{"id":680484,"date":"2026-09-09T15:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/680484\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T15:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:03:14","slug":"sony-pictures-entertainment-ceo-on-success-of-spider-man-brand-new-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/680484\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO on Success of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe stunning box-office success of \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a>\u201d stems from the movie\u2019s emotional impact \u2014 which is unlike other recent superhero movies, according to Sony Pictures Entertainment<\/a> chairman and CEO Ravi Ahuja<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhuja exulted in the blockbuster\u2019s record-breaking run, which has smashed box office expectations by raking in more than $2.4 billion worldwide<\/a>, ranking as the third-biggest theatrical release ever.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous result. We obviously hadn\u2019t forecast that. We thought it would do incredibly well, but we didn\u2019t know that would do that well,\u201d said Ahuja, speaking Wednesday at the BofA Securities 2026 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhuja said that with \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day,\u201d \u201creally everybody came together to create a great thing.\u201d But, he added, \u201cthe movie itself is very emotional\u2026 So a little bit different to what some of the more recent superhero movies have been. Still very much a superhero movie \u2014 there are a lot of big action scenes. It\u2019s a lot of fun. But it\u2019s emotional. Some people come away crying, so that is something clearly that resonated with the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBrand New Day\u2019s\u201d high audience Rotten Tomato and CinemaScore ratings come down to \u201cthe incredible creative team.\u201d That includes director Destin Daniel Cretton and the cast led by Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, John Bernthal and Sadie Sink. \u201cOur producers Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal did an amazing job, and our film studio also did a tremendous job in the marketing and the distribution,\u201d Ahuja said, adding that it was distributed to more than 80,000 worldwide screens at the same time, which was a record.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhuja said \u201cSpider-Man\u201d is one of SPE\u2019s three biggest franchises, alongside \u201cJeopardy!\u201d and \u201cWheel of Fortune.\u201d About Spider Man, he said, \u201cthere\u2019s so much appeal to the character of Peter Parker, right? So much appeal to the character, but you got to execute it right. And this movie really did.\u201d When\u2019s the next one coming out? Ahuja said, \u201cWe don\u2019t have a date for it yet. A couple years, right? Usually, but there\u2019s a Spider-Verse movie coming next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Tom Rothman on Sony\u2019s \u2018Spider-Man: Brand New Day\u2019 Blockbuster Success, Being Outbid for \u2018Obsession\u2019 and More<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAhuja also spoke about the advantage Sony Pictures Entertainment has with its position as an \u201carms dealer\u201d to the rest of the industry, because it\u2019s an independent studio that doesn\u2019t have a general-entertainment streaming arm. And he also said SPE isn\u2019t interested in engaging with large-scale M&A at this point.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe CEO addressed Sony Pictures Entertainment\u2019s exclusive worldwide pay-one windowing output deal with Netflix<\/a>, after theatrical and home entertainment, which was the first of its kind in the industry.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor one, it speaks to the value of the theatrical model, right? So by being dedicated to theatrical, it creates a very high bar for the movies that you can make. For example, we can\u2019t make 30 or 40 movies, right? You can make about a dozen really big movies because they all have to meet that threshold, and there\u2019s a lot of marketing, right, that follows it,\u201d Ahuja said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo our movies do very well when they\u2019re on Netflix<\/a> or wherever they go. It also says as an independent studio, we\u2019re able to do a deal like that. If we had our own streaming service, we wouldn\u2019t do a global pay-one output deal. We\u2019d keep the movies for ourselves. And the fact that there\u2019s no other large studio that does that puts a lot of value on our output, so I think it speaks to the to the value of the strategy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe pay-one deal with Netflix \u201cgives us is a lot more certainty and the ability to take some creative risk, right? As we know how globally it\u2019s going to pay off when we achieve a particular result in box office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix also released Sony\u2019s musical animated movie \u201cK-Pop Demon Hunters,\u201d which became a roaring success in 2025 \u201cIt seems very obvious now, but at the time it was first being developed in 2021, Netflix felt like the right home, and I\u2019d argue it really was the right home,\u201d Ahuja said. \u201cI mean, if you look at the trajectory of \u2018K-Pop Demon Hunters,\u2019 it didn\u2019t start that strong, but it built over time. So the Netflix platform really helped to build \u2018K-Pop Demon Hunters.\u2019 Had it been theatrical, I mean, boy, this is such a hypothetical. Who knows if it would have had a big opening weekend? But it\u2019s done incredibly well on Netflix.\u201d Ahuja added that SPE is working on a sequel for Netflix.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding \u201cK-Pop Demon Hunters,\u201d Ahuja said, \u201cBy being platform agnostic and content-focused, we\u2019re able to build that franchise by hitting people in different places, when you really wouldn\u2019t do that if you were just stuck in one platform. We\u2019re able to benefit from media fragmentation and to really build these content assets and to build franchises.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAhuja became CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment in January 2025, after previously\u00a0serving as SPE\u2019s president and COO<\/a>. He stepped down from the board of Roku<\/a> (which recently struck a $22 billion deal to be acquired by Fox Corp.<\/a>) shortly after he took the helm at Sony Pictures Entertainment.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about Sony Pictures Entertainment\u2019s interest in mergers or acquisitions, Ahuja said \u201cmega M&A, if you call it that, buying a diversified large-scale media company or merging with one, isn\u2019t our priority for us.\u201d That\u2019s because \u201cit\u2019s very disruptive. Getting a deal done, getting a deal approved, the integration work \u2014 it sets you back for years. And this industry is dynamic and evolving, and you really have to position yourself for how it\u2019s going to evolve over the next five to 10 years, not just drown in M&A. Particularly when I am doubtful of having increased scale and content creation making a big difference. These companies are not factories, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAhuja recalled that SPE was interested in a deal to buy Paramount Global<\/a> in 2024 together with private equity firm Apollo Global Management. \u201cWe were interested in it briefly, but [that was really more about the IP,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s consistent with the strategy of looking for IP and capabilities.\u201d But Ahuja said that, at that time, a deal to acquire Paramount would raised issues with CBS stations being owned by a non-U.S. company, and \u201cwe weren\u2019t interested in linear or cable [TV].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Ellison\u2019s Skydance Media ended up buying Paramount \u2014 and now Paramount is trying to swing a $111 billion deal to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery. About industry consolidation, Ahuja said he\u2019s \u201cnot too concerned about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLook, I think for us as a supplier to different companies, if for example hypothetically you went down to two or three companies, yeah, that\u2019s not great. But I think to me, it\u2019s more about the health than it is about the absolute number, right? Because I think we\u2019ll have more than four [studios], for example, right? And I think it\u2019s more about the health of the remaining companies that they are active buyers with us. Our biggest buyers are the biggest streamers, the ones that you\u2019d expect, and I think they\u2019re they\u2019re in great shape. So it\u2019s not something I lay awake at night thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his talk, Ahuja also noted that Sony Pictures Entertainment recently combined all its YouTube groups together. YouTube is \u201ca partner, not a competitor\u201d for Sony Pictures Entertainment \u2014 again, because SPE does not have a general entertainment streaming business. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor example, SPE has launched a \u201cJeopardy!\u201d YouTube edition that is runs a few times a year, hosted by Ken Jennings, featuring YouTube influencers competing with each other in the game show. \u201cAnd by the way, the people that watch that extremely young, so it\u2019s people in their teens and 20s,\u201d Ahuja said. \u201cAnd they know \u2018Jeopardy!\u2019, but they\u2019ve hardly seen it. So this is an opportunity for them to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that YouTube, as a percentage of total viewing, will continue to grow,\u201d Ahuja said.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile it doesn\u2019t have a Netflix competitor, Sony Pictures Entertainment operates the subscription streamer Crunchyroll, with Sony Music Entertainment Japan\u2019s Aniplex, and the service recently surpassed 21 million paid subscribers. \u201cAnime has become one of Sony Group\u2019s most important growth areas,\u201d Ahuja said. For Crunchyroll, \u201cwe think there\u2019s a lot more growth ahead, and the Crunchyroll will continue to be a growth engine for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stunning box-office success of \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day\u201d stems from the movie\u2019s emotional impact \u2014 which is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,19,17,327,127,287934,72266,7205],"class_list":["post-680484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-netflix","tag-ravi-ahuja","tag-sony-pictures-entertainment","tag-spider-man-brand-new-day"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117241695587223322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}