Credits:
Co-Chair and CEO, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group

MICHAEL DE LUCA is Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, overseeing Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and the studio’s recently announced new specialty film label. Together with Pamela Abdy, he guides the studio’s global theatrical production, marketing, and distribution operations. The duo also provides curatorial oversight for Turner Classic Movies in collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese.

Since joining Warner Bros. in 2022, De Luca has led a slate that includes Wuthering Heights, One Battle After Another, Weapons, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines The Conjuring: Last Rites, A Minecraft Movie, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Dune: Part Two, Wonka, and the global phenomenon Barbie. In 2025, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group surpassed $4 billion at the global box office across 11 releases, delivered eight consecutive No. 1 openings (nine with Wuthering Heights in 2026), and achieved seven straight debuts over $40 million.

This year, the studio earned a historic 11 Academy Awards at the 98th Oscars, tying the record for the most wins by a studio in a single evening. One Battle After Another received six awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Sinners won four awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, and Best Cinematography, with Autumn Durald Arkapaw becoming the first woman ever to win in that category. Weapons secured Best Supporting Actress for Amy Madigan. The studio led the industry with 30 nominations overall, highlighted by significant recognition for Sinners and One Battle After Another. With 16 nominations, Sinners became the most nominated film in Academy history.

Recent box-office highlights include A Minecraft Movie approaching $1 billion worldwide after a record $163 million domestic opening; Sinners becoming the highest-grossing original horror film domestically; Final Destination: Bloodlines earning the franchise’s best opening and highest total gross; Weapons achieving the largest August horror opening; and The Conjuring: Last Rites securing the biggest global horror opening ever. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice became Tim Burton’s second highest-grossing domestic release, while Barbie surpassed $1.4 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros.’ 100-year history.

Prior to joining Warner Bros., DeLuca served as MGM’s Motion Picture Group Chairman, overseeing development, production, and post-production for all MGM and Orion films. He oversaw studio hits such as Sarah Polley’s Academy Award® Best Picture-nominated Women Talking which earned Polley the Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay, Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver; Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award® Best Picture-nominated Licorice Pizza, which marked MGM’s first such nomination since Rain Man won in 1988; Creed III, starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan; Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan’s Adam’s Family 2; and Ron Howard’s 13 Lives.

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 as producer of the 89th and the 90th Academy Awards®, and 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 Se7en, 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.