Lionsgate Films (originally stylized as Lions Gate Films prior to 2005) is the most commercially successful independent movie studio to date. This company is well-known for producing the Saw, Hostel and The Hunger Games series. Also produced movies such as The Forbidden Kingdom, The Spirit, American Psycho, the Cube series, Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore,The Final and La La Land.
Lions Gate was originally founded in Vancouver from the ashes of defunct Canadian distributor Cinepix Film Properties by investor Frank Giustra, who named the company after the Lions Gate Bridge. In 2000, the studio acquired Trimark Pictures (formerly Vidmark). It expanded by 2004, acquiring Artisan Entertainment, which went under several different names (first USA Home Video, then International Video Entertainment (IVE), then Live Entertainment), which also included the library of one of Artisan's 1980's rivals, Vestron Video, and home video rights to the Carolco Pictures library. In 2009, after pulling their contracts from Showtime, Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount formed Epix, a premium network that's smaller in scale than its competition.
The company had financial issues due to a number of flops and a few hostile takeover attempts by famed corporate raider Carl Icahn (who has a history of buying floundering businesses and making things worse than before). Icahn dumped his one-third stake in Lionsgate in August, 2011 for $7 a share, a significant haircut after what turned out to be the roaring success of The Hunger Games, which has the makings of a Cash Cow Franchise with as many as three sequels coming in the next five years. In January 2012, Lionsgate acquired Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the Twilight film franchise, for $412.5 million.
2016 saw them acquiring rival premium TV network Starz, and their boatload of networks and properties (including Anchor Bay Entertainment and the back catalog of Film Roman), from John Malone for $4.4 billion. Lionsgate would ultimately sell their stake in Epix to MGM, who would assume full ownership of the network after also buying Viacom's stake. Lionsgate's pay TV rights are tangled up: they own Starz, but subsidiary Summit has an output deal with HBO, Lionsgate itself still licenses its new releases to Epix.
Films produced or distributed by Lionsgate (including films originally from Vidmark/Trimark, Live/Artisan and Vestron):
- 100 Girls
- 3 From Hell
- Abduction
- Acrimony
- Affliction
- The Age of Adaline
- Akeelah and the Bee
- All Is Lost
- Alone in the Dark (2005)
- Alpha and Omega
- American Pastoral
- American Psycho
- Ballerina (with Gaumont, acquired from The Weinstein Company following a scandal which ultimately took that company down)
- Barbie (inherited from Artisan via FHE; rights since obtained by Universal)
- Barefoot
- Beyond Re-Animator
- Beyond the Sea (US distribution)
- The Big Sick
- The Blair Witch Project (originally produced by Artisan Entertainment)
- Bloody Mallory
- Bratz
- Buffalo '66
- Bug
- Bully
- But I'm a Cheerleader (with Universal)
- Cabin Fever
- The Cabin in the Woods
- The Cat's Meow
- The Commuter
- Conan the Barbarian (2011)
- The Cooler
- Crash
- Cube
- Daddy's Little Girls
- Dark Asylum
- Dark Harvest
- Dead End
- The Devil's Rejects
- Diary of a Mad Black Woman
- Dirty Dancing
- Dogma
- Dogville
- Down a Dark Hall
- Dredd
- The Duff
- Employee of the Month
- Escape Room (2017)
- Everything Must Go
- Exception to the Rule (originally produced by Artisan Entertainment)
- The Expendables series
- The Family That Preys
- Fierce People
- Fighting with My Family (UK distribution)
- Fire with Fire
- The Forbidden Kingdom
- For Colored Girls
- Frailty
- Frank and Jesse
- Gallowwalkers
- Ginger Snaps
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Gods and Monsters
- Going Overboard
- The Grey Zone
- Grizzly Man
- Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft
- Hard Candy
- Hell or High Water
- Hellbenders
- Hirokin: The Last Samurai
- The Hitman's Bodyguard
- The Hostel series
- House of 1000 Corpses
- Hulk Vs.
- The Hunger Games
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Parts 1 and 2)
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
- Imperium
- Iron Man (non-US distribution only)
- The John Wick series
- Kick-Ass
- Knives Out
- La La Land
- The Last Exorcism
- Last Flag Flying
- Last Night
- The Leprechaun series
- The Les Boys series (first four films only; fifth film distributed by eOne Canada, mostly in Quebec)
- The Limehouse Golem
- Lion of Oz
- The Lincoln Lawyer
- Lord of War
- Love & Mercy
- Love the Coopers
- Madea Goes to Jail
- Madea's Family Reunion
- Maggie
- Man-Thing
- May
- Minotaur
- Monster's Ball
- Mortdecai
- Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
- My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) (with Allspark Pictures
- Narc (with Paramount)
- New in Town
- Ninja
- Norm of the North
- "O"
- Open Water
- π
- Power Rangers (2017) (with Saban Brands)
- Precious
- Primal
- The Prince & Me
- The Punisher (2004) (U.S. distribution; with Columbia Pictures)
- Punisher: War Zone
- The Rambo series (Lionsgate holds the home video rights to the first three films via Artisan, under license from StudioCanal {current owners of the Carolco Pictures library)
- The Red Violin
- Repo! The Genetic Opera
- Ripper: Letter from Hell
- Rock Dog
- Savior
- The Saw series
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
- Secretary
- See No Evil
- Shadow of the Vampire
- Shattered Glass
- Shaun the Sheep Movie (Distribution in the USA, with StudioCanal (UK distributor) and Aardman Animations}
- Sicario
- Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
- Sing Street
- The Slaughter
- Snuff Movie
- The Spirit
- Swimming with Sharks
- Thor: Tales of Asgard
- Toolbox Murders (2004)
- Undead
- Vice
- The Voices
- Waiting...
- Warrior
- The Way of the Gun
- Winchester (with CBS Films)
- Wonderland
- The Wrong Guy
TV series produced or distributed by Lionsgate:
- ALF
- Mad Men
- Nashville (co-production with ABC Studios)
- Orange Is the New Black
- Robotech (previously licensed by ADV Films and, before that, Streamline Pictures and future Lionsgate subsidiary Family Home Entertainment)
- Running Wilde
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross
- Speed Racer (held home video rights until Speed Racer Enterprises' license reverted back to Tatsunoko and is now licensed in North America by Funimation; also co-produced Speed Racer: The Next Generation)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) (under license from Fred Wolf Films; rights to the franchise now held by Viacom. As such, Lionsgate has to credit Viacom International in the legal info on the DVD releases)
- Weeds
