Thomas Tull: The Champion of Mixing Business with Pleasure

Lauren Brose

Blockbuster, highest grossing, eclipsed sales, number one in the box office… these are all terms that connote the same thing: insurmountable success. It is common knowledge that ticket sales contribute to paying off the talent, studio, promotion, etc— but exactly how does the pay off function? Before we can consider who is paying who, we must first examine the very roots of the entertainment industry.

Entertainment business is very simple as long as one understands who the key players are. For instance, there is a huge difference between a production company and a movie studio. A production company is the holistic foundation of the feature film. Not only does a production company finance and distribute the film, they are also responsible for budgeting, scheduling, staffing, scripting, production, post-production, marketing and locating and allocating talent. A movie studio is a privately owned facility that is used to make films. A large majority of production firms don’t have their own studios so they either rent studio space from private owners or they form a partnership under contract with an entertainment company, motion picture company or film studio. This is not the case for all films; Lionsgate, one of the most successful production companies, has a strong independent film division that approaches producing a feature film outside the typical studio process.

Of the numerous production companies that exist in the industry, one in particular has stood out amongst the rest despite being in the business for less than 20 years. Legendary Entertainment was founded in 2000 by Thomas Tull, an ambitious 30 year old New Yorker who identifies himself as an avid gamer and comic book reader. Tull holds a personal interest in the types of films Legendary produces and claims that a key determinant of how passionate he is about a potential project is dependent on whether he himself would want to see it in theaters. In 2005, Tull made the decision of forming a temporary partnership with Warner Bros. Entertainment. Under contract, both companies agreed to co-finance and produce 45 films over the course of 8 years. Together, they produced highly grossing films such as Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, The Hangover trilogy, 300, The Town and Inception.

The first film that Legendary Pictures released was Batman Begins in the year 2005. On a budget of $150 million, Batman Begins was number one opening week and made $374 at the box office. The following year, 300 earned $456 million and in 2009 The Hangover made $467 million at the box office. The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), respective sequels to Batman Begins, each opened at number one and earned $1 billion at the box office. Having obtained so much success this early in the industry, Tull was able to raise an additional $443 million in new equity financing in 2012. The investor, Waddell & Reed Financial, was granted a stake of just under 20% of the then $2.5 billion company. With nearly half a billion dollars in equity, it is no secret that Tull plans to expand Legendary Entertainment as a whole.

The biggest change did not occur, however, until 2013 when the agreement between Warner Bros. and Legendary came to an end. Despite rumors suggesting that they were going to extend their highly successful partnership, it was announced that Universal Pictures and Legendary would be forming a similar agreement after the contract expires. In addition to co-financing with Universal for the next five years, Legendary is also granted the rights to consider producing films that originated at Universal Pictures as well as cross-promoting future films in Universal’s theme parks. Tull believes wholeheartedly that striking a deal with Comcast was the next smart move to make. Known for taking risks with projects and directors, Tull states in an interview that "Comcast is aggressive. They are straight shooters. And if you look at their own growth, it is pretty spectacular. They gave us a bigger sandbox. They have great assets overseas. They have 22 million broadband customers. For a big company, they are entrepreneurial. That fit with our plans."

Since moving from Warner Bros. to Universal Pictures, Legendary’s net worth has grown exponentially from $2.6 billion to a ball-park estimation of $3.5 billion. Over the next oncoming years, there is expected growth in several areas of Legendary. On the domestic forefront, Legendary recently purchased the television production company Asylum Entertainment in December 2013 for over $100 million— or 8 times of what Asylum’s profit projection was for this year. Asylum will continue to exist with its namesake and stay true to its alternative genres to Legendary’s. This includes non-scripted, long-form, sports and many others. Legendary’s Television and Digital Media division is headed by former Warner Bros. executive, Bruce Rosenblum. In addition to spearheading Legendary’s television department, he will also serve as a boss to Asylum’s current president and CEO Steve Michaels and president and chief creative officer Jonathan Koch.

Consistently proving to be a notorious risk taker, Tull followed his business prospects to an entirely untouched realm for Legendary. China’s movie market, while rapidly growing, has strict limitations implemented on foreign films. Tull created Legendary East in order to surpass this quota and in May, 2013, it was announced that Legendary East, headed by CEO Peter Loehr, signed an agreement with China’s state-owned film production company China Film Group (CFG). Although China employs an annual cap on released American films, this partnership diminishes this entire issue due to production and financial costs being shared with CFG. Together, Legendary East and CFG plan to co-produce tentpole films on a global scale over the next three years.

When considering all that has been accomplished in the short existence of Legendary Entertainment, many would consider Thomas Tull as being a superhuman himself. Tull went to Hamilton College in New York and started his career in the field of business equity. As if he woke up one morning and told himself “I think that I want to get involved in the film entertainment industry,” Tull went from being a nobody who was struggling to collect $600 million in investments to becoming a head mogul in the entertainment industry. He has since then expanded Legendary Pictures into a multi-faceted production company that covers motion picture, television, comic and global entertainment. Worth a modest $840 million, it will be in no time that Thomas Tull’s net worth will reach $1 billion, earning him a spot on amongst Hollywood’s most recognizable household names in the industry.

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