#221 CEO & Chairman Sony Pictures, Tony Vinciquerra: Into the Fire

Dec 16, 2024

Tony Vinciquerra, the outgoing CEO of Sony Pictures, attributes his Hollywood success to a mix of luck and proactive curiosity. He delves into the intricacies of navigating relationships, adapting to industry changes, and revitalizing entertainment through intellectual property. Tony also shares insights on the recent writers' and actors' strikes and discusses the impact of AI on filmmaking. He emphasizes the crucial role of understanding business assets and the necessity of being adaptable in a rapidly evolving media landscape.

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ANECDOTE

Leaving Twice

Tony Vinciquerra has left his CEO position twice, a rarity in Hollywood.
He compares this to Peter Chernin, noting most CEOs are fired or leave due to scandals.

INSIGHT

Perks of the Job

Perks, like access and preferential treatment, contribute to CEOs staying in their roles. These perks fuel egos and create a sense of importance.

ANECDOTE

Hulu's Origin

Jubin and Tony discuss Peter Chernin's role in creating Hulu. Chernin envisioned Hulu as a solution to the eroding syndication market in television.

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Guest: Tony Vinciquerra, outgoing CEO of Sony Pictures

Tony Vinciquerra never planned to get into the entertainment business, let alone to become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. After seven years, he’s about to leave the CEO role at Sony Pictures (although he will stay on as chairman for one more year) and attributes much of his success to luck: “I’ve been in the right place at the right time a lot of times.”

That said, he also encourages his children to proactively be curious, something that has served Tony well across his whole career. “I don’t have as deep an education as many of the people that [I] compete with,” he says. “So I try to make up for that by knowing what’s going on and being more curious ... working harder at it and being more — I don’t know what the right word is, but sucking more information in, all the time.”

Chapters:

(00:54) - The perks of being a studio boss
(03:38) - Hulu and Peter Chernin
(06:41) - Fox Television
(10:03) - Building relationships
(13:37) - Not retiring
(15:34) - Fixing Sony
(23:29) - Intellectual property
(26:58) - Juggling and baseball
(29:30) - Setbacks and cable networks
(34:58) - The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes
(37:22) - AI and replacing writers
(39:46) - Adapting to new tech
(44:38) - Changing consumer behavior
(49:25) - Sports media and live TV
(55:31) - Bad days
(58:57) - Tony’s family
(01:02:47) - Looking back
(01:05:04) - Proactive curiosity
(01:07:33) - What “grit” means to Tony

Mentioned in this episode: Jason Kilar and Warner Bros., Jeff Zucker, John Waldron and Goldman Sachs, FX, Drayton McLane, Netflix, Variety, PlayStation, Spider-Man, Tom Rothman, CBS and Paramount, Comcast and NBC, Disney, Mike Hopkins, Amazon Prime, Funimation, Crunchyroll, Breaking Bad, The Last of Us, HBO, Uncharted, WBZ-TV, the Game Show Network, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Joker: Folie à Deux, Miramax, Here, Tom Hanks, Venom: The Last Dance, Michael Ovitz, Sam Altman and OpenAI, Pixomondo, Neal Mohan and YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, DirecTV and AT&T, NFL Sunday Ticket, Qualcomm, the New York Knicks, the Golden State Warriors, Larry Baer and the San Francisco Giants, Major League Baseball, Walmart and Vizio, Madame Web, Capital Cities, Mark McLaughlin, and Mark Fields and Ford.

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This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm