Thomas Ashley

Thomas Ashley spent time working on the sets of television commercials and public-service announcements in order to help put himself through college at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. After graduating, his first major role was as director of the independent horror movie The 13th Child. After the film failed to find a distributor, Ashley developed the marketing campaign to develop screening opportunities for the film in order to get it viewed in theatres.

Ashley founded Invincible Pictures, an independent film distributor promoting movies through local theatre-screenings and DVD sales, in 2006. He targeted major motion pictures with large budgets that failed to find distribution, in order to acquire films below market value. In addition to operating its acquisition fund Invincible Entertainment Partners, the company also produces some films, but shifted more towards distribution over its first five years of existence. He currently serves as the company’s CEO, and as a part of his role, Ashley travels to film festivals such as Cannes in order to acquire distribution rights for motion pictures. In 2014 he put up 25% of the equity to create the Kevin Smith film Yoga Hosers, and was an executive producer on the film. Invincible Pictures was the distributor for the film upon its completion.

Ashley is also the founder and CEO of FlixFling, which provides users with, “access to digital movies, direct from independent studios,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Originally Ashley developed the service after observing how the big-box video rental store market was shrinking, and access to independent and other hard to find films was shrinking with it. Therefore they initially focused on fare outside of the mainstream market. It is now the largest privately owned streaming service.