Lionsgate Buyer Frontrunner Emerges for John Wick Studio

Lionsgate, the studio behind film franchises like The Hunger Games, John Wick, Madea, The Twilight Saga, and more, could reportedly be bought out by another studio, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Who is the frontrunner to buy Lionsgate?

Bloomberg’s new report notes that Legendary Entertainment, the independent film and TV studio behind franchises like Dune, Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, and more, are considering a takeover of Lionsgate. The report notes that Legendary — which is backed by Apollo Global Management — approached Lionsgate after the latter finalized its separation from Starz back in May.

At the time, Legendary and Lionsgate were discussing a potential partnership that would see both companies co-produce “a handful of films” to gauge how the companies could work together. It’s unclear where either company are in discussions, however, so more information will likely have to surface before we see any solid movement.

Should Legendary Entertainment move forward with an acquisition, it’ll likely have to be for a pretty penny. Lionsgate currently has a market cap of $1.8 billion, but is valued at around $4.6 billion following its split with Starz, and has some of the world’s most popular movie franchises to its name. This isn’t the first time that Legendary Entertainment has broached the topic of acquiring other companies, though.

Last year, Legendary and Apollo were reported to be considering a potential acquisition of Paramount Pictures’ film studio, as well as Paramount Global. That didn’t end up happening, but it seems as if Legendary is keeping its eyes on any and all possibilities.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Source: Comingsoon.net