Fathom Entertainment, one of North America’s most progressive indie distributors, has named former Disney, IMAX, and MetaMedia executive Jason Brenek as its new CEO, succeeding retiring boss Ray Nutt at a key moment in the company’s ambitious distribution expansion.
While Fathom built its reputation on alternative programming and event cinema, the company has increasingly established itself as one of animation’s most important theatrical showcasers, helping studios and indie outfits turn limited engagements, remastered re-releases, and fan-driven event screenings into meaningful and profitable box-office milestones.
Brenek takes over as Fathom continues expanding beyond its traditional limited business. Earlier this year, the company rebranded from Fathom Events to Fathom Entertainment, signaling its intention to become a full-service specialty theatrical distributor on a much larger scale. Its biggest test yet comes on October 23 of this year with the nationwide release of Wildwood, Laika’s long-awaited stop-motion feature, marking the company’s first major wide release of a new animated feature.
Brenek said in a release
There are very few companies in this industry that genuinely expand what the moviegoing experience can be. Fathom created the category of “event cinema,” and I have admired what this team has built for well over a decade. Having had the opportunity to work with Fathom at different points in my career, I have seen firsthand the care and creativity this organization brings to content producers, cinema partners, and millions of consumers. Under Ray’s leadership, Fathom has grown into something truly special during this period of radical change in the broader business of entertainment – a company with a devoted audience, a distinct identity, and a real and expanding role in the theatrical landscape.
The appointment comes after several years in which Fathom has become an increasingly influential player in animation exhibition. The company has found new ways of utilizing catalog releases, anime favorites, and eventized screenings to turn a profit, while also proving that digitally native properties can attract audiences to theaters. Earlier this year, the company rewrote the theatrical distribution rulebook with the hugely successful release of the finale of The Amazing Digital Circus.
Although the company has found itself in a much brighter spotlight in 2026, Fathom’s influence on animation exhibition stretches back years. Through long-running partnerships with distributors like GKIDS, the company helped establish annual theatrical events such as Studio Ghibli Fest, proving that catalog titles could become reliable box-office programming rather than one-off nostalgia plays in a handful of cinemas. It also found audiences for prestige imports like Mary and the Witch’s Flower and Oscar nominee Mirai, revived catalog favorites from Spirited Away to Space Jam, and demonstrated that TV animation could command theatrical audiences with special screenings of Samurai Jack. That strategy peaked in 2024, when the 15th-anniversary re-release of Laika’s Coraline grossed more than $20 million in North America, one of the biggest animation re-release successes of all time.
Before joining Fathom, Brenek founded MetaMedia, a cloud-based cinema distribution platform that delivered films, concerts, esports, and live sporting events to theaters, which was acquired by Qube Cinema in 2025. His résumé also includes senior leadership positions at Disney, where he helped oversee the transition to digital cinema, managed worldwide theatrical strategies, and led Disney’s early 3D and event cinema initiatives.
Fathom is jointly owned by AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, and Regal, giving it access to more than 19,000 U.S. screens. Under Nutt, the company evolved from a niche event cinema operator into a specialty distributor with broader theatrical ambitions.
Brenek now takes over, with Wildwood likely to serve as the clearest indication yet of whether Fathom can translate its expertise in eventized releases into a sustainable business distributing new theatrical features at scale.
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