Donna Langley – Know When to Hold 'Em

Universal Pictures’ Donna Langley acted fast to save the studio’s tentpole films. But, as she explains, the business was changing anyway.

- By Yasmin Gagne

DONNA LANGLEY

EARLY JOB

Hostess at L.A. nightclub the Roxbury “to pay my rent while I was interning for free in the daytime.”

TITLE

Named Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) by the queen in 2020

AS THEATERS AROUND THE U.S. shuttered their doors in March 2020, Donna Langley needed to save her movies. The Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman of two years acted swiftly, pushing back the release of the latest installments of the Fast & Furious and James Bond franchises. She made other films available on streaming services for a premium; Trolls World Tour ended up pulling in $100 million in three weeks that April, more than the original Trolls movie earned during five months in theaters. Luckily, Langley, 53, is used to taking risks. The British film executive built a career making expensive bets on seemingly niche movies that found wide audiences—including Pitch Perfect, Straight Outta Compton, and Get Out (see sidebar, next page). Here’s how she walks the line between art and commerce in a rapidly changing environment.

When the pandemic began, Universal had 15 movies set for release that year, and no precedent for how to go about releasing them. How did you decide which to hold, and which to make available through video on demand?