Sony CEO Just Weighed In on Marvel’s Slump — and Kevin Feige’s Bold Plan to Revive the MCU

Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman waded into Marvel talk and, to his credit, did not tiptoe. He backed Kevin Feige, pointed to what went wrong, and predicted the next Avengers will be fine. It was candid, a little spicy, and very on-brand for a guy who has been in the studio trenches for decades.

Where he said it and why it matters

Rothman, who co-founded Fox Searchlight before running Sony, sat for a conversation at the American Film Institute with interviewer Lucas Shaw and podcast host Matt Belloni. The chat covered the future of Sony's Spider-Man films and the broader crisis hitting the movie business. Then came the Marvel question: what caused the MCU slowdown?

His diagnosis: too much, too fast

Rothman did not call out titles. He did not need to. He argued Marvel flooded the zone with movies and Disney+ series, and the sprawl made casual viewers feel like they needed homework to keep up. The fix, in his view, is simple: give people space to miss you. He even said Feige would co-sign that logic.

"You got to make the audience miss you... Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

He also said Marvel has already started a course correction, notably on the TV side, and that less output is the point, not a symptom.

In Feige he trusts (and Cameron, too)

Rothman went out of his way to say you do not bet against Kevin Feige. The only other person he put in that untouchable category: James Cameron. He framed Marvel's current retrenchment as deliberate, not desperate, and drew a straight line between a tighter slate and better audience engagement.

"Have no worries for Avengers Doomsday, guys."

Who called the bloat? Not Feige, says Rothman

Rothman pushed back on the idea that Feige chose the firehose strategy. He pinned the volume on a directive from Disney leadership during Bob Chapek's tenure, and he was pretty blunt about how Feige handled it.

"He's a good corporate soldier. So he did what he was asked to do."

Now, Rothman said, you can see Marvel scaling back: fewer series, fewer overlapping threads, a reset toward scarcity.

The short version

• At an AFI talk with Lucas Shaw and Matt Belloni, Sony chief (and Fox Searchlight co-founder) Tom Rothman addressed Marvel's slump and the industry's larger crisis.
• His take: oversaturation hurt the MCU, especially the volume and interlocked complexity of the Disney+ shows.
• He believes in scarcity: make audiences miss you; Marvel is already pivoting to less TV and a leaner pipeline.
• Rothman says don't bet against Kevin Feige or James Cameron; confidence remains high for Avengers Doomsday.
• He put the blame for the content glut on a corporate mandate under Bob Chapek, not on Feige himself.

My read

Praising a rival while quietly nudging them to slow their roll is a savvy move. If Marvel tightens up and hits bigger, Sony's Spider-Man world benefits from a healthier ecosystem. And if Rothman is publicly vouching for Avengers Doomsday, he either knows something... or he really enjoys calling his shots.