Johnson majored in economics and initially pursued a career on Wall Street, accepting a position at Salomon Brothers in New York where he worked as a quantitative analyst in the equity derivatives group.

After moving to Los Angeles and becoming involved with a low budget production, it was clear that their passion for film and background in finance could lead to a promising and viable career in the entertainment industry.

Ultimately, Smith chose to partner with Johnson and Kosove in what became the current finance, development, and production company Alcon Entertainment.

Since then, Alcon has established multiple exclusive long-term distribution agreements with Warner Bros. Johnson's film producing credits include Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to the sci-fi classic starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, and Dave Bautista from Academy Award nominated director Denis Villeneuve; the Academy Award nominated Best Picture The Blind Side,[2] which earned Sandra Bullock an Oscar for Best Actress; The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman; Insomnia starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank from director Christopher Nolan; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; P.S.

I Love You starring Hilary Swank; the critically acclaimed dramatic thriller Prisoners directed by Denis Villeneuve starring Hugh Jackman and Gyllenhaal; and the family hit Dolphin Tale starring Morgan Freeman and Harry Connick Jr. Johnson earned an Emmy nomination in 2015 for producing the Alex Gibney directed HBO documentary Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All, an intimate documentary portrait of the singer, actor, father, husband, and philanthropist that attracted more viewers for HBO from the 50+ age bracket than ever before.