Amy Pascal

Amy Beth Pascal (born March 25, 1958) is an American business executive and film producer. She served as the Chairperson of the Motion Pictures Group of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Co-Chairperson of SPE, including Sony Pictures Television, from 2006 until 2015. She has overseen the production and distribution of many films and television programs and was co-chairman during the late-2014 Sony Pictures hack.

Her company, Pascal Pictures, made its debut with the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. In 2017, she produced Spider-Man: Homecoming, Molly's Game and The Post (which earned an Academy Award nomination at the 90th Academy Awards).

Career
Pascal started her career as a secretary working for producer Tony Garnett at the independent production company Kestrel Films. From 1986 to 1987, she served as Vice President of Production at 20th Century Fox.

Sony Pictures
Pascal joined Columbia Pictures in 1988, where she was responsible for the development of films including: Groundhog Day, Little Women, Awakenings, and A League of Their Own. She left Columbia in 1994 and served for two years as the President of Production for Turner Pictures while Scott Sassa was president of Turner Entertainment. During her time at Turner, Pascal hired Damon Lee as a development director.

Pascal rejoined Columbia in 1996 as the studio's President after Turner Pictures merged with Warner Bros. In 1999, Pascal became Chair of Columbia Pictures.

Pascal was named Co-Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment in September 2006. She also served as Chairman of SPE's Motion Picture Group from December 2003 to February 2015. Pascal and SPE's Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton led all of SPE's lines of business, including: motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies.

Pascal has overseen the production and distribution of a number of films, including the Spider-Man franchise; the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, the first Bond film to gross over $1 billion at the worldwide box office; The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons; Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Hotel Transylvania; and Best Picture Oscar nominees American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Moneyball and The Social Network.

Pascal, along with Lynton, also oversaw Sony Pictures Television (SPT), which produces and distributes television programming for multiple platforms in the U.S. and internationally.

In 2013, Pascal was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She clashed with investor Daniel S. Loeb, who accused both Pascal and Lynton of "poor financial controls." According to the Financial Times, "she employed an assistant who earned more than $250,000 a year, and had use of a private jet and other perks in keeping with Hollywood's golden era rather than an age of austerity." At the end of 2014, Pascal was the only woman at Sony to earn over $1 million per annum, having earned US$3 million a year.

Pascal's contract with Sony was scheduled to expire in March 2015. On February 5, 2015, Pascal announced she would step down in May 2015. Pascal stated during a Women in the World discussion on February 11, 2015, that she had been "fired" by Sony.

Film producer
Pascal started her own production company, with a four-year contract for funding and distribution via Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company, called Pascal Pictures, hired Rachel O'Connor as production chief and Ian Dalrymple to open and run a New York branch. Pascal Pictures was expected to continue Amy Pascal's "book-friendly" focus, and Dalrymple's office was expected to facilitate this. She produced the Ghostbusters reboot film and the Marvel Studios-produced Spider-Man: Homecoming, in addition to theatre and television work. TriStar President Hannah Minghella obtained rights to Maestra by L. S. Hilton with the intent for Pascal to produce the film. Pascal Pictures made a winning bid for a memoir by Zoë Quinn about "Gamergate" called Crash Override: How to Save the Internet from Itself, which was sold to Touchstone/Simon & Schuster for publication in September 2016. Pascal and Elizabeth Cantillon optioned rights for a TriStar TV series based on books by Eve Babitz set in 1960s-1970s Los Angeles. For a sum in the "mid-six to seven figures", Pascal made a deal for Michael Diliberti's Athena, about a descendant of the goddess Athena who is recruited to a secret organization. Together with Sony, Pascal obtained rights for the TV crime drama Darktown, which she plans to executive produce with Jamie Foxx.

In May 2019, it was announced that Pascal and her production company Pascal Pictures is leaving Sony and moving to Universal Pictures for a first-look deal after 30 years at Sony Pictures.

Producer filmography

 * Ghostbusters (2016)
 * Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
 * Molly's Game (2017)
 * The Post (2017)
 * Venom (2018)
 * The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)
 * Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
 * Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
 * Ico (2019)
 * Little Women (2019)