Mike De Luca & Pam Abdy on Making Box Office History in the Face of ‘Surreal’ CriticismThe Warner Bros. bosses are wrapping the greatest year of hits in Hollywood and explain how they did it: ‘I refuse to believe we are in the end times’
No studio has ever accomplished the sustained run of hits in a single year that Warner Bros. achieved in 2025. Nine of the studio’s features opened in first place at the North American box office, with seven consecutive films topping $40 million in ticket sales, a record for a single studio. Led by A Minecraft Movie, Superman, F1 and Sinners, Warner Bros. grossed more than $4 billion worldwide, the first time the studio has topped that mark since 2019 — and it did so with 11 titles (of various genres) versus 20 titles six years ago. And all that was accomplished amid countless negative headlines from the flailing pundit class about Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs and CEOs, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, and the nerve they had to take some risks — something I’ve chronicled repeatedly in the wake of their success. “We’re going to take swings, we’re going to make movies that work, and we’re going to make movies that don’t work. The unfortunate thing was no one had seen a frame of these movies, and Mike and I had the benefit of knowing what we had, but nobody was giving these movies a chance,” Abdy told me on today’s episode of The Rushfield Lunch. “It was super surreal while it was happening. But we just kept our heads down and made the best movies we could make with our filmmaking partners… all we can control is the work, and all we can control is being intentional in how we show up as leaders. And that’s what we did.” “I’m not as evolved as Pam,” added De Luca. “I wish I could tell you I had a completely thick skin, and it didn’t bother me at all. We’re human and [the negative stories] can’t help but have an effect — the same way that, when everything works, there’s joy in that. But mostly, not even on a personal level, we felt that we wanted the slate strategy to have its day in court and be given a chance to succeed. Because we thought it would validate not just us, but everyone across our industry, their desire to make more movies, see more movies get made, have it be an eclectic slate of movies.” The concept of a slate. The need to take risks. The way Warner Bros. has sought out a diverse group of filmmakers, with four female directors atop projects next year, including Emerald Fennell and Maggie Gyllenhaal. These are pillars of the industry near and dear to my heart, and Mike and Pam’s triumph is proof to all that there’s still a creative path for those who forge ahead. “As veterans, we know it’s an up-and-down business,” De Luca said. “We just want to be chill no matter what’s going on, you know, and just be grateful when it works.”
Together, De Luca and Abdy have a combined 70 years of experience in the industry. Both rose to prominence in the 1990s, a halcyon period of creativity, with De Luca at New Line Cinema and Abdy at Jersey Films and later at Paramount and MGM, where she also worked with De Luca. Together, they’ve seen it all — hits and flops, unexpected wins and surprising losses. But even now, with so many signs pointing to the contrary — and the fate of their studio in doubt, as it's officially up for sale — they both retain a sense of hope and wonder for the best that Hollywood can be. De Luca said he feels optimistic when he sees “the choices that are brought to the audience right now, in the era that we’re in — and especially seeing Gen Alpha and Gen Z join millennials in coming online as theater goers for the first time.” “We’ve seen audiences come out for our movies,” he added, “and then if you’re an audience member, you have Neon offerings, A24 offerings — offerings that are exclusively streaming on Netflix, hybrids from Apple, of which we were one with our release of F1. From the audience’s point of view, I think it’s a time of great variety… more filmmakers can get their start in the era that we’re in. That’s why I’m optimistic about where we are.” “I refuse to believe we’re in the end times,” added Abdy. “I do think it is such a thrilling time to be talent and to be around talent and to be in conversation and dialogue with filmmakers, writers and artists. Because there are so many avenues to tell stories and to tell different kinds of stories. So I share Mike’s optimism. Thirty years later, I still get excited when I sit in a room with the director and they talk about the movie they want to make. There’s nothing better than that.” Watch the entire conversation to hear more from Mike and Pam on their journey to Warner Bros., their first impressions of Sinners and why their strategy paid off. And come back next week for another conversation with the great artists and thinkers of our day.
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