Ken Dubow, Opus Distribution, Lightning Entertainment Film distributor Ken Dubow ripped me off. Sherman Oaks California

We had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Ken Dubow, who owned and ran Opus Distribution a few years ago.  

Ken Dubow is now with Lighting Entertainment, and serves as their EVP/GM.  We have never done business directly with Lightning Entertainment, however, I have done business with Ken Dubow, and would never deal with any company that he works for or with.   

Ken acquired our film when he was running Opus Distribution, and was serving as our foreign sales agent.

In my opinion, Ken Dubow was a lousy sales agent/distributor.  He only made a couple of minor foreign deals for which, we, the film makers, never saw any money.

In spite of the lousy job he did with foreign deals, in the summer of 2013, Ken collected around $80,000 on behalf of our film for a domestic I had foolishly allowed him to handle on our behalf.   The domestic deal was pending before I met Ken, but I decided, as a show of good faith, to let him negotiate the deal, even though I didn’t really need him to.  My big mistake!  (Besides doing business with him in the first place.) 

The entire time he was collecting the domestic deal funds on our behalf, Ken kept promising us we’d be getting a check for our portion of the proceeds.  His cut was supposed to be 10% of the deal that was made.

However, when the time came to cut us a check, which was in the fall of 2013, he told us his company had been registered as being in ‘financial forebearance” since November of 2012, which meant we’d see nothing.

For almost a year, he knew his company was in financial trouble, and he said nothing to me. 

He collected as much of our money as he could while stringing us along before admitting what the real situation with Opus Distribution was.

Ken claimed his investors in Canada were taking everything because they were “first and secured” as his primary lender.

Ken went on to claim that he was entitled to “expenses” on the domestic deal, which was not what he verbally agreed to when we signed the contract a year or so before.

Opus had completely maxed out the “expenses” on our film (something he had also verbally said would never happen when we signed the original agreement with him.)

Ken refused to provide any accounting to show where he has supposedly spent the money on behalf of our film, in spite of repeated requests for a detailed accounting.

I was forced to hire an attorney, and a settlement agreement was drafted in which Opus Distribution, under Ken Dubow, would make payments to reimburse approximately $45,000 that was owed us.

Ken did make some payments, then suddenly stopped, thus violating the settlement agreement.  Ken has refused to discuss the matter at any great length with me, and instead has basically said, “take it to court”.

I’ve spoken with a number of film makers who had similar horrible experiences with Ken Dubow, and Opus Distribution, and most have told me similar stories.

I would never do business with Ken Dubow, Opus Distribution, or Lighting Entertainment, or any other company that Ken Dubow works for or with.