Lansing's work at MGM eventually led to an appointment, at age 35, as the first female president of 20th Century Fox. She was also part of a production company run by Stanley Jaffe. In 1992, she was offered the chairmanship of Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group. During her tenure as Chairman of Paramount, the studio has produced such blockbuster hits as Forrest Gump, Braveheart, and Titanic.
As studio chief she focused on bottomline rather than marketshare, preferring to take less risks and make lower budget films than other studios. While this strategy paid off for a long time, in 2004 in the face of increasing flops, she stepped down as CEO of Paramount.
She married director William Friedkin on 6 July 1991.
