Tom Rothman

Previously, he was chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment with Jim Gianopulos until his resignation on September 14, 2012, effective January 1, 2013.^[5][9] Rothman began at Fox in 1994 as the founder and President of Fox Searchlight Pictures and served the company for 18 years.^[10] During Rothman's tenure, Fox films were nominated for over 150 Oscars and won three Best Picture Awards.^[11] The company also earned over $30 billion in the box office and made the then two highest-grossing films, Titanic and Avatar.^{[12][13][14][15]} Rothman also hosted Fox Legacy, a television series in which he provided background and behind-the-scenes information regarding the making of films.^[16]

Early life and education[edit]

Rothman was born in to a Jewish family^[17][18][19] in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1972, he graduated from the Park School of Baltimore prior to entering college. Rothman graduated from Brown University with Honors in English and American Literature, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and was an All New England selection in Division 1 Lacrosse.^[15][20]


In 1977, he worked as an English Teacher at the Salisbury School in Connecticut and coached varsity soccer.^[15] He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1980 as a James Kent Scholar, the school's highest academic honor.^[13][15][21] In 1981, he served on The United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit as a law clerk for the Honorable Walter Mansfield.^[15][20][21] From 1982 to 1986, he worked as an attorney at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.^[15][20][22]

Film career[edit]

In 1986, Rothman co-produced Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law and Robert Frank's Candy Mountain.^[13][15][22] In 1987, he began working as an executive vice president of Columbia Pictures on all aspects of film development and production.^{[14][15][20][21][23]} In 1989, he served as president of Worldwide Production for the Samuel Goldwyn Company.^[14][15][21] He supervised landmark independent films such as Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Longtime Companion, Truly Madly Deeply, Wild At Heart, and The Madness of King George.^[13][14][20] He discovered and championed numerous young filmmakers who went on to become successful, including Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, and Kenneth Branagh.^[13][14][20] During this time, the company's films won the Palme d'Or at Cannes three times.^[24]


For 18 years, Rothman worked at Fox Filmed Entertainment.^[14][21][23] In 1994, he founded and was the first president of Searchlight Pictures, one of the first specialty film divisions linked to a major studio.^[20][21][23] Fox Searchlight went on to distribute multiple Oscar-winning films, including Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 2008.^[14][23] Rothman was president of production for Twentieth Century Fox where he oversaw the majority of the company's film development and production from 1996 to 1998 and was president of Twentieth Century Fox Film Group from 1998 to 2000.^{[14][20][21][23]} From 2000 to 2012, he was chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment (FFE).^[5] FFE included 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Animation, and Twentieth Century Fox Television.^{[5][14][20][21]} During this time, the studio was nominated for over 150 Academy Awards, won three Best Picture Oscars, earned over $30 billion in worldwide box office sales.^[14][21][23] Fox had the best profit margins of any film studio.^[16] Some of the films produced over Rothman's tenure include: Lincoln, Life of Pi, The Descendants, Cast Away, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Black Swan, Walk the Line, Juno, The Devil Wears Prada, The X-Men series, the Ice Age series, Rio, and several others.^[25] Under Rothman's leadership, Fox produced Modern Family, Glee, and Homeland. From 2007 to 2010, Tom Rothman hosted Fox Legacy, a television series in which he provided background and behind-the-scenes information regarding the making of films.^[16] As Fox chairman, he became known for rejecting the idea behind Deadpool, claiming it wouldn't be successful, and making the decision to have the character (whose nickname is "The Merc With a Mouth") have his mouth sewn shut for the majority of his first film appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.^[26][27][28] In September 2012, Tom Rothman resigned as chairman and chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment.^[9] That same month, Steven Spielberg announced that Rothman would produce Spielberg's Robopocalypse, for DreamWorks.^[29]


In 2013, Sundance Film Festival named Rothman to its U.S. Dramatic Jury, and he presented the Grand Jury prize to Fruitvale Station.^[11] Initially responsible for the re-launch of the Tristar Productions studio, it was announced in February 2015 that Rothman would replace Amy Pascal as chairman of Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Group and would continue to oversee the properties he greenlit at TriStar.^[30] In September 2018, Sony Pictures extended their contract with Rothman following the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home.^[31][32]