Although Lionsgate hasn’t announced any major deals, top executives at the Hollywood studio on Wednesday spoke at an investor conference on the advantages of potentially spinning off its studio company.
In a streamed discussion at the Wells Fargo TMT Summit, Packer said, “It’s clearly going to support every component of our ecosystem, not just an individual brand like Hunger Games or John Wick.” The studio will be able to continue selling projects to a variety of streaming platforms, not just Starz, according to Packer, who recently signed licence agreements for the upcoming John Wick TV origin story The Continental at Peacock, the comedy Ghosts at Paramount+, and Schitt’s Creek at Hulu.
As the studio considers its options for Starz, including a potential breakup of the pay TV and streaming company and its studio operations, Joe Drake, chair of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, projected no significant upheaval at his film division. To enable investors to value the Starz and studio assets separately, it appears that the intention is to establish two independent companies.
“I don’t believe we’ll conduct ourselves that differently. What it will do, according to Drake, is provide everyone actual visibility into what the studio is doing and the value it is producing. He and Packer, along with other senior Lionsgate executives, recently renewed their long-term contracts with the company at a time when it is exploring the possibility of spinning off its studio division and rebranding its StarzPlay streaming service as Lionsgate+ in a number of international regions.
