Fathom Events, the company best known for bringing theater, opera, live events and concerts to screens, is currently on track for gross revenues of over $93 million. Despite the fact that the exhibition space has yet to fully recover from the Covid pandemic, Fathom is enjoying the best year in its history — it will surpass sales from 2019, previously the highest-grossing year in company history, by 116%. For further context, Fathom reported revenues of $68 million in 2022.
So what’s behind the surge? Fathom is chalking up the strong results to a pivot in business strategy for the company, one that saw it introduce a “specialty distribution” model. The goal was to bring a wider array of content to cinemas beyond the productions of the Metropolitan Opera that helped put Fathom on the map. It’s one that saw Fathom distribute faith-based films like “The Blind,” as well as release episodes of “The Chosen,” a Christian drama series in theaters. Fathom also partnered with Bleecker Street on a premiere event of its Golda Meir biopic, “Golda,” and screened “Waitress: The Musical.” They also worked on rereleases ofclassic movies like “Back to the Future” and “TheWizard of Oz.”
The strategy seemed to work. “The Blind,” a drama about the early life of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, became the highest-grossing release in Fathom’s history, earning more than $17 million.Moreover, a special screening of films by the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki saw gross box office receipts of over $15 million, while a remastered version of the 2009 animated film “Coraline” grossed over $7 million in just four days.And Fathom’s “Big Screen Classics” series, which shows older films, grossed more than $4.6 million in 2023. Going forward, Fathom said it plans to show the entire fourth season of “The Chosen” in theaters this February before it is available on other platforms.
Fathom Events is owned by the country’s largest theater chains, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark and Regal. That allows Fathom to operate a massive cinema distribution network both domestically and across more than 45 countries. The financial results come with a caveat. Fathom is reporting revenues, not profits or losses, so the picture it provides is selective, but it does offer insight into how the change in strategy is working.
“Going into this year, we saw a need to make some changes to the business model we had employed pre-pandemic, so we drew up some innovative ideas and put them into play,” said Ray Nutt, CEO of Fathom Events. “We couldn’t be more proud of our contribution to the industry this year and could not be happier about how this new model performed.”
