Why I Love the Movies and How to Save Them

Mr. Rothman is the chief executive and chairman of Sony Pictures’ film studio.

The great American creative-industrial supertanker that is Hollywood is being rocked by rough seas. Nowhere is the conflict between the gales of change and the enduring strength of professional storytelling fiercer than in the business of movies in movie theaters, which has been my stock in trade for 35 years.

In the 135 years since the birth of motion pictures, there have been four of what Winston Churchill would have called climacterics, or critical transitions. The first was the invention of sound; the second was the end of the “studio system” when talent was no longer tied up under long-term contracts; the third was the advent of television; and the fourth was the transition from analog to........

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