Sony Pictures - or, "How low can a movie studio go?"

[Gordon Cole]

There are companies that have "off years". Sony Pictures is a company that's currently in the midst of an off decade. They're little more than a punching bag at this point, with an embarrassing track record including enabling Seth Rogen, fucking up Spider-Man, getting hacked by Best Korea, having Tom Rothman, the former fuck-up CEO of 20th Century Fox as the replacement CEO and unleashing Fembusters and The Emoji Movie onto the world. And now their most recent movie, Flatliners, actually has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is something The Emoji Movie failed to do.

As such, this thread is here to contain the many failures of a major studio blundering their way through the future, fueled by nothing but cringe, failure and those ever-elusive SJW bucks.

 

[AnOminous]

As such, this thread is here to contain the many failures of a major studio blundering their way through the future, fueled by nothing but cringe, failure and those ever-elusive SJW bucks.

You think after Hillary lost by hitching her wagon to the REEEEEE crowd, and Fembusters went down in flames, they'd realize there is no such thing as SJW votes or SJW bucks (unless maybe you set up a Patreon).

 

[Quijibo69]

They really need to shut down the movie part of Sony like 3 years ago.

 

[RobotGentleman]

Whether you liked it or not, the new Spider-Man wasn't much of a blunder, since it was well-reviewed and made an assload of money. But other than that, Sony has mostly just fucked up.

They also released another Smurfs movie earlier this year, despite the last two being terribly reviewed, and it flopped spectacularly at the box office.

One of their latest projects is the Peter Rabbit movie, and from the looks of the like/dislike bar on the trailer, it's probably not going to do very well either.

 

[SoberBlitz]

Sony has been having a bad time, only made worse by all of the infighting between the leadership at the higher echelons of the studio.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

They really need to shut down the movie part of Sony like 3 years ago.

It's been rumored for at least the past year that Sony is looking to get out of movies but are holding out hope for the idea that one of their projects like the Ghostbusters relaunch or the Emoji Movie will be the start of some big franchise.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Wasn't the original Flatliners a romantic comedy or something?

 

[Hui]

Sony is losing money like crazy outside their vidya department. No idea why they keep trying to make :autism:.

 

[Somar]

Whether you liked it or not, the new Spider-Man wasn't much of a blunder, since it was well-reviewed and made an assload of money.

That's because it was made by a studio that actually knows what it's doing. All Sony did was just release the film and receive the paycheck at the end.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

There are companies that have "off years". Sony Pictures is a company that's currently in the midst of an off decade. They're little more than a punching bag at this point, with an embarrassing track record including enabling Seth Rogen, fucking up Spider-Man, getting hacked by Best Korea, having Tom Rothman, the former fuck-up CEO of 20th Century Fox as the replacement CEO and unleashing Fembusters and The Emoji Movie onto the world. And now their most recent movie, Flatliners, actually has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is something The Emoji Movie failed to do.
View attachment 289231

As such, this thread is here to contain the many failures of a major studio blundering their way through the future, fueled by nothing but cringe, failure and those ever-elusive SJW bucks.

All this and no mention of them keeping Adam Sandler's career afloat?

I am disappointed in you.

 

[HarryHowler]

All this and no mention of them keeping Adam Sandler's career afloat?

I am disappointed in you.

Netflix are more the ones to blame in that regard nowadays. At least Sony have the sense to keep him confined to the Hotel Transylvania films.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Netflix are more the ones to blame in that regard nowadays. At least Sony have the sense to keep him confined to the Hotel Transylvania films.

Still, they allowed Pixels and Jack & Jill to be unleashed to the public, so they definitely have to take at least part of the blame.

 

[Trombonista]

Sony has been having a bad time, only made worse by all of the infighting between the leadership at the higher echelons of the studio.

Please elaborate.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Sony has been having a bad time, only made worse by all of the infighting between the leadership at the higher echelons of the studio.

Please elaborate.

I second this. This is making me think Amy Pascal was only the appetizer.

 

[SoberBlitz]

Please elaborate.

I second this. This is making me think Amy Pascal was only the appetizer.

Tl;dr: Drama and box office failures everywhere. Also rumors about wanting to sell off the film division.

So the Sony infighting begins with Amy Pascal and the ghostbusters fiasco. There's a lot of information available on the whole thing, but at the end of the day, we got Ghostbusters 2016. But the most interesting person in this whole shebang is the Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton.

Lynton was responsible for the ousting of the head of Sony's television division, Steve Mosko, who had basically built the division from scratch. Mosko was admittedly pissed off at a lot of things going on at Sony, as at one point Sony's television division was producing about half of Sony's profits. So Mosko decides he wants a larger role in the company, and begins working toward positioning himself as the savior of Sony's film division. Lynton obviously does not like Mosko's positioning one bit, leading to a frayed relationship between the two. Toss in some restless underlings who want to move up, Mosko costing around $3 million a year; did not take long for Lynton to move to get Mosko out of Sony. Mosko left of his own choice, after a nearly quarter-century run as the head of Sony's television division.

Next point, Tom Rothman. He's the guy that replaced Amy Pascal in 2015. Now while Ghostbusters 2016 came out during his tenure, its failure did not affect him because Amy Pascal greenlight that. His problem was the Passengers movie staring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. The latter is more important, because after the Sony hack, she found out that she received a smaller paycheck that her male counterparts. So Rothman decides to close the gender pay gap: He pays Pratt $12 million to star in the film and pays Lawrence $28 million upfront along with 30% of the backend gross. Passengers did not do great at the box office, grossing $100 million domestically and $200 million in foreign markets. This is all fine and dandy, but Passengers cost around $110 million to make, and to turn a profit it would most likely need at least $300 worldwide to turn a profit.

Rothman is his own bucket of interesting, as he's got a hate-boner for comic book films. While he personally believed that films beside comic books could draw in a crowd, this was probably not the best attitude to take toward film making. As part of this plan, he made a major push toward the international market. He also made some stupid comments about him being the "Winston Churchill of Sony". His restructuring of Sony Pictures did not go well with the people working for Rothman, as he had made a reputation of being a micro-managing prick at Fox. Several executives left after clashing with Rothman and people were hesitant about bringing movie ideas to Sony under the Rothman regime. This got bad enough that the Sony CEO had to comment on Rothman's reforms, stating that he had the backing of Sony and its heads.

Lynton left the company in February of 2017 to focus on Snapchat, as he was an early investor in the platform. Rothman is still with the company, although his position is pretty shaking.

I could go into the rumors about Sony wanting to sell off or consolidate their film division, but this post is long enough.

Sources:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-infighting-led-tv-chief-898917
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/business/media/sony-michael-lynton-to-step-down.html
https://moviepilot.com/p/asassins-creed-passengers-box-office-flops/4179291
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=passengers2016.htm
https://deadline.com/2016/10/nearin...progress-at-changing-movie-studio-1201831269/
https://variety.com/2016/film/news/sony-executives-disillusioned-tom-rothman-1201904528/#!

Tl;dr: Drama and box office failures everywhere. Also rumors about wanting to sell off the film division.

 

[Magic Sun Daddy]

You think after Hillary lost by hitching her wagon to the REEEEEE crowd, and Fembusters went down in flames, they'd realize there is no such thing as SJW votes or SJW bucks (unless maybe you set up a Patreon).

Nah. Appealing to the SJW crowd is more of a preemptive attempt at good PR. These days it doesn't matter how shady your business practices are or how shitty your product is. So long as you have the approval of hard left media outlets, you can completely obfuscate responsibly for whatever mistakes your company makes. As that airheaded dipshit Stephenie McMahon once said, "philanthropy is the future of marketing".

 

[AnOminous]

The problems at Sony go back way beyond even the North Korea hack, which was a gigantic public embarrassment. That just attracted attention to them enough people noticed what an utter shit show it has been for years.

Nah. Appealing to the SJW crowd is more of a preemptive attempt at good PR. These days it doesn't matter how shady your business practices are or how shitty your product is. So long as you have the approval of hard left media outlets, you can completely obfuscate responsibly for whatever mistakes your company makes. As that airheaded dipshit Stephenie McMahon once said, "philanthropy is the future of marketing".

So? That gets you a decent opening weekend. Once word of mouth is that something is utter shit, you're still going to lose tens of millions of dollars. Do that enough times and you don't exist any more. Bigger operations than Sony Pictures have gone down for fewer mistakes.

 

[Gordon Cole]

Sometimes Sony fucks the world over, sometimes the world fucks Sony over.

Kevin Spacey’s ‘All the Money in the World’ Oscar Push Axed (EXCLUSIVE)
Kevin Spacey’s robust supporting actor Oscar campaign for Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World” has been shelved, Variety has learned. The move comes amid allegations of sexual harassment directed at the two-time Oscar-winning actor that stretch back 30 years.

Buried under considerable makeup and prosthetics, Spacey stars as oil tycoon J. Paul Getty in the film. The campaign was going to feature him front and center and focus on his physical transformation, according to two individuals with knowledge of the discontinued plans. But the embattled actor will no longer be in the spotlight as Sony and TriStar Pictures look to salvage the awards marketing strategy by featuring Spacey’s co-stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg.

Spacey, who previously won best supporting actor for “The Usual Suspects” in 1996 and best actor for “American Beauty” in 2000, was first accused last week by actor Anthony Rapp. Rapp alleged that Spacey made a sexual advance toward him when Rapp was just 14 years old. Others have come forward since with allegations of groping and preying on young actors who performed at London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey served as artistic director from 2004 to 2015. UPDATE: As this story was being filed a new individual revealed he had been in a sexual relationship with Spacey when he was 14 years old and Spacey was 24. Shortly thereafter, eight cast and/or crew members from television’s “House of Cards” came forward alleging Spacey had turned the set of the Emmy-winning Netflix series into “a toxic environment for young men.”

In a response posted to Twitter, Spacey apologized to Rapp “for what would have been inappropriate drunken behavior.” The response was widely derided, both for blaming alleged criminal behavior on hypothetical intoxication, and for lumping those accusations in with Spacey’s coming out as a homosexual.

Also contending for supporting actor recognition this year is “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” star Dustin Hoffman. So far two women have come forward alleging sexual harassment by the 80-year-old screen legend. As of this time, there are no plans to change course in his campaign; he is in fact scheduled to appear with co-star Adam Sandler at a Screen Actors Guild screening of the film on Sunday night.

In the wake of the allegations against Spacey, the International TV Academy scrapped plans to honor the actor with its founders award. The Motion Picture Academy, meanwhile, may make its own determination. The group ousted disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein last month and later announced plans to establish a code of conduct for members, “which will include a policy for evaluating alleged violations and determining if action regarding membership is warranted.”

Asked whether Spacey will be a topic of discussion at the next Academy board meeting in December, an AMPAS spokesperson referred Variety back to that announcement.

On Tuesday, Netflix and Media Rights Capital suspended production on the sixth and final season of “House of Cards.” Spacey has received a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for the series, which put Netflix’s original programming on the map. The next day, Spacey announced through a rep that he “is taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.”

“All the Money in the World” is still set to premiere as the closing night selection of this year’s AFI Fest on Nov. 16. It will be released theatrically on Dec. 22.

 

[Doug_Hitzel]

Sometimes Sony fucks the world over, sometimes the world fucks Sony over.

“All the money in the world can’t get me out of this shitshow” starring Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Pedo.

 

[AnOminous]

Maybe the policy of just immediately calling the accuser a lying faggot, hiring someone to break his kneecaps, and then suing him for libel, is actually better than just immediately admitting guilt and throwing yourself on the mercy of the public.