Bleecker Street Bets Big: Musk Doc, Oscars and Life After Karpen

Bleecker Street will release Alex Gibney's nearly four-hour documentary "Musk" in United States theaters on October 9 — and CEO Kent Sanderson wants no ambiguity about it.

"To be 100% clear, we are absolutely releasing MUSK in the United States on October 9th," Sanderson wrote on social media last month, amid reports that Universal Pictures, which holds foreign rights to the film, was getting cold feet. Universal, he confirmed, also won't be backing down.

The rumors made a perverse kind of sense. Elon Musk, whose political transformation and business career the Oscar-winning Gibney examines in the film, has threatened legal action. Facebook and YouTube initially refused to run ads for "Musk" — a Silicon Valley show of solidarity that they would later backtrack on. Every tweet Musk fires off ignites a new wave of coverage.

"When Elon Musk does anything, it's press-worthy," Sanderson said in a Zoom interview in late September. "You can't deny that he's bringing attention to the movie. He's the most followed person on Twitter, so for a documentary it feels extremely noisy."

Sanderson is not worried about Musk unleashing an army of lawyers against Bleecker Street or Gibney. "This movie is not designed to be controversial," he said. "It is a piece of journalism. What we're doing is standing behind extremely well-researched, deeply embedded reporting. I think we'll be OK. I believe in the power of the press in the United States. I believe it can continue telling the truth and telling important stories."

A fall slate built for the awards race

"Musk" may be grabbing headlines, but it anchors a robust fall slate that will factor into the Oscar race. The lineup includes "Tender Loving Care," a meditation on aging and relationships expected to be Mike Leigh's final production; Guy Nattiv's "The Liberation," which has earned raves for Carrie Coon's performance as a woman who joins a cult; and Anton Corbijn's "A Talent for Murder," with a devilish Helen Mirren as novelist Patricia Highsmith.

In recent years, Bleecker Street had deliberately stepped away from awards campaigning.

"We had taken a step back from fall awards because you have to have the movies to do it," Sanderson said.

The company also underwent a strategic pivot, entering projects at the script stage — as with "The Liberation" and "Tender Loving Care" — instead of relying on acquisitions of completed films at festivals.

"You're seeing the fruits of these efforts," Sanderson said. "It's become extremely competitive and expensive to acquire films at places like Sundance."

Not everything is about Academy Awards. Bleecker will also release "Victorian Psycho," a gonzo horror film starring "scream queen" Maika Monroe as a murderous governess. "It's a wide release, crazy, genre movie, nestled right in between Mike Leigh and Guy Nattiv," Sanderson said. "It's a straight down the middle, super fun commercial release."

Continuing Andrew Karpen's mission

The 2026 slate is more impressive still given what preceded it. Andrew Karpen, the veteran indie executive who launched Bleecker Street 12 years ago, died in 2025 at 59 after battling brain cancer. Karpen, widely respected for his business acumen and personal warmth, was synonymous with the company.

"Andrew's ethos and the way he treated filmmakers and the way he valued the theatrical experience is always a part of our lifeblood," Sanderson said. "We wanted to continue and extend that mission in his honor."

"The Liberation" carries a dedication to Karpen. His wife Pam, his two sons and his grandchild attended the film's Telluride premiere to see it unveiled.

Tyler DiNapoli, Bleecker Street's president and chief marketing officer, said Karpen's management approach remains in place. "We have a lot to fight for," he said. "It's not just about making sure that the brand endures and continues. It's a great culture here. We always want to get to the why of something, and that really drills back to something that we learned early on with Andrew, which is always try to trace the root."

Courting a younger audience

That culture now serves a shifting audience. Older moviegoers, once the linchpin of arthouse cinema and the backbone of past Bleecker hits like "I'll See You in My Dreams" and "Eye in the Sky," are migrating to streaming, while younger consumers embrace the theatrical experience.

"One of the best stats that I saw this summer is that 90% of Gen Z saw at least one movie in the theater," DiNapoli said. "Moviegoing is based on habit — the more you go, the more you remember what a great experience it is. It's our responsibility to keep servicing this new audience, because now that they've been, we need to make sure that it's not a one-and-done kind of thing."

Sanderson and DiNapoli responded with CrossWalk, a bespoke label for "event cinema." It has distributed a filmed version of "Waitress: The Musical" and "Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience," a concert film of the K-pop group's performances at SoFi Stadium. Last summer brought its biggest hit yet: "Hadestown: The Musical," which grossed more than $20 million in just a few weeks, overtaking "Hamilton" as the highest-grossing live theater capture. CrossWalk's upcoming slate includes a George Michael concert film and a Def Leppard documentary.

"After 'Hadestown,' there was no shortage of phone calls from people looking to try this model," Sanderson said. "There's a bunch of things that are going to be announced over the next couple months that we're doing across various genres. Spoiler alert: there will be more K-pop coming."

Scaling up amid consolidation

Bleecker Street remains nimble, with roughly 30 employees in New York and Los Angeles and a reputation for reining in costs. The wider landscape is unforgiving: companies that were operating when Bleecker launched — or founded shortly after, such as Broad Green and Relativity — have closed shop. Hollywood's consolidation, which recently saw Warner Bros. merge with Paramount, will likely produce a clash of titans.

"We're growing," Sanderson said. "Our goal is to scale the company. We see opportunities out there. And we're going to do what we always do, which is focus on the moviegoer and not on the corporate landscape. The question that guides us is: how do we best serve people that love cinema?"

With "Musk" set for October 9 and more CrossWalk announcements promised within months, Bleecker Street will test that answer in theaters first.