Strong PlayStation 5 Sales Offset Sony Pictures Declines in Fiscal 2020

EXCLUSIVE; Sony Pictures has set Will Speck & Josh Gordon to direct Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, based on the bestselling Bernard Waber children’s book. Will Davies is adapting the screenplay and it will be a live action hybrid film. The picture will be released July 22, 2022.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are taking place in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but thanks to live streaming, there are more ways to watch than ever. The two-week event kicks off on July 21 and runs through Aug. 8 in its host city of Tokyo, Japan.Among the stars expected to compete for Team USA include Megan Rapinoe, along with the dominant U.S.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla HBO Max has given a series order to the family-friendly comedy “Gordita Chronicles” that hails from Sony Pictures TV, Zoe Saldana’s Cinestar Pictures and Osprey Productions.The Latino-focused series stars Diana-Maria Riva (“Dead to Me,” “Telenovela”), Juan Javier Cardenas (“Snowfall,” “9-1-1: Lone Star”) and Olivia Goncalves (“Scooter McGruder”).Claudia Forestieri (“Good Trouble,” “Selena: The Series”), wrote the pilot and Eva Longoria directed.

Antonio Ferme editorSony Pictures Classics has updated its summer release plans for “I Carry You With Me,” “12 Mighty Orphans” and “The Lost Leonardo.” All three films are set to screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival both in person and virtually.The world premiere of the art documentary “The Lost Leonardo” will screen at Tribeca on June 13 at The Battery.

UPDATED, 11:18 AM: Sony Pictures Classics has set for release dates for two more of its pics that will screen at the Tribeca: Art world documentary The Lost Leonardo will bow August 13 in Los Angeles and New York, and GLAAD Media Award nominee I Carry You with Me hits L.A. and NYC theaters on June 25. Both will expand in the weeks after their debuts, with Lost Leonardo going nationwide.

EXCLUSIVE: We have learned that Columbia Pictures has raised Brittany Morrissey to SVP Production. She will report to Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group.

Sony Pictures has announced that its anticipated drama, Where the Crawdads Sing, will hit theaters on June 24, 2022.

Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the fantastical drama Nine Days in New York and L.A. theaters on July 30, with plans to roll the film out nationwide on August 6.

EXCLUSIVE: In her feature debut, singer Camila Cabello will be seen fitted for the glass slipper on Amazon Prime. Amazon Studios has acquired worldwide rights to the Kay Cannon-directed musical Cinderella from Sony Pictures.

EXCLUSIVE: The Good Doctor creator David Shore has re-upped his overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, extending his long-running relationship with the studio behind the hit ABC medical drama, which was just renewed for a fifth season.

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has unveiled a new Creative Diversity Fund to be operated across its international production group, starting with its U.K.-based entities, which include recently acquired Sex Education producer Eleven Films and The Crown producer Left Bank Pictures. Sony says the aim of the program —part of Sony's Sony Pictures Action initiative — is to help build a community of diverse creative talent within the international television industry.

EXCLUSIVE:  Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has acquired global rights to Maven Screen Media’s A Mouthful of Air based on Amy Koppelman’s novel of the same name.

Keith Le Goy has been promoted to chairman of distribution and networks at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterLongtime Sony Pictures Entertainment executive Keith Le Goy has been named the studio’s chairman of worldwide distribution and networks.Le Goy joins SPE motion picture group’s Tom Rothman and global TV studios and corporate development’s Ravi Ahuja as one of three chairman-level leaders running the studio’s business under Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra.Here’s the full memo from Vinciquerra:I am pleased to announce that Keith Le Goy has

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotify reported results for the first quarter of 2021 in-line with expectations, with total revenue up 16% — helped by 46% uptick in ad sales. The streaming audio giant also said podcast listening hit an all-time high in Q1, with “The Joe Rogan Experience” delivering better-than-expected gains.Overall, the company said monthly active users grew 24% to 356 million, including users on free and paid plans.

Refresh for latest…: Sony Pictures Entertainment saw its full-year 2020 profits rise 21%, to $762M, despite a 25% decrease in sales to $7.2B. Both are results of the impact of the coronavirus. With movie theaters shut around the world for a large portion of the year, and amid a production slowdown, revenues were affected. Conversely, lower spend on theatrical marketing and higher home entertainment sales had a positive effect on profits.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMusic, games and pictures all contributed to a doubling of full year net profits at Sony, the Japanese electronics and entertainment group, despite disruptions caused by the coronavirus.Reporting its financial results for the January-to March fourth quarter and 12-month results from April 2020 to March 2021, Sony said that annual sales increased by 9% to JPY9.00 trillion.

“Godzilla Vs. Kong” has marched to $406 million worldwide so far, which is pretty damn good if you consider, we’re still in a pandemic, and many North American viewers experienced the movie at home on HBO Max.