JJ Caruth
President, Domestic Marketing & Distribution, The Avenue
About Speaker
JJ Caruth is President, Domestic Marketing & Distribution for The Avenue, Highland Film Group’s domestic distribution division. Launched in 2020, The Avenue handles all aspects of distribution, from theatrical through home entertainment to television, SVOD and AVOD. The Avenue is dedicated to partnering with filmmakers and leading them into innovative ways of marketing and distribution so their stories can reach the widest audience. The Avenue has a partnership with Paramount Home Entertainment to handle Blu-ray™, DVD, VOD, and Digital distribution. Films released under The Avenue label are a combination of film titles from Highland Film Group as well as third party acquisitions. Recent releases include Rusty Cundieff’s sci-fi thriller 57 Seconds starring Morgan Freeman and Josh Hutcherson, Adrian Grünberg’s shark actioner The Black Demon starring Josh Lucas and Andy Fickman’s romance One True Loves starring Simu Liu, Phillipa Soo and Luke Bracey. The Avenue released Petr Jákl’s sweeping historical action epic Medieval starring Ben Foster, Sophie Lowe and Sir Michael Caine on 1,200 screens in September 2022. The first feature film title released under the new stand-alone distribution banner was the martial arts sci-fi film Jiu Jitsu starring Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage and Frank Grillo, followed by Renny Harlin’s The Misfits, starring Pierce Brosnan, Nick Cannon and Tim Roth, which had a theatrical joint release with Paramount Pictures in June 2021. Upcoming titles include William Eubank’s action thriller Land of Bad starring Russell Crowe, Liam Hemsworth and Luke Hemsworth; Rod Blackhurst’s Tribeca Film Festival and Deauville title Blood For Dust starring Scoot McNairy, Kit Harington and Josh Lucas; Adam Cooper’s crime thriller Sleeping Dogs starring Russell Crowe and Karen Gillan; and Simon West’s action comedy Old Guy starring Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu and Cooper Hoffman.