Blair Rich has joined Legendary Entertainment as its new Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer. Rich will be responsible for global marketing operations, including the application of new technologies. She will report directly to CEO Joshua Grode and head of production Mary Parent.
Rich’s move marks her return to entertainment after a stint at Virgin Galactic, where she was charged with creating the company’s consumer-facing space tourism product as the Chief Business Officer. Prior to this, Rich spent two decades in marketing at Warner Bros., where she worked on campaigns for Harry Potter and the DC films among other massive studio releases. “Blair is a creative innovator.
She brings an outstanding history of building some of the most dominant brands and entertainment franchises in the world,” said Grode.
Global marketing operations at Legendary
“Her addition to our best-in-class Legendary team, with her future-facing approach to global entertainment and her exceptional combination of strategic and creative expertise, will raise the bar for everyone at Legendary.
We are now stronger than ever as we enter a new phase of our long-term strategic growth plan.”
Rich said in a statement, “In Legendary’s next evolution, we are committed to engaging people in unique, memorable ways, fostering connections that inspire and elevate their experience with our brands while expanding and optimizing new business and revenue opportunities.”
Legendary’s upcoming features include the Minecraft movie with Warner Bros. and a movie based on the popular video game Street Fighter. In television, Legendary series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has been renewed for a second season by Apple.
In October, Legendary bought out the remaining equity interest held by Wanda Group. The company is now solely owned by management and Apollo. “We think that there’s an opportunity to continue to create great content, both film and television, and to expand what we’ve been doing in those areas.
Not that we couldn’t do it before, but we now can do it through organic growth and through M&A,” Grode said.
