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Amy Pascal (born March 25, 1958) is an American film producer and business executive. She served as the Chairwoman of the Motion Pictures Group of Sony Pictures (SPE) and Co-Chairperson of SPE, including Sony Pictures Television, from 2006 until 2015. She has overseen the production and distribution of many films and television programs, and was co-chairperson during the 2014 Sony Pictures hack. The leak uncovered multiple emails from Pascal which were deemed racist including racial jokes aimed at then-President Barack Obama. She left Sony and Pascal later admitted that she was fired from the company.
Pascal started her own production company, Pascal Pictures, which made its debut with the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. In 2017, she produced , Molly's Game and The Post. She has received two Academy Award for Best Picture nominations, for producing The Post and Little Women, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for producing .
Pascal rejoined Columbia in 1996 as the studio's president after Turner Pictures merged with Warner Bros. In 1999, Pascal became Chair of Columbia Pictures.
Pascal was named Co-Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment in September 2006. She also served as Chairman of SPE's Motion Picture Group from December 2003 to February 2015. Pascal and SPE's Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton led all of SPE's lines of business, including: motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies.
Pascal has overseen the production and distribution of many films, including the Spider-Man franchise; the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall, the first Bond film to gross over $1 billion at the worldwide box office;plus Spectre (2015) The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons; Sony Pictures Animation's The Smurfs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Hotel Transylvania; and Best Picture Oscar nominees American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Moneyball and The Social Network.
Pascal, along with Lynton, also oversaw Sony Pictures Television, which produces and distributes television programming for multiple platforms in the U.S. and internationally.
In 2013, Pascal was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
She clashed with investor Daniel S. Loeb, who accused both Pascal and Lynton of "poor financial controls." According to the Financial Times, "she employed an assistant who earned more than $250,000 a year, and had use of a private jet and other perks in keeping with Hollywood's golden era rather than an age of austerity." At the end of 2014, Pascal was the only woman at Sony to earn over $1 million per annum, having earned US$3 million a year.
Pascal's contract with Sony was scheduled to expire in March 2015. On February 5, 2015, Pascal announced she would step down in May 2015. Pascal stated during a Women in the World discussion on February 11, 2015, that she had been "fired" by Sony.Michael Cieply, Amy Pascal Says Sony Pushed Her Out of Studio Post , The New York Times, February 12, 2015Dave McNary, Amy Pascal Talks Getting 'Fired,' Sony Hack and Angelina Jolie Emails in Candid Interview , Variety, February 11, 2015
In May 2019, it was announced that Pascal and her production company Pascal Pictures is leaving Sony and moving to Universal Pictures for a first-look deal after 30 years at Sony Pictures.
In March 2025, Amazon MGM Studios announced that Pascal and David Heyman would oversee the Bond film franchise moving forward and produce future installments in the series through their Pascal Pictures and Heyday Films banners, respectively. Shortly afterwards, she had moved from Universal to MGM for a first-look deal.
She was awarded the 2008 Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles which combats antisemitism and promotes human rights and tolerance. She received the award at the 2008 National Tribute Dinner, an annual fundraiser which raised US$2 million for the center.Bill Higgins, No laughing matter , Variety, May 7, 2008 In her acceptance speech, she said, "I believe in what the museum is committed to: not just the literal event of the The Holocaust but not letting anything like that happen again."
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton suggested the apology was not sufficient, compared her to Donald Sterling, and called for more diversity in Sony's hiring pool. The screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin denounced the media's focus on Pascal's communications and many other emails released by the hack in an opinion piece for The New York Times, characterizing the coverage as "giving material aid to criminals" and writing "at least the hackers are doing it for a cause. The press is doing it for a nickel." In the popular press, coverage of the story was extended with actress and producer Lisa Kudrow suggesting Pascal should have known better, adding, "Don't write anything you don't want broadcast". Lisa Kudrow Rips Sony Execs Over Leaked Emails: 'Don't Write Anything You Don't Want Broadcast' (Video) , TheWrap, December 13, 2014Ryan Gajewsk, Lisa Kudrow on Sony Emails: Execs Need "Boundaries and Accountability" , The Hollywood Reporter, December 13, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2022 At the Writers Guild of America Awards 2014 on January 7, 2015, Kudrow, who was the presenter, mentioned the Sony hack again, arguing that it was disturbing "because Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal thought that was witty banter."[6] Deadline Hollywood
Color of Change, a civil rights organization, launched a petition in December 2014 calling upon Sony to fire Pascal from her role, arguing, "Pascal's comments are confirmation of the manipulative, exploitative relationship corporations like Sony have with Black folks." They added, "We must hold Pascal accountable here; not just for her horrendous comments, but also for her role at the helm of a corporate agenda that views Black America as one big, lucrative joke."
In a 2020 interview with Vulture, Thandiwe Newton accused Pascal of making racially insensitive and demeaning demands of her for the film remake of Charlie's Angels, a film Newton ended up declining to star in due to Pascal's alleged behavior. Pascal responded by stating she was "horrified" by the story and had no recollection of it.
Women making less than their male counterparts and male co-stars learned of the difference from the hack. The difference between what men and women made was pervasive at Sony Pictures under Pascal, with only one female out of the seventeen studio executives earning more than $1 million per year according to the unconfirmed emails, and Columbia Pictures co-presidents of production Michael De Luca and Hannah Minghella serving in identical jobs but with a million dollar difference in pay.
| 2016 | Ghostbusters | Paul Feig | Sony Pictures Releasing | $144 million | $229.1 million | 74% |
| 2017 | Jon Watts | $175 million | $880.2 million | 92% | ||
| Molly's Game | Aaron Sorkin | STX Entertainment | $30 million | $59.3 million | 82% | |
| The Post | Steven Spielberg | 20th Century Fox | $50 million | $179.8 million | 88% | |
| 2018 | Venom | Ruben Fleischer | Sony Pictures Releasing | $100 million | $855 million | 29% |
| The Girl in the Spider's Web | Fede Álvarez | $43 million | $35 million | 41% | ||
| Bob Persichetti Peter Ramsey Rodney Rothman | $90 million | $358.7 million | 97% | |||
| 2019 | Jon Watts | $160 million | $1.132 billion | 90% | ||
| Little Women | Greta Gerwig | $42 million | $206 million | 95% | ||
| 2021 | Andy Serkis | $110 million | $506.9 million | 58% | ||
| Jon Watts | $200 million | $1.920 billion | 93% | |||
| 2023 | Joaquim Dos Santos Kemp Powers Justin K. Thompson | $100 million | $675.4 million | 96% | ||
| 2024 | Challengers | Luca Guadagnino | Amazon MGM Studios | $55 million | $94.2 million | 92% |
| Kelly Marcel | Sony Pictures Releasing | $120 million | $478 million | 37% | ||
| 2025 | Jay Kelly | Noah Baumbach | Netflix | |||
| 2026 | Project Hail Mary | Phil Lord Christopher Miller | Amazon MGM Studios | |||
| Destin Daniel Cretton | Sony Pictures Releasing | |||||
| Untitled The Chronicles of Narnia film | Greta Gerwig | Netflix | ||||
| 2027 | Bob Persichetti Justin K. Thompson | Sony Pictures Releasing | ||||
| TBA | Premonition: A Pandemic Story | Phil Lord Christopher Miller | Universal Pictures | |||
| Untitled James Bond film | Denis Villeneuve | Universal Pictures Amazon MGM Studios |
| 2001 | Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards | Crystal Award | rowspan="3" | ||
| 2003 | Hollywood Film Awards | Hollywood Leadership Award | |||
| 2010 | Producers Guild of America Awards | Milestone Award | |||
| 2018 | Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures | Molly's Game | |||
| The Post | |||||
| 2018 | Academy Awards | Best Picture | |||
| 2019 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Animated Feature Film | |||
| 2019 | Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures | |||
| 2020 | Academy Awards | Best Picture | Little Women | ||
| 2020 | Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures | |||
| 2024 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Animated Feature Film | |||
| 2024 | Producers Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures | |||
| 2024 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Animated Film | |||
| 2024 | Academy Awards | Best Animated Feature |
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