A Jewish Kansas City native is among the biggest movers and shakers in Hollywood, working on the “Iron Man,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Mission: Impossible” franchises while getting to know film icons like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Josh Greenstein, president of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, has some serious Kansas City credentials: Born at Menorah Medical Center, the 50-year-old studio honcho attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy for kindergarten and first grade, grew up a “fanatical” Royals fan and used to geek out over seeing Hall-of-Fame Kansas Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson at a local grocery store.
Greenstein’s favorite food as a kid were the burnt ends at Gates Bar-B-Q, where he’d chow down with his grandfather, cartoonist and World War II veteran William Miller. A cousin of famed Bugs Bunny and Pink Panther animator Friz Freleng, Miller embodied a creative streak in Greenstein’s family that influenced his life and work, as did the rich cultural environment of Kansas City’s Jewish community.
“Kansas City was just a wonderful place to grow up,” said Greenstein, who was raised in the Red Bridge area and has two younger sisters. “I definitely think attending the Hebrew Academy helped solidify my identity as a proud Jewish man. Kansas City informed my patriotism in terms of feeling how proud and special it is to be an American, while at the same time having a very clear Jewish identity.”
Some of Greenstein’s fondest memories from childhood are those involving Kansas City’s natural beauty: days spent fishing, hiking and swimming that sparked his lifelong love for the outdoors.
“Me and my friends were always outside, hanging outdoors with my dogs, fishing and swimming in the creek” near his family’s home, said Greenstein, an avid mountain biker. “Horseback riding, fishing, hunting, all that stuff I think I really got from growing up in Kansas City.”
When he wasn’t bonding with his grandpa or relishing time in nature, Greenstein loved watching films like “Uncommon Valor,” a 1983 war flick starring Gene Hackman; “Red Dawn,” a 1984 drama starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Lea Thompson; and the 1982 classic “48 Hrs.” starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.
The budding film buff also saw the epic story of Moses and the Israelites on his grandpa’s TV.
“Some of my earliest memories are of watching Yul Brynner and Charlton Heston in ‘The Ten Commandments’ at my grandfather’s house,” Greenstein said.
After graduating from Boston University with a communications degree, Greenstein said he wasn’t sure how he’d make a living. He lacked interest in typical nine-to-five jobs, but his love for stories on the big screen never dimmed.
When he landed a job working with a producer in New York City, Greenstein at last felt he’d “found the right place for me.”
“I didn’t even realize that was possible,” he said of a career in entertainment.
Greenstein’s passion for cinema helped fuel his rise through the industry’s ranks: He spent nine years in senior marketing jobs at Paramount Pictures; served as chief marketing officer from 2011 until 2014; and helped the studio achieve blockbuster success with films with “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “World War Z,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” the “Star Trek” and “Transformers” franchises, and “Hugo,” the 2011 Martin Scorsese film nominated for a best-picture Oscar.
He also had the opportunity to work with prolific Jewish director Stephen Spielberg while distributing movies for DreamWorks, the studio co-founded by the legendary filmmaker.
“He’s an amazing filmmaker and human being,” Greenstein said of Spielberg.
In 2014, Sony Pictures named Greenstein president of worldwide marketing and distribution, a job in which he helped boost “Spider-Man: Far From Home” to more than a billion dollars in global box office earnings.
Sony Pictures in 2019 promoted Greenstein to his current role as president of its Motion Picture Group, an opportunity he’s used to help make popular films like Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”
“The great part of my job is getting to work with creative directors and producers and writers and actors – the talent is really the creative engine that makes everything go,” Greenstein said. “Being able to work with these immensely talented filmmakers over the course of my career — from Quentin Tarantino to Spielberg, to Martin Scorsese and Jason Reitman — is an incredibly rewarding and exciting part of the job.”
The path Greenstein forged from local Hebrew school classrooms to the star-studded studio lots of Tinseltown can be traced back to Europe, where his paternal grandparents lived before sailing separately for the United States. Greenstein’s father, Jerry Greenstein, said that his mother, Esther Greenstein, emigrated from Kyiv, Ukraine, and father, David Greenstein, from Boćki, Poland, while in their teens.
Fleeing pogroms and antisemitic persecution, the couple met in New York City, where David Greenstein worked as a horse-and-cart fruit peddler on the Lower East Side. They later made their way to Kansas City, where they married. David Greenstein opened a grocery store called Baby Beef Market.
During High Holy Day services at Congregation Beth Israel Abraham and Voliner, Josh Greenstein “listened to my father pray beautifully, and the emotion and feeling of being wrapped up into that community, I think, helped shape him,” his father said.
Another formative Jewish influence was Greenstein’s Bar Mitzvah at age 13 at Israel’s Western Wall.
“I think that left a lasting impression on Josh’s Judaism,” his father said.
Outside of work, Greenstein is a devoted family man. He lives with his wife, Caroline, in Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood. Parents to a son and daughter, the couple also have three French bulldogs that play starring roles in the Greenstein home.
Hollywood may be a long way from Red Bridge, but Greenstein said he’s never forgotten his Kansas City roots – or the lessons he learned here.
“America is the greatest country in the world in terms of its openness, its freedoms and its support of inclusivity,” the studio executive said. “That’s a lesson I learned growing up in Kansas City.”
