Toby Emmerich has been named president and chief content officer at Warner Bros. Pictures Group (a division of Time Warner No. 37 on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies list), with creative oversight of both Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. It was announced by Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Kevin Tsujihara, to whom Emmerich will continue to report.
Concurrent to Emmerich’s promotion, Greg Silverman, who serves as president, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures, is stepping down to launch an independent production and entrepreneurial ventures company working with Warner Bros. These changes are effective Jan. 1, 2017.
“Toby is incredibly talented, well-respected and the perfect choice to help us continue the momentum of our film operations,” said Tsujihara. “He has great relationships across the creative spectrum, from writers and producers to directors and actors. He’s also got a track-record of producing hit films from all genres at every budget. I look forward to working with him in his expanded role in our Pictures Group.”
Worldwide marketing and distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures Group releases will continue to be headed by Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution. She’ll continue to work closely with Emmerich to deliver successful results for all of the Studio’s films.
In his new role, Emmerich will share green-light authority with Tsujihara to determine which projects are ultimately made by Warner Bros. Pictures Group’s production entities.
“I want to thank Kevin for this amazing opportunity,” said Emmerich. “Between Warner Bros. and New Line, we really do have the most diverse slate in the industry, and we’re having great success in all of the genres in which we’re producing. Between the two companies, we also have the most creative, most talented executive corps. I look forward to continuing my partnership with the incredibly talented Sue Kroll, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future.”
Emmerich will also continue to steer Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, the live stage play division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which is bringing a new production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to Broadway in March 2017.
In 2017, Warner Bros. Pictures’ and New Line Cinema’s releases include “The LEGO Batman Movie,” “Fist Fight” (NLC), “Kong: Skull Island,” “Going in Style” (NLC), “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” “Wonder Woman,” “The House” (NLC), “Dunkirk,” “Annabelle 2” (NLC), “It” (NLC), “The LEGO Ninjago Movie,” “Geostorm” and “Justice League.”
Prior to this promotion, Emmerich served as President and Chief Operating Officer of New Line Cinema since 2008; before that, he served as President of Production since 2001. With Emmerich at the production helm, New Line has released such diverse features as the Academy Award-winning blockbusters “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy; “Wedding Crashers”; “Elf”; “The Notebook”; the “Final Destination” horror franchise; “Hairspray”; “Horrible Bosses 1 and 2”; and “We’re the Millers.”
Also produced during his tenure were James Wan’s “The Conjuring” and “The Conjuring 2” and its spin-off films, including “Annabelle”; “Tammy” and the upcoming “Life of the Party,” both co-written by and starring Melissa McCarthy; and four films starring Dwayne Johnson, “San Andreas,” “Central Intelligence,” “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” and the upcoming “Rampage.” New Line, under Emmerich’s leadership, reunited with Peter Jackson nearly a decade after “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy to take audiences back to Middle-earth with the acclaimed “The Hobbit” Trilogy, beginning with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which took in more than a billion dollars worldwide, followed by “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” a year later, and “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” in 2014.
Emmerich joined New Line in 1992 in a dual role as a development and music executive.
