When Amy Pascal was toppled from her perch as Sony Footage Leisure co-chairperson in 2015, the touchdown was comfortable. The longtime govt negotiated a profitable four-year exit deal that assured her two theatrical releases per yr and the appropriate to supply future “Spider-Man” motion pictures. That meant Pascal would earn tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in back-end compensation from the subsequent seven movies within the Spider-Verse, knocking down $10 million for the 2018 “Venom” spinoff alone. The pact, signed off on by then-Sony chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, even offered Pascal with $10 million yearly for overhead and discretionary spending. Over the following years, these preparations have gone the way in which of the Walkman.

When Netflix movie chairman Scott Stuber exits the streamer in March, turning into the newest movie chief to pivot to producing, he faces a much less hospitable local weather. Think about former Warner Bros. Footage Group chairman Toby Emmerich, who exited his publish in 2022 with a five-year producing deal on the studio however has but to announce a big mission. Sources say Emmerich tried to board the subsequent “Ocean’s” film, however that transfer was nixed by star Margot Robbie, who already is producing the movie and brings to the desk her LuckyChap Leisure group together with her husband, Tom Ackerley.

“On all these franchise motion pictures, the massive filmmaker or the actor-producer has to resolve in the event that they’re OK with including one other voice to the combination. And infrequently they don’t need one other producer,” says one high-profile agent.

Some studio heads depart their posts with nothing in any respect. Former Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara and NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer, each of whom have been caught up in public intercourse scandals, needed to look exterior the Hollywood studio system for his or her subsequent acts. Meyer is presently CEO of Wild Bunch AG, a European impartial movie distribution and manufacturing firm. Final yr, Tsujihara and former Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes raised $360 million for his or her Alignment Progress fairness fund, whose Hollywood investments embody Spyglass Media.

However Stuber enters the fray with one important benefit: He was a profitable producer earlier than turning into an govt. His credit embody “Ted” and “Central Intelligence.” Although he has advised buddies that he has raised cash for his new unnamed manufacturing firm, it’s unclear who’s offering the funds. (Stuber declined to remark for this story.) Sources say Stuber has amassed sufficient to cowl each growth and manufacturing and received’t have to latch on to an present property at Netflix within the Pascal vein. That’s a great factor on condition that Netflix has nothing similar to the “Spider-Man” franchise.

“Scott Stuber isn’t precisely going to be placed on a ‘Kissing Sales space’ film,” says one fellow producer. “He’s too large for that.”

Associates say Stuber is seeking to pursue the kinds of motion pictures he made as a producer and later championed at Netflix. Among the many streamer’s movies that display his style are the action-comedy “Pink Discover,” the Sandra Bullock thriller “Hen Field” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Thriller,” the latter marking the one time the studio gave a large launch to one in all its motion pictures. (The Rian Johnson-helmed movie earned a powerful $15 million through the one-week experiment in some 600 theaters.)

Brokers who’ve labored intently with Stuber lately anticipate that his observe file and ties to expertise will assist him in his new endeavor.

“When Scott joined Netflix, it gave discover to all the movie neighborhood that this was going to be an excellent place for world-class storytellers to do wonderful work, and that’s precisely what occurred,” says WME’s Robert Newman, whose shoppers embody Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, each of whom stunned the business after they obtained into enterprise with Netflix with “Roma” and “Pinocchio,” respectively. “The perfect filmmakers on the planet have been wanting to work with Scott, and I’ve each confidence that they are going to proceed to take action within the subsequent chapter of his profession. I’d work with him once more in a minute.”

As for who will exchange Stuber at Netflix, a number of names are being bandied about, together with these of former Paramount and Fox exec Emma Watts in addition to Emmerich. In any case, the Hollywood conveyor belt that strikes studio heads into producing typically extends within the different route.