The story
Founded by Thomas Tull in 2000.1
Thomas Tull founded Legendary Entertainment after he was fired from Convex, with co-founders, Jon Jashni, Larry Clark, William Fay, and Scott Mednick in 2003 after raising $500 million from private equity firms. It was one of the first companies of its kind to pair major motion picture production with major Wall Street private equity and hedge fund investors, including ABRY Partners, AIG Direct Investments, Bank of America Capital Investors, Columbia Capital, Falcon Investment Advisors, and M/C Venture Partners. Legendary Pictures, Inc. was incorporated in California, and in 2005 it signed an agreement with Warner Bros. to co-produce and co-finance up to 40 films over seven years, putting up half the money for Batman Begins and Superman Returns.
2010s
In 2010, Tull, Fidelity Investments, and Fortress Investment Group bought all the shares of the original investors. The buyout also included a $25 million investment by Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment. Following the transaction, Tull became the largest shareholder, thus enabling him to more easily direct the company's operations. Golden Harvest later sold its stake in the company for $30 million. In 2011, Accel Partners bought $40 million-worth of shares, and Accel partner Jim Breyer joined the company's board of directors. That same year, the company was reported to have been valued at more than $1 billion.
In September 2011, Legendary Pictures Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni was appointed to the new position of President and Chief Creative Officer of the parent company, Legendary Entertainment. William Fay left Legendary Pictures in September 2011. In December 2012, Waddell & Reed bought around 20% of Legendary's shares for $443 million.
On July 10, 2013, Legendary reached an agreement with Universal Pictures in which it would market, co-finance, and distribute Legendary Pictures’ films for five years starting in 2014, the year that Legendary's similar agreement with Warner Bros. expired. In October 2014, SoftBank bought $250 million shares in Legendary for a 10% stake. The transaction increased the company's total value to around $3 billion.
In 2014, Legendary acquired the television producer Asylum Entertainment, which made ESPN's 30 for 30 and the 2011 miniseries The Kennedys, for $100 million, with Asylum Entertainment to continue operating as a separate company.
On January 11, 2016, Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group announced that it had concluded an agreement with shareholders to acquire Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion, making it the largest acquisition of an American media company by a Chinese firm.
In March 2016, it was announced that Jon Jashni had decided, on the heels of the sale, to leave the company to establish Raintree Ventures, a media investment and advisory firm.
On January 17, 2017, it was announced that Tull had exited as Legendary Entertainment CEO. He was replaced by the senior vice president of Wanda's cultural industry group, Jack Gao, as interim CEO.
Read the full text
On October 17, 2017, it was reported that Gao stepped down from his positions at Legendary Entertainment and Wanda Group. The resignation came after an announcement by Wanda's chairman, Wang Jianlin, earlier that year that Wanda would refocus its investments onto the Chinese domestic market in an attempt to "actively respond to the call of the country". This, in turn, was thought to be a consequence of the Chinese government banning Chinese banks from providing loans to Wanda Group's foreign operations, which was intended to stop the firm's offshore acquisition plans.
On December 5, 2017, it was announced that Joshua Grode had been named as Legendary Entertainment CEO.
On August 13, 2018, following the box office failure of several films, including Seventh Son (2014), Blackhat (2015), Steve Jobs (2015), Crimson Peak (2015), Warcraft (2016), The Great Wall (2016), Pacific Rim Uprising (2018), and Skyscraper (2018), the distribution deal between Legendary and Universal ended and a new agreement was reached to return to Warner Bros.
2020s–present
In December 2020, Variety and Deadline Hollywood reported that Legendary Entertainment, financiers, and talent with backend deals were not pleased with WarnerMedia's multi-release plans and non-transparent intentions. Legendary was not given advanced notice of the multi-release decision nor given a say in how Dune (2021) and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) would be distributed. The studio planned to have discussions with Warner Bros. regarding a more "generous deal" however legal action was considered. A few weeks later, Deadline reported that the film could keep its HBO Max release but only if Warner Bros. matches Netflix's $250 million bid. In January 2021, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that a legal battle was averted due to Legendary and WarnerMedia nearing an agreement to keep the film's simultaneous release.
On April 30, 2021, the company hired LionTree Advisors to explore possible deals, including the possibility of merging with a SPAC, making acquisitions, or finding partners. On July 22, 2021, it was announced that Legendary was looking for a merger instead of a SPAC. On January 31, 2022, a minority stake in Legendary was sold to Apollo Global Management, with Wanda still remaining the majority owner.
On August 31, 2022, following the lapse of their deal with Warner Bros., Legendary Entertainment began seeking a new partnership, with Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures among the companies interested.
On November 28, 2022, Legendary Entertainment reached an agreement with Sony Pictures in which Sony would market, co-finance, and distribute Legendary Pictures' films with the exception of China, where Legendary East would handle all marketing and distribution for its movies. Sony would also handle home entertainment and television distribution for the Legendary titles it distributes. The partnership pact did not include Dune: Part Two (2024) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), as Legendary would continue to remain in business for Warner Bros. Pictures. Legendary would also continue to partner with other companies for streaming, such as Netflix, as Sony does not have a streaming service.
In October 2024, Legendary bought the Wanda Group out of its majority stake in the company for an undisclosed sum, in what its CEO Josh Grode described as a transaction in a "right place, right time situation" accretive to both management and Apollo Global Management, which would share a "roughly equal" stake. Grode further stated that Legendary's board of directors would be evenly split between management and Apollo executives, although its creative team led by Mary Parent would remain unchanged, with the company attaining more flexibility to pursue mergers and acquisitions on a large scale, "... when we would have conversations around large scale M&A, we would have to deal with the foreign ownership issue, and that's now no longer an issue."
In November 2024, following the poor box office performances of their films such as The Machine (2023) and The Book of Clarence (2023), the distribution deal between Legendary and Sony Pictures lapsed.
On January 21, 2025, the company entered into a joint venture with film producer Patrick Wachsberger to launch 193, a production and sales company that would develop and produce its own slate, outside of Legendary.
On July 11, 2025, Legendary was eyeing a deal to acquire Lionsgate Studios, following the latter company's separation from Starz. On August 18, 2025, it was announced that Legendary was also eyeing a multi-picture global theatrical distribution deal with Paramount Pictures. In September, they closed the Paramount deal, which was set for three years.
In October 2025, Legendary's owner, Apollo, came and talked with Paramount Skydance about joining David Ellison's possible bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery—a megadeal that could cost upwards of $60 billion. Paramount Skydance officially reached the historic deal agreement on February 27, 2026, and the merger closed on October 6, forming Skydance Corporation.
From Wikipedia’s article on Legendary Entertainment, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4