EXCLUSIVE: After recently serving as Broad Green’s president of distribution, Richard Fay is in talks to head over to Global Road, where he will lead up their domestic theatrical distribution ops.
Open Road’s co-EVP Distribution Elliot Slutzky has already departed the revamped company. Scott Kennedy, Open Road’s EVP Domestic Sales, will remain and is expected to report to Fay once he signs.
Broad Green, which ratcheted down its operation back in August in order to re-calibrate, has a wide release this weekend, Ron Shelton’s Just Getting Started, which is expected to open around $4 million-$4.5 million in hopes of hooking older adults over the holidays.
Fay came to Broad Green from Lionsgate in September last year. At Lionsgate he oversaw the Divergent and Hunger Games franchise releases. Prior to Lionsgate, he headed Summit Entertainment’s distribution ops before they were absorbed by the company, specifically steering the Twilight series and 2009 Oscar Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker. Open Road could use some fresh air: The last movie to really pop for them was their 2016 Oscar Best Picture winner Spotlight ($45M). The past two years have been dogged by a slew of underperformers including this fall’s Reese Witherspoon’s Home Again ($27M) and the Blake Lively movie All I See Is You ($218K).
At Global Road, Fay will reteam with his former Lionsgate/Summit boss Rob Friedman, to whom he’ll report. Friedman was named chairman and CEO of Global Road when Tang Media acquired Open Road and rebranded it Global Road.
Fay spent a decade at AMC as president of Marketing and Film as the company charged into the megaplex era and also held executive positions at Sony, United Artists Distribution, United Artists Theatres Exhibition and Loews Theatres. Fay’s first job in the industry was as an assistant print booker in Warner Bros’ New York office.
He has won several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award by Variety, The Children’s Charity, in addition to the ShowEast 2012 Salah M. Hassanein Humanitarian Award and, the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens Humanitarian Award in 1997 and ShowEast’s Kodak Reel Award in 1995.
Deadline
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