Ryan Kavanaugh Puts Relativity Media Up For Sale

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Ryan Kavanaugh has put Relativity Media up for sale, according to reports on Monday. The news comes after the company’s first post-bankruptcy wide release, the long-shelved Zack Galifianakis-Kristen Wiig comedy Masterminds, bombed at the box office over the weekend, taking in just $6.6 million from over 2,000 screens. Relativity has hired EMP and Zolfo Cooper to handle the sale.

Despite emerging from bankruptcy in April, Kavanaugh had been struggling recently to make his debt payments to hedge fund Anchorage Capital. He recently received a 30-day extension on those debt payments but was unable to secure the financing to make the payments by the deadline. As opposed to defaulting on the debt or going back into bankruptcy, selling Relativity was seen as the best option.

After emerging from bankruptcy in April, Kavanaugh tapped Trigger Street’s Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey to take over the film side of his embattled company – but Spacey dropped out before the deal ever closed. Despite the turmoil surrounding the embattled media company, Brunetti, the producer of films like The Social Network and the hit Netflix series House of Cards, agreed to captain Relativity’s film department after learning of the lucrative output pacts which guarantee distribution of Relativity films in 110 countries. Brunetti is expected to stay on board in his role as president following the sale.

Kavanaugh, the CEO who co-founded Relativity in 2004 with an agenda to shake-up the standard industry business model, grew the company into the third-largest mini-major prior to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015. If and when the Relativity is sold, it is unclear at this time what role – if any – Kavanaugh will have at the company going forward.

Josh Lyons | Managing Editor

This news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.