Bleecker Street (company)

Bleecker Street was formed in August 2014 by CEO Andrew Karpen, who is the former co-CEO of Focus Features, with backing from Manoj Bhargava.[3] With the announcement of the company's formation, Bleecker had indicated an exclusive U.S. distribution output deal with Shivani Rawat's ShivHans Pictures, effective immediately. Initial plans have the distributor releasing three to five pictures in 2015 and expanding from there.[4] Karpen hired four former Focus Feature employees as presidents in September 2014.[1] At the September 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, Bleecker Street made its first film deal for Pawn Sacrifice's North American rights.[5]

In January 2015 at Sundance Film Festival, Bleecker Street made its first acquisition of worldwide rights with the purchase of Brett Haley's I'll See You In My Dreams[6] At the same time, the company signed a multi-year home entertainment distribution deal with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, now distributed by Studio Distribution Services, LLC., a joint venture between UPHE and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.[7] Later in the month, the company signed a multi-year Canadian distribution deal with Elevation Pictures starting with Danny Collins.[8] Bleecker Street followed that up with an exclusive multi-year licensing agreement with Amazon Prime.[9]

In 2019, Bleecker Street partnered with Hulu on a new output deal granting Hulu exclusive SVOD rights to all upcoming Bleecker Street theatrical films. The first film to hit the streaming service in Fall 2019 was Hotel Mumbai.[10]

In 2021, Bleecker Street partnered with Neon to launch the joint home entertainment distribution company DECAL. DECAL is a standalone full-service operation that handles distribution deals on the home entertainment rights to both NEON and Bleecker Street’s curated slate of features. The first film to be distributed through DECAL in Winter 2021 was Bleecker Street’s film Supernova.

In February 2022 it was announced that Showtime and Bleecker Street had struck an exclusive three-year output deal for the distributor’s movies. It replaces Bleecker Street’s previous output agreement with Hulu. Under the agreement, effective March, Showtime will carry Bleecker Street movies on air, on demand and via its streaming services within five months of their initial release. The agreement spans up to 12 films per year, all of which will be released theatrically by Bleecker Street.[11]

• Official website