But Sony’s contract to market and distribute the films expired in 2015 with “Spectre.” So the two companies
that control the franchise but do not distribute their own films — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the family-run Eon Productions — have started attending dog and pony shows put on by studios that want the rights, according to five people briefed on the sessions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Sony also shouldered tens of millions of dollars in marketing
and had to give MGM a piece of the profit from non-Bond films Sony had in its own pipeline, including “22 Jump Street.”
In a 2014 email stolen by hackers and widely published online, Andrew Gumpert, who then oversaw business affairs for Sony, figured
that the studio would realize about $38 million in profit if “Spectre” performed as “Skyfall” did.
Under its previous agreement, Sony paid 50 percent of the production costs for “Spectre” — which totaled some $250 million after accounting for government incentives —
but only received 25 percent of certain profits, once costs were recouped.
Ms. Ellison started by focusing on prestige films like “Her” and “American Hustle.”
But she has been diversifying toward more commercial movies like the animated hit “Sausage Party” and recently hired a senior 20th Century Fox executive to oversee production.
The four Bond films that Sony has released collected $3.5 billion at the worldwide box office, after adjusting for inflation.