Cinema’s Billion-Dollar Man Finally Has Hollywood’s Attention

With the world in an upheaval in recent months, movie producer Will Packer has had a special sort of sanctuary he can visit in his own home. It looks like a cinema, with lush red drapes and movie posters lining the wall. But these posters, for films that Packer has produced including Girls Trip and Stomp the Yard, aren’t just wall art. They’re a reminder of just how far he’s come over the past two decades. Back then, without industry connections or a film school degree, the graduate of an historically Black college on the other side of the country couldn’t get studio execs to look at his proposals or even return his calls. Today, he’s Hollywood’s version of a unicorn: a person of color whose movies have made more than $1 billion at the box office.

“This is kind of my room of validation,” he says over Zoom on a rainy Thursday in his hometown of Atlanta. “Because I’ve got my posters and I can screen movies and stuff, and it’s like, OK, you know what? You’ve done all right.”