Sony’s Tom Rothman took a bit of a victory lap with the studio’s boffo success of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which has become the highest-grossing film of 2026 to date. Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment‘s Motion Picture Group, spoke Monday at the Lumière Summit in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, an international film and entertainment conference hosted by the French government. He was interviewed at the event by Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.
Since its July 31 release, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has spun up a whopping $2.4 billion at the global box office, including $923 million domestically. About the success of the film, Rothman joked, “First of all, I can’t be wrong all the time. It’s against the law of averages.” More seriously, he said, “For a result like that to happen, everything has to work perfectly.” Rothman praised the “incredibly talented” team that worked on the films, including star Tom Holland, who “has been our partner in this for over a decade now,” as well as the support of Disney and Marvel.
Why have audiences turned out in droves to see it? Rothman said “Brand New Day” is “not so much a superhero film, but ‘super-person’ film. The reason that movie has resonated all around the world is because it’s about a lonely guy… It’s like yeah, it’s about friendship.
It’s very emotional.” He said, “It’s got plenty of whiz-bang, but that’s not what the secret is. The secret is it’s a relatable story that almost everybody has related to.” Referring to the opening session at the Lumière Summit, at which French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung unveiled a $1.16 billion entertainment industry financing partnership, Rothman said, “We had three presidents today: The president of France, the president of Korea. Clooney, the president of Hollywood” — gesturing to George Clooney, who was sitting in the front row.
Alluding to Mark Twain’s famous quote, Rothman said this summer in particular has demonstrated that the death of the theatrical business has been greatly exaggerated. This summer, “movies were cool,” Rothman said. He said the success of “Obsession” shows that “it’s a misnomer that young people won’t go to movies.” Sony Pictures was outbid for Curry Barker’s “Obsession” by “a couple million dollars” by Universal’s Focus Features, which reportedly paid $14 million for the rights.
When Sony was outbid, Rothman joshed, “I was outraged.” But, he added, “I would like to have that moment back. I congratulate the worthy opposition.” Speaking about Sony’s global film business, Rothman said that Netflix “was brave enough at the time” to finance animated musical movie “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” which has become the streamer’s most-viewed film ever. The key having a globally resonant film or TV show, Rothman said, is to have it be specific to a time and place.
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