Tony Vinciquerra, the head of Sony Pictures Entertainment, is stepping down next week after leading the studio for seven years on a unique and successful journey through the ups and downs of Hollywood.
He began at Sony in 2017, when the studio was still reeling from the widely-publicized 2014 cyberattack by North Korean agents resulting in the public release of a trove of internal communications. According to Vinciquerra, “There was so much damage done by that in terms of invasion of privacy and sharing of emails. It was palpable.”
Under his tenure, Sony has re-established the productivity of the JUMANJI and BAD BOYS film franchises, had wild success from a series of SPIDER-MAN movies, both live-action and animated, and been more successful in leveraging internal assets across its many successful divisions including the PlayStation gaming business.
Sony has also been able to avoid the pitfalls of streaming that have dragged down most of its competitors. Instead, they pursued an “arms dealer” strategy to license its content to other companies for distribution on their streaming platforms, locking in profits without having to incur the cost of creating its own streaming service.
As he steps back, Vinciquerra is bullish about the prospects for the entertainment business overall, saying, “The one thing we do know for sure is that the demand for entertainment is not going down.” After the major media companies have completed some necessary steps in debt restructuring and internal reorganization, he predicts that the industry will enter into an extended period of growth and profitability.