Row K, the start-up distributor that launched at 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), has withdrawn from a scheduled appearance at CinemaCon next month as it reviews its strategy amid the departure of several top executives.
The embattled company is redirecting its focus towards more commercial films after its first release, Gus van Sant’s well-reviewed Venice premiere Dead Man’s Wire, underperformed in January. Last week it emerged that president Megan Colligan and two other senior executives are negotiating their exits.
“As we’ve said, the release of Dead Man’s Wire provided an important opportunity to evaluate and refine our strategy as a new entrant in a highly competitive marketplace,” said Christopher Woodrow and Raj Singh of Row K backer Media Capital Technologies (MCT).
“We’re now making a deliberate pivot toward a more commercially focused slate, and that process takes time to build thoughtfully – more than a few short weeks. With that in mind, we’ve made the decision to step back from CinemaCon this year and instead focus our resources on developing the next phase of our slate and team. We remain fully committed to our long-term vision and to our partners, and we look forward to returning to CinemaCon in 2027.”
Row K was due to present at the annual Las Vegas exhibitors conference on April 13 in a session titled CinemaCon Film Showcase alongside Studiocanal and Angel Studios. It is a new addition to the programme under Cinema United CEO Michael O’Leary’s initiative to build a platform for independent companies. Studiocanal and Angel Studios are proceeding with their presentations.
Row K finds itself at an inflection point after it is understood to have lost around $10m on TIFF acquisition Dead Man’s Wire, which earned $2.2m at the North American box office. Problems have also arisen over unpaid bills to vendors.
Another TIFF pick-up, Maude Apatow’s feature directorial debut Poetic License, is understood to be back on the marketplace as sales agent WME Independent looks to find another buyer following disagreement between MCT and Apatow when the owners wanted to push the scheduled May release into October.
Colligan, the former top executive at Imax and Paramount who joined Row K on the eve of TIFF, is understood to have championed that film’s North American acquisition for a fee of at least $5.5m.
As MCT pivots towards a more commercially-leaning pipeline that leaves Jaume Collet-Serra’s action reboot Cliffhanger starring Lily James and Pierce Brosnan and the romance Charlie Harper starring Emilia Jones on the schedule. The former is earmarked for August 28 and Charlie Harper has been lined up for September 25.
The two other executives who are understood to be departing with Colligan are chief revenue officer Mo Rhim and chief marketing officer Ben Carlson. Distribution head Steve Garrett is understood to be staying at Row K.
CAA Media Finance, which advised MCT on setting up Row K and brokered a lunch meeting with Woodrow and Colligan late last summer, has not commented on the situation.
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