A Disney Alum Takes the Helm: Fathom Entertainment Names Jason Brenek CEO as Event Cinema Expands

Fathom Entertainment has named former Disney and IMAX executive Jason Brenek as its new CEO, succeeding the retiring Ray Nutt. Brenek — a 10-year Disney veteran who rose to SVP of worldwide digital cinema — takes over the AMC-, Regal-, and Cinemark-owned distributor as it expands from event cinema into wide theatrical releases, starting with Laika's Wildwood on October 23.

Event-cinema powerhouse Fathom Entertainment has named longtime Disney and IMAX executive Jason Brenek as its new chief executive — handing the company behind big-screen anniversary re-releases, concert films, and special fan screenings to a leader who spent more than a decade inside Disney's cinema operation.

A Disney and IMAX Veteran Steps Up

Brenek arrives with two decades of senior roles spanning theatrical marketing and distribution, cinema technology, and global content strategy. He spent more than ten years at Disney, rising to senior vice president of worldwide digital cinema and cinema programming, before serving as an EVP at IMAX and president of IMAX Home, which extended the company's premium-format experience beyond theaters.

Most recently, Brenek founded and ran MetaMedia, a cloud-based platform for delivering movies, live events, and premium content to cinemas, working with artists and content providers including Garth Brooks, Coldplay, Metallica, ESPN, the NCAA, and esports from Activision Blizzard and Epic Games. Before its 2025 acquisition by Qube Cinema, MetaMedia handled real-time content delivery to more than 600 cinemas across 30 exhibition chains worldwide.

What Fathom Does — and Why Disney Fans Know It

Fathom Entertainment is the company that essentially created the "event cinema" category — the one-night-only anniversary re-releases, concert films, anime showcases, and special fan screenings that turn a trip to the multiplex into an occasion. It is co-owned by top movie-theater circuits AMC, Regal, and Cinemark, which together control roughly 19,000 screens in the U.S., and it is evolving from its roots as Fathom Events into a full-service specialty distributor with major motion-picture capabilities. That transition takes a big step on October 23, when Fathom handles the wide theatrical release of Wildwood, the new stop-motion feature from Laika.

"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 in a statement on behalf of Fathom's board. "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."

For his part, Brenek framed the job as a natural fit. "Fathom created the category of 'event cinema,' and I have admired what this team has built for well over a decade," he said, adding that under Nutt's leadership the company had grown into "a company with a devoted audience, a distinct identity, and a real and expanding role in the theatrical landscape."

What This Means for Fans

Leadership changes at a distributor rarely make headlines with moviegoers, but Fathom is the connective tissue behind the kind of big-screen fan events that Disney enthusiasts turn out for. Installing an executive with deep Disney and premium-format experience — and a track record in cinema technology and content delivery — signals ambition as Fathom grows from event nights into wide theatrical releases. The first real test of that new era arrives October 23 with Wildwood.