Sony Veteran Marisa Liston to Lead Lionsgate Movie Publicity

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Lionsgate has named Sony Pictures veteran executive Marisa Liston to lead all feature film and motion picture group publicity and communications strategy.

Liston, who departed Sony in late 2018 after 17 years, has been assigned the newly created title of head of global earned media and communications. She will oversee domestic and international feature film publicity, feature film, and branded social media strategy, as well as film communications strategy.

Liston will report to Damon Wolf, president of worldwide marketing for Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group. She will begin work on the Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron romantic comedy “Long Shot,” which won the audience award following its premiere at SXSW. The pic, directed by Jonathan Levine, hits theaters on May 3.

Liston most recently served as executive vice president of domestic publicity at , where she oversaw a 32-member department with staff in New York, Los Angeles, and Canada. She led campaigns for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Venom,” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” She also worked on the four most recent James Bond movies. Gloria Rico will fill Liston’s position at Sony .

“After 17 years at Sony, I honestly wasn’t looking for another studio job, but Lionsgate is not looking to do things like other studios,” Liston said. “Damon and Joe expect me to push boundaries in a meaningful way, being bolder in our strategies, more creative in our execution, and to innovate and challenge the traditional PR paradigms. What works, works for a reason, but what doesn’t isn’t changing fast enough.”

“We hit the jackpot with Marisa,” Wolf said. “I can’t think of a more effective marketing executive whose knowledge and leadership will ensure the seamless transition in taking three separate core pillars of feature film marketing to create one central communications hub within Lionsgate’s Global Marketing Division.”

Upcoming Lionsgate movies include “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,” starring Keanu Reeves; “Angel Has Fallen,” with Gerard Butler; Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo: Last Blood”; Roland Emmerich’s “Midway”; Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out”; Jay Roach’s yet-to-be titled film about the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal at Fox News, toplined by Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie; and the sequel to “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Salma Hayek.

Prior to Joining Sony, Liston worked at BWR and served briefly at 20th Century Fox.