down early next year, passing the baton after helping the company sidestep costly investments in streaming that challenged many of its rivals.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra is expected to take on an advisory role in January, while President and Chief Operating Officer Ravi Ahuja will become CEO, the company said Monday.
Under Vinciquerra, Sony Pictures has focused on selling content to streaming services rather than creating its own platform. Building direct-to-consumer streaming businesses from scratch has proven costly for companies including Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
Shows produced by Sony Pictures include the Netflix hits “Cobra Kai" and “The Crown" and Amazon’s “The Boys," while its popular films include “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" and “Anyone But You." Sony struck a lucrative deal with Netflix in 2021 to sell its theatrical movies to the streaming service.
The company’s movie studio has had a solid year, with strong performers such as “It Ends With Us" and “Bad Boys: Ride or Die."
Sony Pictures also makes the long-running game shows “Jeopardy" and “Wheel of Fortune," both of which are major financial contributors to the company’s entertainment operations.
Vinciquerra, 70 years old, will remain at Sony Pictures through 2025 as nonexecutive chairman. He joined Sony in 2017 after holding senior positions at Fox, Hearst and CBS.
Sony Pictures sold the bulk of its international cable channels as that business became more challenging. Sony Group Chairman and Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida praised Vinciquerra for increasing the value of the company’s intellectual property and leaning “further into the creative and entertainment spaces."
Ahuja, 53, takes over at what his boss recently described as a period of “chaos" in the entertainment industry. Speaking at a Bank of America investor conference a few weeks ago, Vinciquerra painted a bleak picture of show business for the next few years.
“Mergers and bankruptcies and sales and all kinds of fun things," Vinciquerra said when asked about the state of the industry. Even media giants could be in jeopardy if they make “some massive mistake or miscalculation," he warned.
In an interview Monday, Vinciquerra said it isn’t all doom and gloom. “At the end of it, the one thing we know for sure is the demand for entertainment is going up and it’s a good business to be in," he said.
Under Vinciquerra’s leadership, Sony Pictures acquired popular anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll in 2021 and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema earlier this year. It bought Industrial Media, a nonfiction and reality television production company in 2022.
Last year, Sony Pictures teamed up with private-equity firm Apollo Global Management on a bid for Paramount Global, which ultimately was acquired by Skydance Media.
The transition from Vinciquerra to Ahuja has been in the works for two years, a person familiar with the planning said. The two have worked closely at Sony Pictures and Ahuja is expected to continue to execute Vinciquerra’s strategic plans.
Ahuja was tapped by Vinciquerra in 2021 to helm its television studios and was promoted to his current role earlier this year. Ahuja previously was president and chief financial officer of Disney Television and served in a similar role at Fox, where he and Vinciquerra first crossed paths.
“He and I are very much in sync on what our strategy has been. He’s ready to go," Vinciquerra said.
Write to Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com
