Joe Roth

Simply put, Joe Roth has sold more movie tickets than anyone in the world over the past 30 years, whether as an executive producer, producer, director or studio head.

He produced the Tom Hanks hit Bachelor Party in 1983, then started Morgan Creek Films, producing hits like Young Guns 1 &2 and Major League. Moving on to become Chairman of 20th Century Fox from 1988 to 1992, he supervised megahits like Home Alone 1 & 2, Die Hard 2, Sleeping with the Enemy, Last of the Mohicans and My Cousin Vinny. During this time, he was named AJC Man of the Year.

He moved on to The Walt Disney Studios as Studio Chairman, ultimately responsible for film, television, music, home video and New York Stage. It was his idea to turn The Lion King into a stage show which has gone on to be the highest-grossing show in history.

The film studio became the #1 studio as he supervised such hits as The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Waterboy, The Sixth Sense and The Insider. The Sixth Sense and The Insider received Best Picture nominations in the same year. He oversaw the growth of Miramax and released every Pixar movie from Toy Story on. The same day he stepped down from Disney in 2000, Steve Jobs put him on the Pixar board where he stayed on until Pixar was sold to Disney for $7.8 billion.

Returning to independent producing, he started Revolution Studios. Among their big hits were XXX, Blackhawk Down, Anger Management and Click. He sold the studio to Fortress Hedge Fund and started producing on his own. Joe produced Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent and Oz: The Great and Powerful, for Disney, which collectively grossed $2.5 billion.

For Universal, he produced the $400 million hit Snow White and the Huntsman and the Voyage of Dr. Dolittle with Robert Downey, Jr. His two faith-based movies, Heaven is for Real and Miracles from Heaven, were Sony’s two most profitable films in their release years. He released XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, with Vin Diesel, for Paramount in January of 2017 and is working on another sequel with Vin Diesel.

During this time, Joe also started the Seattle Sounders soccer team. The most successful expansion franchise in American history, the Sounders have made the playoffs all nine years while averaging 45,000 in attendance, far and away the best-attended soccer team in North American history and currently in the top 25 in attendance in the world. The franchise had a $30 million value nine years ago and was recently valued by Forbes at $295 million. In 2016, the Seattle Sounders won the MLS Cup.

Joe joined the Save the Children Board in February 2018 and is on the Development Committee.