Specialty distributor Fathom Entertainment has named former Disney and Imax executive Jason Brenek as CEO.
He will take over the top job after the previously announced retirement of Ray Nutt.
Fathom’s founders and co-owners are top movie theater circuits AMC, Regal and Cinemark, which collectively control 19,000 movie screens in the U.S. The company is evolving from its roots as Fathom Events into a more comprehensive distributor. a full-service specialty theatrical distributor with major motion picture distribution capabilities. On October 23, it will handle the wide theatrical release of Laika’s new stop-motion animated feature Wildwood.
“Jason is the right leader to build on Fathom’s remarkable foundation of success in theatrical distribution and take the company into its next era of growth,” said Regal Chief Commercial Officer Adam Rymer said in a statement on behalf of Fathom’s board of directors. “Jason’s expertise across theatrical distribution, content and event cinema production and marketing, and technology, combined with a history of working with Fathom and a deep understanding and appreciation of the company, made him the clear choice. We are grateful to Ray Nutt for the extraordinary legacy he leaves behind and thrilled to see what Jason and the incredible team at Fathom will build from here.”
Over the past two decades, Brenek has held senior exec posts spanning theatrical marketing and distribution, cinema technology, and global content production and releasing strategy. Most recently, he founded and ran MetaMedia, a cloud-based platform for delivering movies, live events, and premium content to cinemas. It worked with artists and content providers like Garth Brooks, Coldplay, Metallica, ESPN, NCAA and esports from Activision Blizzard and Epic Games. Prior to its acquisition by Qube Cinema in 2025, MetaMedia handled real-time, cloud-based content delivery to more than 600 cinemas across 30 leading exhibition chains worldwide.
Before MetaMedia, Brenek was EVP at Imax and president of Imax Home, which took elements of the company’s premium-format experience beyond theaters. He also spent more than a decade in various senior exec roles at Disney, rising to SVP of worldwide digital cinema and cinema programming.
“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,” Brenek said. “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.”
