Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Announces Departure of Movie President Mark Borde

PRESS RELEASE —

Los Angeles, CA – November 5, 2018   Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios (www.entertainmentstudios.com), today announced that Mark Borde, the president of its theatrical motion picture distribution unit, Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, will be leaving the company.  Borde held the post for three years.

In 2015, Borde sold his Freestyle Releasing to media mogul, Byron Allen who then formed Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures.  Together they released the new distribution company’s first hit, 47 METERS DOWN, the shark-thriller that became the highest grossing independent movie of 2017.  Following that, Allen and Borde premiered the critically-acclaimed Christian Bale Western, HOSTILES, and the critically-acclaimed Ted Kennedy thriller/drama, CHAPPAQUIDDICK.

Borde has been a part of the independent movie business as a distributor, a film producer, a theater owner, and as a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences in the Producers Branch. Borde was just honored on at the 2018 ShowEast convention in Miami and was given the “Al Shapiro Distinguished Service Award.” He will soon join the Napa Valley Film Festival activities as part of the faculty later this month.

“Mark Borde, a second-generation movie distribution entrepreneur, co-founded Freestyle Releasing over 17 years ago with the late, great Susan Jackson. One day at lunch in 2015, Mark graciously agreed to sell me the company, instantly putting our corporation into the movie business,” said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Entertainment Studios/Allen Media. “Since acquiring Freestyle, Mark has helped me to build a first class, wide-release, international independent film distribution company at Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures. Mark’s reputation as a consummate professional is well-deserved, and I know he will continue to make a lasting impact on our industry for years to come. All of us at Entertainment Studios look forward to working with Mark again as he pursues the next phase of his very distinguished career.”

“Byron Allen is a brilliant businessman, a visionary, with unbelievable energy, and simply an unstoppable force of nature,” said Mark Borde. “I loved working with Byron and the phenomenal team he has assembled. I have put my legacy in the right hands, and I am highly confident he will take this company to extraordinary new heights.”