3. Amy Pascal

Pascal's success depends on millions of people heading to her movies on Friday nights. But you won't find her among them.

"At the end of the week, I come home for Shabbat dinner, and I don't leave the house again until Monday morning," she says. "It's not good for having friends, but it's good for my husband and son."

Pascal's separation from the masses clearly does nothing to

temper her populist instincts. In two decades at Sony, along with turns at 20th Century Fox and Turner Pictures, she's proven a knack for both the big picture (the "Spider-Man" franchise has earned $2.5 billion worldwide) and the small (she greenlighted last summer's "Superbad" when others passed -- it went on to make more than $120 million).

"I'm very much a risk-taker," she says. "That's the business I'm in, and if I were averse to it, I wouldn't make any money. You can't be afraid to fail, and I'm not motivated by making a mistake." She adds, "I've made too many to have it be the thing that I wake up thinking about."

This year, there's been little need to dwell on mistakes. While Sony Corp. saw a major drop in revenues, one of the few bright spots came from the film division, which at one time was considered a weak link at the parent company. Second-quarter earnings for Sony Pictures showed a 3.4% rise in sales to $2 billion, thanks to films like "Hancock," which grossed more than $620 million worldwide, as well as the more modestly budgeted but profitable "Pineapple Express" and "Step Brothers."

While she will spend the next year overseeing tentpole releases like Will Smith's "Seven Pounds" and "The Da Vinci Code" sequel "Angels & Demons," Pascal says she plans on bolstering the confidence of her employees during the recession.

"People are scared, and they want to know that the place where they work will be there for them," she says. To that end, she's trying to shave company costs by increasing co-financing and reducing the number of releases.

"The amazing thing about the movie business is it's one of the most resilient businesses in America," she says firmly. "People just need to be reminded that storytelling and the need for entertainment aren't going away."