Fox News reports Witherspoon actually nabbed her first producing role on the 2003 sequel to Legally Blonde, after the first film banked over $140 million at the global box office. She built her media companies, Pacific Standard and Hello Sunshine (Pacific Standard is now its subsidiary), from the ground up with a view to creating content for women, by women. Her co-owner is media giant AT&T WarnerMedia and, together, they've produced the likes of Wild and Hot Pursuit, both starring Witherspoon, and David Fincher's Gone Girl. On TV, they handled Big Little Lies, on which Witherspoon features alongside big names including Laura Dern and Meryl Streep.
The actress has made it clear she did not receive any funding or investment from Hollywood studios when building Hello Sunshine, which gives her total creative freedom to pursue whichever projects Witherspoon feels best suit her outlook (via Inc.). The Oscar winner's keen eye has led to development deals with Apple TV, on hit series The Morning Show, and on Hulu with Little Fires Everywhere, which Variety reports nets Witherspoon a minimum of $1 million per episode.
