Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy on Their Excellent Year: ‘Operate Fearlessly and Respect the Audience’ | Exclusive

By Sharon Waxman

BURBANK – It’s a good day for hanging out with the heads of Warner Bros.’ film studio, Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, fresh from collecting awards at the American Film Institute luncheon, and hard on the heels of one of the most successful years for any movie mogul in recent years. 

In 2025, Abdy and De Luca, co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, pulled off an astonishing hat trick that made them the envy of all their movie business peers: not only did they survive rumors early in the year that they could lose their jobs over the poor showing of big-budget movies like “Joker: Folie a Deux,” they came back from that stumble to crush one expectation after another with the nearly $1 billion grosser “A Minecraft Movie,” then critical and commercial smash “Sinners,” then successful DC reset “Superman” and surprise horror sensation “Weapons.” All the studios’ divisions — including DC Studios and New Line — overperformed.