Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra said he’s optimistic streaming “will be profitable” for a number of companies, not just Netflix, “after a period of adjustment.”
Vinciquerra’s comments came during his appearance at FT’s first Business of Entertainment Summit in West Hollywood, Calif., on Thursday. The exec also took the opportunity to point out that Crunchyroll, Sony’s own service, is one of the few profitable streaming operations, without sharing specifics.
Last month, Sony reported Crunchyroll had 15 million paid subscribers. The service — which offers subscriptions between $7.99 and $15.99 per month, as well as a free, ad-supported tier — has succeeded thanks in large part to anime content. Animation fans, like sports fans, are so passionate “it’s scary,” Vinciquerra said.
Meanwhile, Netflix reported a $7 billion profit in 2023 — up 23% from the year prior. Warner Bros. Discovery also posted a $103 million profit last year.
Vinciquerra took over as chief executive in 2017, after previously running Fox’s TV business. On Thursday, he said he saw firsthand where the cable business was headed and that it “wasn’t a business I wanted to be in.”
Cable, he said, is an industry that’s “rapidly declining” — one that would’ve only been an “albatross around our neck.”
Instead, Sony has opted to be what Vinciquerra calls a “strategic supplier” of content to companies like Amazon and Netflix.
Sony Pictures has, most recently, been the company behind movies like “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” as well as TV shows like “Cobra Kai” and “The Crown”; programs like “Seinfeld” and “Breaking Bad” are also part of Sony’s extensive content library.
At a different conference earlier this month, Vinciquerra predicted Hollywood was in for a few years of “chaos,” as a number of “mergers and bankruptcies and sales and all kinds of fun things” hit the entertainment industry.
