Are mid-budget movies back? Row K Entertainment is betting on it. The rising distributor has unveiled its 2026 theatrical slate, headlined by Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” Maude Apatow’s “Poetic License,” Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Cliffhanger,” and the romantic drama “Charlie Harper” from Tom Dean and Mac Eldridge. The lineup signals the distributor’s first full-year rollout following its breakout debut season in 2025 and a string of buzzy festival acquisitions that helped position the upstart label as a major player in prestige-minded studio filmmaking.
“Dead Man’s Wire,” arriving January 16, 2026, recounts the astonishing true story of the 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis that turned would-be entrepreneur Tony Kiritsis into an accidental outlaw folk hero. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the film stars Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Colman Domingo, and Al Pacino. Following its North American premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, where critics hailed it as a late-career masterwork for Van Sant, the film holds a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Row K will release the film theatrically nationwide and across Canada on January 16, 2026, following an awards-qualifying run that begins on December 12, 2025, and a limited release in select theaters on January 9, 2026 (read our review).
Next up is “Poetic License,” the feature directorial debut of Maude Apatow, which opens May 15, 2026, following its debut at TIFF 2025. Written by Raffi Donatich, the film stars Leslie Mann, Cooper Hoffman, and Andrew Barth Feldman in an intimate coming-of-age drama about longing, reinvention, and the electric disorientation of being truly seen. Mann plays Liz, a former therapist and soon-to-be empty nester whose relocation to a new town sparks an unsettling connection with two inseparable college seniors whose admiration blurs into obsession. What begins as innocent attention spirals into a tangled web of desire and self-reckoning, as Liz confronts the life she built—and the one she still craves. Row K will release the film theatrically wide across North America on May 15, 2026, following its debut at TIFF 2025 (read our review).
Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Cliffhanger” reimagines the 1993 action classic as a modern survival thriller. The film stars Pierce Brosnan as veteran mountaineer Ray Cooper and Lily James as his daughter Naomi, who must outwit kidnappers amid the treacherous peaks of the Dolomites. Written by Ana Lily Amirpour, Sasha Penn, Mark Bianculli, and Melanie Toast, Collet-Serra’s version blends the genre intensity of “The Shallows” with the emotional stakes of “The Grey,” promising a grounded, vertigo-inducing spectacle anchored by human vulnerability rather than pyrotechnic excess. Serving as the anchor of Row K’s 2026 slate, “Cliffhanger” will open nationwide on August 28, 2026.
Closing the slate is “Charlie Harper,” from co-directors Tom Dean and Mac Eldridge, starring Nick Robinson and Emilia Jones as lovers growing up and apart in their early twenties. The film made its world premiere in the Special Presentations section at TIFF 2025, where it drew comparisons to “Blue Valentine” and “Aftersun” for its raw, time-lapse portrayal of intimacy and loss. Row K will release the film nationwide on September 25, 2026 (read our review).
Backed by Media Capital Technologies, Row K was created to bridge the gap between wide-release commercial filmmaking and prestige auteur fare—a haven for the mid-budget film that, in recent years, has all but gone extinct. The company’s name, taken from the middle rows considered the best seats in a theater, embodies its mission to elevate the theatrical experience without alienating audiences. With CAA Media Finance serving as an advisory partner, Row K’s 2026 slate signals the company’s growing ambition to occupy the space once defined by specialty divisions like Focus Features and Miramax: a distributor equally fluent in awards drama, crowd-pleasing spectacle, and mid-budget artistry.
