The good news, analysts and longtime Hollywood power players say, is
that the films Mr. Rothman has lined up — at least on paper and in early footage — look like the stuff of which profitable movie companies are made.
During the Las Vegas presentation, which was part of the CinemaCon convention, Mr. Rothman engaged in banter with Ryan Gosling, who stars in Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049.” They discussed shooting a scene for the $150 million movie (a collaboration with Alcon Entertainment)
that involved Mr. Gosling being doused with water — repeatedly.
“And yet you did nothing.”
Mr. Rothman laughed and said, “As a matter of fact, I think I was in the back saying, ‘You know, I think we need one more.’”
A version of this article appears in print on April 17, 2017, on Page B1 of the
New York edition with the headline: Film Lineup Raises Hopes at Sony Studio.
But no one can say that Mr. Rothman — emotional and feisty, a throwback to the movie bosses of old — is not giving a turnaround his all.
When it became known that Mr. Rothman and his team were working intensely to revive “Jumanji,” a 1995 family fantasy about children trapped
in a board game, movie fans groaned: a sure sign of desperation as Mr. Rothman scoured Sony’s library for potential franchises.
Thomas E. Rothman, Sony’s movie chairman, walked into the Coliseum at Caesars Palace here last month
and paced on stage as 4,000 movie theater executives watched.
