Lionsgate undoes its merger with Starz, as it seeks to double down on John Wick and The Hunger Games movies. More here.
As it juggles a busy movie slate – including John Wick spin-off Ballerina and the upcoming Now You See Me: Now You Don’t – Lionsgate has also been juggling some corporate shenanigans in the background.
It’s been a proposal on the cards since 2023 to reverse a merger that took place between Lionsgate and the television network Starz. A special shareholders meeting has now taken place to finally ratify the movie, that’ll see them as two separate publicly traded companies.
Lionsgate will move forward under the banner Lionsgate Studios Corp, and the move has been a response to growing uncertainty in the media industry. Not for nothing has Lionsgate been doubling down on its big hitters, with a new The Hunger Games film pressing ahead and John Wick: Chapter 5 already announced.
It’s the Starz side that seems the most vulnerable, a traditional television network business that’s been squeezed by, inevitably, streaming. Lionsgate itself will continue with film and television work, while Starz will concentrate on its media networks.
In Lionsgate’s corner is a substantive collection of film and television properties, and in line with most playing at the higher end of the business, a further pursuing of franchises is expected going forward.
What, then, does all of this mean to us? Not an awful lot in the UK, where Starz is a barely heard of name. But in the short to medium term at least, it secures Lionsgate, and given the number of film distributors we’ve lost over the last decade, that’s something of note.
Casting, incidentally, has continued on The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, the next big Lionsgate movie set to go into production. That’s due at the end of 2026, with Francis Lawrence returning to direct his fifth The Hunger Games movie.
