Lionsgate released its latest financial results on Thursday with sharply higher overall revenues and a narrowed loss in a first quarter lifted by Antoine Fuqua’s Michael global box office.
The studio, led by CEO Jon Feltheimer, posted a first quarter net loss attributable to shareholders at $28.8 million, compared to a year-earlier $109 million loss, on overall revenue rising 48 percent to $776.6 million, against a year-earlier $526 million.
That revenue line blew past a Wall Street forecast for $693.1 million in overall revenue. The Michael Jackson biopic has to date brought in $1.013 billion in global box office after the studio tapped Universal to handle the Antoine Fuqua’s movie overseas.
The Michael and Hunger Games studio became a standalone company after splitting from the Starz premium cable and streaming service. Lionsgate also saw its adjusted OIBDA come to $79.3 million, beating an analyst forecast for $65.5 million.
During the latest quarter, the company’s studios business saw its motion picture revenue jump to $587.3 million, against a year-earlier $267.3 million, with box office from Michael and strong ancillary business with The Housemaid providing a lift. Michael becoming the highest-grossing biopic of all time and highest-grossing Lionsgate title ever worldwide helped drive the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group segment profit to $105 million, the best first quarter ever for the studio.
The film group performance helped offset television production revenue dropping to $189.3 million during the first quarter, against a year-earlier $288.5 million, due to the timing of episodic deliveries. The studio is projecting full-year 2027 TV revenue and profits to grow on a near doubling of scripted series deliveries, compared to the prior year, and the recent licensing of four Power series to Netflix.
“I’m pleased to report another quarter of strong financial results and growing momentum across our business,” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said in a statement that accompanied his first quarter results. “As we continue to execute our franchise strategy across a deep portfolio of branded intellectual properties, generate increased visibility and stability from our film and television library, and benefit from continued improvement in our operating environment, we are positioned to deliver strong growth in fiscal 2027 and beyond.”
During an after-market analyst call, Feltheimer focused on Lionsgate’s deep bench strength in movie titles with upcoming releases for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest in the Hunger Games franchise; Mel Gibson’s epic, two-part Resurrection of the Christ to premiere in September; John Rambo, directed by Jalmari Helander and starring Noah Centineo as the studio aims for a film and TV franchise potential as it brings back the classic Rambo property; and Lionsgate have just completed production on Caine, with Donnie Yen directing and starring in a movie that expands the John Wick universe.
Given the current Hollywood box office rebound, Feltheimer predicted domestic multiplex ticket sales was “heading for its first $10 billion year since before the pandemic.”
On the TV side, Feltheimer said an evolving strategy was casting a wide net for buyers as new ones emerge in an increasingly disrupted industry landscape. “The name of the game in TV used to be deep relationships with a handful of major buyers: first the broadcast networks, then the leading cable platforms and more recently the streamers. But today there are many new players throughout the television ecosystem, and our strategy is focused on diversification: having the creative strengths, pricing flexibility and innovative business models to play across a wide range of different platforms and different types of series in an increasingly fragmented world,” he told analysts in prepared remarks.
In the search for new buyers, Lionsgate landed Amazon to acquire Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman’s improvisational comedy DINKS via a partnership with media giant Publicis Groupe, and has a pickup of the medical action thriller Trauma by Prime Video in the U.K. and Paramount+ in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Trailing 12-month library revenue for Lionsgate was $987 million.