Thomas Tull

Thomas Tull (born June 9, 1970) is an American billionaire businessman and film producer. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Legendary Entertainment. His firm has produced and/or financed several major films, including The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, The Hangover and its sequels, 300, Man of Steel and others.

Thomas Tull
Tull at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015
Born	(1970-06-09) June 9, 1970 Endwell, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Hamilton College
Occupation	Film producer, businessman
Years active	2003–present
Net worth	US$1.2 billion (October 2019)[1]
Political party	Democratic

Early life

Tull grew up in Endwell, New York, the son of a dental hygienist single mother.[2][3][4] As a youth, Tull was an athlete, playing baseball and football, earning a football scholarship.[3] Tull graduated from nearby Hamilton College in 1992.

Career

After college, Tull abandoned plans to become a lawyer and instead went into business, starting a chain of laundromats. Among his innovations were different prices according to demand at different times of day. Tull went into the field of financing, buying and selling several tax and accounting offices.[3] In the private equity business, Tull rose to president of Convex Group and later, chief of operations of Tax Services of America.[5] His firm invested in entertainment, where Tull began to learn the entertainment business. After discussing the potential of private equity with a film executive in 2003, Tull quit Convex, raising $600 million in equity to finance movies under the Legendary Pictures banner.[2] The company entered into a partnership in 2005 with Warner Bros. to jointly finance and produce films.[3] In 2009, Tull became the majority shareholder of Legendary, in a buyout of the original investors.[3] The Warner deal was followed by a similar deal with Universal Studios in 2013. He also helped produce the film Blackhat. Tull actively volunteered in the After School All Stars, a charity led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, which some credit for further fueling his interest in the entertainment business.

Tull describes himself as a "fanboy" of comics and several of the films produced by Legendary were personal favorites of Tull.[4] Watchmen had been in "development hell" for years when Tull arranged to pick up the rights.[4] 300 had been turned down by other studios.[3] Tull also describes himself as a "gamer", and founded the short-lived Brash Entertainment to work on film-to-video game conversions.[2]

Tull is a member of the board of trustees for the American Film Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame Board of Directors, and the San Diego Zoo.[5] In 2009, Tull became a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.[3] Tull had been a fan of the Steelers since age four, watching the Steelers take on the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX.[6]

Tull is a billionaire.[7] He has donated US$1 million to Priorities USA Action, a Super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.[8]

Personal life

He resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife Alba and their children. [9] They previously lived in Thousand Oaks, California. In January 2018, his home was listed for $85 million, and is one of the largest private residences in the world.[10]

Filmography as producer

All films, he was producer unless otherwise noted.

Film

Year	Film	Notes
2006	Superman Returns	Executive producer
	The Ant Bully	Executive producer
	Beerfest	Executive producer
	We Are Marshall	Executive producer
	300	Executive producer
2007	Trick 'r Treat	Executive producer
2008	10,000 BC	Executive producer
	The Dark Knight	Executive producer
2009	Watchmen	Executive producer
	Observe and Report	Executive producer
	The Hangover	Executive producer
	Where the Wild Things Are	Executive producer
	Ninja Assassin	Executive producer
2010	Clash of the Titans	Executive producer
	Jonah Hex	Executive producer
	Inception	Executive producer
	The Town	Executive producer
	Due Date	Executive producer
2011	Sucker Punch	Executive producer
	The Hangover Part II	Executive producer
2012	Wrath of the Titans	Executive producer
	The Dark Knight Rises	Executive producer
2013	Jack the Giant Slayer	Executive producer
	42
	The Hangover Part III	Executive producer
	Man of Steel	Executive producer
	Pacific Rim
2014	300: Rise of an Empire	Executive producer
	Godzilla
	As Above, So Below
	Dracula Untold	Executive producer
	Interstellar	Executive producer
	Unbroken	Executive producer
	Seventh Son
2015	Blackhat
	Jurassic World	Executive producer
	Straight Outta Compton	Executive producer
	Crimson Peak
	Krampus
2016	Warcraft
	Spectral
	The Great Wall
2017	Kong: Skull Island
2018	Pacific Rim: Uprising
2019	Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2020	Dune	Executive producer
2021	Godzilla vs. Kong	Executive producer

As an actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	Gotham Rogues Owner	Uncredited

Television

Year	Title	Notes
2017−19	Make It Work	Documentary Executive producer
2019	Carnival Row	Co-executive producer

As an actor

Year	Title	Role
2017	Stranger Things	Man on Street

References

1. "Forbes profile: Thomas Tull". Forbes. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
2. Lippold, Kye (April 21, 2008). "Thomas Tull '92 Discusses His Journey From Hamilton to Hollywood". Hamilton College. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
3. Garahan, Matthew (December 5, 2010). "Producer follows his own script". Financial Times.
4. Brophy-Warren, Jamin (February 27, 2009). "A Producer of Superheroes". The Wall Street Journal.
5. "Executive Profile: Thomas Tull". Business Week. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
6. Labriola, Bob (April 7, 2010). "Investor profile: Thomas Tull". Pittsburgh Steelers. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014.
7. Robehmed, Natalie (February 10, 2016). "Box Office Billionaire: How Legendary's Thomas Tull Used Comics, China And A Secret Formula To Remake Hollywood". Forbes. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
8. Johnson, Ted (January 31, 2016). "Thomas Tull, Haim Saban Give Seven-Figure Sums to Pro-Clinton SuperPAC". Variety. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
9. SHERIDAN AND MARYLYNNE PITZ, PATRICIA. "Thomas Tull buys Glen Meakem's Edgeworth house for $15 million". Post-Gazette. Post-Gazette. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
10. Leitereg, Neal J. "Billionaire Thomas Tull lists a small village in Thousand Oaks for $85 million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 January 2018.

External links

• Thomas Tull on IMDb