Michael De Luca serves as Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Group, encompassing Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, DC-based films and Warner Animation Group. WBMPG continues to build on its legacy of iconic feature franchises and world-class cinema, working across all genres with both established and emerging talent – in front of and behind the camera – to deliver the industry’s most diverse slate of films for a global audience. De Luca serves as Co-Chair with Pamela Abdy.
As Co-Chair of the Pictures Group, De Luca shares oversight of the Studio’s global theatrical production, marketing and distribution operations, which set a new high watermark for the industry early in 2022 with the record-shattering success of the acclaimed blockbuster The Batman. Following its record-breaking $258.2 million opening weekend, the critical and commercial hit went on to earn more than $770 million, becoming the Studio’s highest-grossing release in the pandemic era. In addition to The Batman, WBPG’s 2022 releases include Elvis, DC League of Super-Pets (Warner Animation Group), Don’t Worry Darling (New Line), Black Adam (New Line/DC) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (New Line/DC).
Further highlighting WBMPG’s commitment to creative excellence, Warner Bros. was the most-honored studio at the 94th Annual Academy Awards – winning seven of its 16 nominations – for King Richard and Dune; Dune collected six Oscars, more than any other film released in 2021.
Prior to joining Warner Bros. in June 2022, De Luca served as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.’s (MGM’s) Motion Picture Group Chairman, responsible for all aspects of the studio’s global film operation, including oversight of development, production, marketing and distribution of MGM’s film slate, as well as Orion Motion Pictures. Additionally, De Luca oversaw MGM’s On-Stage production division. He also served on the board of United Artists Releasing, the studio’s domestic theatrical distribution joint venture with Annapurna Pictures.
An esteemed and prolific producer with three decades in the film business, De Luca has been nominated three times for an Academy Award® for Best Picture of the Year (for David Fincher’s The Social Network, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, and Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi); and three times for an Emmy Award (for producing both the 89th and the 90th Academy Awards® and, most recently, for producing Ben Stiller’s award-winning Escape At Dannemora for Showtime). Additionally, he has been nominated four times for a Producers Guild of America Award. De Luca also produced the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, as well as its two sequels – Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, for Universal Pictures. The trilogy was a global phenomenon and a box office sensation that grossed over $1 billion internationally.
Over the course of his career, De Luca has held several key positions in the film industry. At age 27, De Luca served as one of the youngest heads of production in Hollywood history when he was appointed President and COO of New Line Productions, where he helped to launch lucrative franchises including Friday, Blade, Austin Powers and Rush Hour. During his tenure, he championed such groundbreaking sleeper hits as Seven, Wag the Dog, Pleasantville, Magnolia, I Am Sam and Boogie Nights, and helped to launch the directing careers of Jay Roach, Gary Ross, Alan and Albert Hughes, F. Gary Gray, the Farrelly brothers, David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson. From New Line, De Luca went on to serve as DreamWorks’ Head of Production from 2001 to 2004, overseeing the live-action division and the production of such films as Old School and Anchorman, which continued the rise of both Will Ferrell and Todd Phillips.
Beginning in 2004, De Luca launched his own production company, Michael De Luca Productions, which had a development and production agreement with Columbia Pictures that brought the studio three Academy Award® Best Picture nominees – The Social Network, Moneyball and Captain Phillips – as well as mainstream success with such films as Ghost Rider and 21. As an independent producer, De Luca focused on developing provocative specialized films with visionary filmmakers, as well as elevated genre films with franchise potential. Prior to launching a multi-year production deal at Universal Pictures, De Luca served as President of Production for Columbia Pictures, where he revitalized the studio’s slate with commercial fare and notable filmmakers, including the thriller The Shallows, starring Blake Lively and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, and western The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt and directed by Antoine Fuqua.