Columbia Names Medavoy Chairman of Tri-Star Unit

Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures Entertainment unit has named Mike Medavoy chairman of its Tri-Star Pictures division and also appointed him to the Columbia board.

David Matalon, a Columbia executive vice president, previously headed Tri-Star but didn’t have the chairman’s title. Matalon is expected to remain at Columbia with duties in all areas of the company, according to Alan J. Levine, president of Columbia’s film group.

Medavoy, 49, becomes the fourth executive entitled to share in an unusually lucrative bonus pool established by Sony when it purchased Columbia last year.

Eventually, a yet-to-be-named fifth executive will share in the pool with Medavoy, Levine and Columbia Co-Chairmen Jon Peters and Peter Guber. Under the bonus arrangement, the executives will share in Columbia’s increase in value, along with other compensation.

Only a week ago, Medavoy announced plans to resign his longtime position as executive vice president of Orion Pictures Corp. He had been with the New York-based company since it was founded in 1982 and had served as its closest link to Hollywood’s creative community.

Medavoy said Sony expects both Tri-Star and its sister studio, Columbia Pictures, to be “major players,” each producing 12 to 15 films annually.

Matalon, 45, helped found Tri-Star in 1983 as a joint venture of CBS Inc., Time Inc. and Columbia Pictures. In 1987, Tri-Star was merged with Columbia Pictures, then a unit of Coca-Cola Co., to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment.