Sony & Legendary Ending Global Distribution Pact

Anthony D'Alessandro

20 November 2024 at 6:47 pm·2-min read

Sony Pictures and Legendary Entertainment won’t be renewing their global distribution pact when it expires at the end of this year, Deadline has confirmed.

We understand it was a mutual decision.

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The original deal, announced two years ago, was set on replacing a previous pact Legendary had with Warner Bros. However, when it came to Legendary, all the good stuff was over at Warner Bros with Dune: Part Two and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire making a combined $1.28 billion. Also in the mix for next year, Legendary has A Minecraft Movie at Warners, the big-screen take of the massively popular computer game. That’s coming out on April 4, 2025.

A third Dune movie is being buzzed to be in the works at Warners from Legendary, with Denis Villeneuve returning; that’s dated for December 18, 2026.

Under the Sony deal, the Culver City, CA studio marketed and released Legendary’s slate sans China, where Legendary East handled all marketing and distribution on its movies. Most of the movies bombed, e.g., the Biblical comedy The Book of Clarence (grossed $6 million off a $40M production cost) and the Bert Kreischer comedy The Machine ($11M off a $20M production cost). Left over from the pact is Animal Friends, a live-action animated R-rated hybrid that stars Ryan Reynolds, Jason Momoa, Vince Vaughn and Aubrey Plaza. Legendary produced the title with Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and Prime Focus Studios. The pic hits theaters on August 15, 2025.

Also on the calendar: Sony and Legendary have a live-action Street Fighter film, based on the classic video games from Capcom, for March 20, 2026.

Recently, Legendary bought out Wanda Group’s remaining 60% equity interest in the studio.

The Wrap first reported the news about Sony and Legendary calling its quits.

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