Legendary Considers Lionsgate Takeover: Will This Change the Film Industry?

Legendary Entertainment is considering purchasing Lionsgate Studios, following the recent detachment of Lionsgate from Starz, as The Bangin Beats has verified.

The current state of negotiations between the two companies remains unclear. Should the acquisition go through, it would unite Legendary, known for its work on the Dune series and a “monster-verse” that includes multiple Godzilla films, with Lionsgate, the studio behind such hits as John Wick and the Hunger Games series. This merger could potentially enable Legendary to handle its own film distribution and is also likely to result in cost savings through reduced corporate expenses and enhanced synergies in licensing their combined content libraries.

Following the division of Starz in May, Legendary initially approached Lionsgate Studios to discuss a possible collaboration.

Representatives for both Legendary and Lionsgate have opted not to comment on the matter. Bloomberg was the first to report on these developments.

As of the close of regular trading on Friday, Lionsgate Studios was valued at approximately $2 billion. The company’s shares surged by 20% following the initial Bloomberg article.

On May 7, Lionsgate Studios officially became independent from Starz. The studio, which includes television and film production and distribution divisions as well as a content library boasting over 20,000 titles, merged last year with Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), becoming a separately traded entity with 87.3% of its shares still held by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Meanwhile, Legendary Entertainment concluded a buyout of the shares previously held by the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group last year. This transaction left Legendary and the private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, which had invested $760 million in Legendary in 2022, as the primary owners of the company.

Legendary Pictures’ recent projects include this year’s “A Minecraft Movie,” as well as past successes such as “The Hangover,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Enola Holmes.” Collectively, productions associated with Legendary Pictures have amassed over $20 billion in global box office earnings, according to the company. Legendary has also produced television series such as “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” for Apple TV+ and “Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft” for Netflix.

Pictured above: Keanu Reeves in Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4”