Specialty distributor Fathom Entertainment announced Wednesday that CEO Ray Nutt plans to step down from the company and retire later this year. Nutt, an exhibition vet who has served as chief executive officer for the past nine years, will play an active role in helping the board of directors find a replacement.
“I’m very anxious to finish my time at Fathom, giving my input to ensure that we get the right leader moving forward,” Nutt told Variety. “I’m excited about that because whoever does get the position, in my opinion, is going to be a very lucky person with tons of runway ahead of them to do all the things that Fathom deserves moving forward.”
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Why now? “I’ve played a lot of athletics in my day and, and I’ve always known in my own heart when it’s time to move on to the next thing,” Nutt said.
Fathom Entertainment is a joint venture of the three largest exhibition companies: AMC Entertainment, Cinemark and Regal. Among its biggest successes are the faith-based series “The Chosen,” “Coraline” rereleases and an annual slate of classic film revivals.
AMC chairman and CEO Adam Aron praised Nutt for “further strengthening [Fathom’s] position as the leading force in alternative theatrical experiences, broadening the scope of content available to AMC guests.”
“Ray Nutt’s longtime leadership of Fathom Entertainment has delivered meaningful benefits to AMC, the broader theatrical exhibition industry, and, most importantly, moviegoers nationwide,” Aron said.
Added Cinemark’s president and CEO Sean Gamble, “Throughout his career, Ray Nutt has been a well-respected advocate for theatrical exhibition, and his work at Fathom Entertainment has played an important role in bringing a wide range of non-traditional stories and events to movie theaters. His leadership at Fathom helped steer a valuable part of the industry ecosystem, expanding opportunities to experience alternative programming on the big screen and connecting theaters with new and diverse audiences.”
Nutt was previously senior VP of business relations at Regal, where he served on the board of Fathom.
Over the past two years, Nutt has overseen the company’s evolution from Fathom Events, which handled 150 different events a year, to Fathom Entertainment, which releases around 100 titles a year, some with runs of a week or more. Nutt said the change in philosophy came about after COVID.
“A little thing called the pandemic set the whole industry back, but it also caused us to take a step back,” Nutt said. “The best way I saw to grow the company was to move a little bit further away from the event side of the business and into the feature presentation side of the business. So about two years ago, we set off an adventure to do so, and we’ve had a lot of success doing that.”
Among Fathom’s titles for this year is Laika’s “Wildwood,” coming to theaters in October.
“We have a business model that incentivizes and motivates all parties — exhibition, Fathom and content partners — by splitting box office revenues,” Nutt said.
“Serving as Fathom Entertainment’s chief executive officer for these past nine years of transformational growth at the company has been an honor, a privilege, and the professional opportunity of a lifetime after my near four-decade career in the theatrical movie business,” said Nutt. “I wish to thank the unparalleled leadership team at Fathom, our talented and hard-working employees at Fathom for their unwavering commitment and dedication, and the Board for the opportunity and support.”
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