Sony Pictures President Sanford Panitch (SLA ‘89) may be a Los Angeles native, but he credits “the other LA” as where his entertainment career truly started.
Panitch, who majored in Political Science, has been president of the Motion Picture Group at Sony Pictures since 2019, following years as president of sibling studio Columbia Pictures. In this position, Panitch oversees all international film and television distribution—a savvy he initially cultivated as an undergraduate at Tulane University.
Last week, for a special Dean’s Speaker Series event, he visited his alma mater and its students to engage in a career-oriented conversation with School of Liberal Arts Dean Brian T. Edwards, about how a strong liberal arts foundation can set students pursuing the film industry apart.
As he shared with current undergraduates—majoring in everything from Communication and Cinema Studies to Business, Theatre & Dance, Marketing, or Digital Media Practices— last Wednesday, it was in New Orleans that Panitch started his first company. On breaks from school back in his hometown of Los Angeles, Panitch had an internship with New Line Cinema, and often brought film reels back to campus to continue viewing and annotating. In doing so, Panitch realized the limited distribution options in New Orleans and sought a workaround for getting these movies in front of audiences, finding the perfect opportunity for him to create Revive Screening.
Once Panitch created Revive he began circulating films from his internship at various New Orleans venues, from on-campus spaces to local theaters, including the beloved Prytania. He made connections, spread the word across neighborhoods and peer groups alike, and incentivized his classmates to redeem used ticket stubs for food and beverage deals at local watering holes. He essentially charted his own crash course in content creation, marketing, and promotions by determining what worked and what didn’t, sourcing organic demand and feedback, and learning from the fans he was, in fact, producing. And he did it all before Fandango, TikTok, or Instagram influencer marketing was even a blip on anyone’s radar.
After graduating from Tulane, Panitch sold Revive and returned to his original LA. In 1995, he was appointed executive vice president of production at 20th Century Studios. In 2008, after watching the growth of the international box office for over a decade and realizing the considerable percentage of market share for locally produced films, Panitch founded Fox International Productions. He served as its president until 2015, when he moved to Columbia Pictures, and then onto his current role.
The combination of critical thinking and unconventional ‘can-do’-ism comes from having a liberal arts education. Most of the time when we have interns who get good jobs, almost every one of them has had some version of a liberal arts education.
– Sanford Panitch, Sony Pictures President
The focus of his visit to the university was to discuss the state of the entertainment business in the new media landscape, and how major motion pictures are produced, marketed, and distributed in today’s world. He addressed the kinds of longform content that have broken through theatrically, from Megan to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he and Dean Edwards investigated the challenges in engaging audiences indoctrinated by TikTok.
Despite these challenges, “the business is more vibrant than ever,” Panitch remarked. “It’s a particularly good time to enter the entertainment business, because of how dynamic it is right now.”
In response to student questions, he addressed how film circulation promotes globalization and the ways a global liberal arts education is the best professional preparation for the next generation as they head out into our ever-changing world.
“Why is Hollywood the only industry where we have this global content? The reason is because we were a country of immigrants,” he explained. “The original movie studios needed to make movies for everybody that was in America, but America was already a melting pot, so it became global culture.”
Following his talk with the dean, Sanford remained in Diboll Gallery to meet countless aspirant students and field questions (pictured below) on everything from script pitches to his favorite movie of all time.
Learn more about creative industries and SLAM offerings at Tulane School of Liberal Arts.
