The story
Background
Following the completion of acquisition of Entertainment One from toy company Hasbro on December 27, 2023, Lionsgate revealed its intention to split its film and television assets into its own company, whose Studios division would merge with a special-purpose acquisition company named Screaming Eagle Corporation to form a separate publicly traded company called Lionsgate Studios Corporation. The deal was closed on May 7, 2024, with the transaction setting a $4.6-billion value on Lionsgate Studios.
The company launched a week later on May 14, and began trading on Nasdaq via the stock symbol LION. Lionsgate remained its controlling shareholder, owning around 87% of it following the split. In January 2025, the studio announced its full separation from Starz, which had been severed the previous year.
In July 2025, Legendary Entertainment was reported to be overseeing a deal to acquire Lionsgate Studios, but this did not happen.
On August 1, 2025, Lionsgate launched a new over-the-air television version of MovieSphere called "MovieSphere Gold".
On December 24, 2025, TheWrap mentioned Lionsgate Studios (as well as NBCUniversal) as part of the merge with Paramount Skydance, if their bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery ends up failing. This did not happen, however, as Lionsgate Studios (along with the former namesake Starz Entertainment, which also offered to buy WBD) dropped out of the bid, once Paramount Skydance went ahead with their definitive agreement to buy the entirety of WBD on February 27, 2026.
On July 15, 2026, Banijay set up a bidding war to buy Lionsgate Studios along with Mediawan. Bolloré was thought to have bid for the company, but confirmed that it wasn't bidding as per earlier reports. On July 29, 2026, when Banijay dropped out of the bidding war, Mediawan became a winner of the bidding war and began to focus on acquiring Lionsgate Studios.
On September 8, 2026, it was reported that the company would enter into a strategic partnership with Toei Animation to release its films in the US, beginning with Monkey Quest in 2027. Lionsgate will also get first-look for new co-productions under the deal.
Early history
Audiovisual releases from Lions Gate were originally distributed on home video in the United States by Universal Studios Home Video (now Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) and Columbia TriStar Home Video (now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). Lions Gate Films would eventually create two home video labels: Avalanche Home Entertainment, which released smaller Canadian B-movies on video and DVD; and Sterling Home Entertainment (a joint venture with Scanbox International, a European/Nordic company), which released American low-budget movies on video and DVD in the late 1990s. In June 2000, Lions Gate bought Trimark Pictures and merged its in-house home video unit with those of Avalanche and Sterling to form Lions Gate Home Entertainment the following year, i.e. in 2001.
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After the acquisition, Sterling Home Entertainment was then renamed Studio Home Entertainment, which later folded into Lionsgate. Lions Gate bought Artisan Entertainment in 2003 and folded it into its Family Entertainment section of its Home Entertainment division the following year.
With a library of more than 8,000 films and although founded to distribute in-house productions, LGHE also previously distributed productions featuring Barbie from Mattel and Clifford the Big Red Dog from Scholastic Corporation, Stickin' Around videos from Nelvana and MGA Entertainment productions. Lionsgate Home Entertainment also previously distributed videos from the home entertainment division of The Jim Henson Company until 2012 when Henson signed a deal with Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment. With the acquisition of Artisan, LGHE also released the back catalog of ITC Entertainment until 2013, when ITC's successor-in-interest ITV Studios Global Entertainment signed a deal with Shout! Factory (now Shout! Studios).
Around 2001 in Québec, it was renamed Christal Films, and in Ontario along other provinces, dubbed Maple Pictures.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lionsgate Studios, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8