The Rise & Fall of Lionsgate
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
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The movie industry is dominated by the “Big Five” of Paramount Studios, Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney Pictures - who eat up over 80% of the box office. But in a era where awards are meaningless, streaming has replaced DVDs, and talent no longer moves the box office - the Big 5 movie studios have become conservative. Hollywood has devolved into non-stop superhero movies, nostalgia-centric remakes, and formulaic sequels of existing franchises where the ROI is safer and risk is much lower than any real original endeavor.
This gap has enabled smaller studios like MGM, Lionsgate, A24 and streaming services like Apple and Netflix to thrive with independent titles in this ever-competitive landscape. As consumers, we see the trailers, suffer through terrible movies, and are now being funneled to streaming services. Yet the industry has rarely, if ever, been covered from the perspective of the studio.
Instead of covering one of the Big 5 major film studios where the movie-making business is insulated, we’ll look at Lionsgate - one of the few remaining independent studios whose survival depends on making successful movies and TV shows. Lionsgate is best known for franchises like the Hunger Games, Now You See Me, The Expendables, Saw, John Wick, Step Up, Divergent along with solo hits like La La Land, Knives Out, Hacksaw Ridge, Mad Men, and Orange is the New Black. In this episode, we’ll cover the business and transformation of the movie and greater motion picture industry over the past two decades through the lens of Lionsgate.
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0:00 The Land of Dreams
4:43 Sponsor Break (Storyblocks)
7:48 Hollywood Featherweight
18:00 Box Office Supremacy
26:50 Shooting for Starz
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Update: Some viewers have correctly raised that the studios have to split the box office with theaters at a 50/50 with regions like China taking an even greater cut. The industry rule of thumb is that a film has to 2.5X production budget in worldwide box office to break-even.
The video incorrectly oversimplifies that the break-even point is 1:1 with domestic performance. This mistake was partly due to the data constraints - lack of transparency in international box office sales, "rumored / guessestimate" marketing spend, and undisclosed tax benefits / incentives which all improve film profitability and lower costs (very little of which is ever officially reported).
@ModernMBA Make a video with YT channel: Company Man. Your two channels are similar enough to share subscribers, and different enough that subs wouldn't isolate one for another.
Also you completely missed that Lionsgate runs a different streaming service called Lionsgate+ in Europe and South America
I've always heard it's 2x its production budget, and everything above that is gravy.
Can you do a video on sports betting apps next?
One important thing to note is the accounting practices of these studios. Often most of the external labour, resources, and advertisement agencies are either a subsidiary or a firm in cahoots eith the studio to overcharge the studio, hence the studio on paper makes less profit or even a loss, and thus dont pay as much if any taxes or royalties to IP holders eventhough in reality the money is just passed around in a circle.
Yesssss great point.
Right but that’s only such that individual movies or the company as a whole barely makes a profit. If the entire company is losing almost 2B dollars you can probably assume that the company is losing money.
It seems like the bigger you get, the more you rely on:
1. Blockbusters/franchises/jackpots - the top earners keep you in the red from the bombs/bad press releases
2. Diversify - all of the "mega corporations" have multiple streams of income coming in
3. Debt - large companies need to borrow more the bigger they become, and with all of new content being made
sounds about netflix
Number 3 isn't true. They don't _need_ to, they _can_ . Small studios usually get loans with bad conditions if at all so they don't as much
For the larger 200 to 300 million dollar films, they probably have some debt.
Kinda feels like Lionsgate made the classic “middle man” mistake in business. It’s great and all and if your producing behind the scenes making great shows and profiting off the sales to networks, but what happens when those networks go to the talent directly and produce the hit shows themselves? At that point why do they need you? This could be saved however if Liongate had enough of a brand and people knew they where the ones to produce these show but no, AMC got the credit for Mad Men and Netflix got the credit for Orange is the New Black. So again, even if you produced the show how do people know to go to you if another network’s name is plastered all over it? It’s times like these you realize the genius that went into making A24 what it is now.
Exactly
I didn't know I've been actually a massive Lionsgate fan over the years.
Insane...
Thank you, hope they survive
yeah it's funny, whenever I saw the Lionsgate logo show up on screen during a movie, I knew it was probably going to be good. Because of that, I had always assumed they were a juggernaut company like the others, I had no idea they were actually the underdog. I wonder if young people these days will think the same thing about A24 lol
@@littlekirby6 a24 is a distributor not a production company and for me atleast its no guarantee that a film is gonna be good when the logo pops up but it def hypes me up when it does cz i have faith in them
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The quality of the analysis and videos overall is top notch, I just wish the visual language (ie style) of the thumbnails were more consistent. I often ignore the videos for a while because when casually browsing my recommended feed I don't always recognize it's a Modern MBA video. Please come up with stylistically more consistent thumbnails!
I like the thumbnails 😮
Thanks
Or just start paying attention?
You’re absolutely right. The thumbnails might be a bottleneck for the growth of the channel! The actual videos are amazing but don’t get the viewership they deserve.
If you said it before, you were wrong then and wrong now. I never have problem recognizing this as an MBA video. That’s a uniquely you problem. Which is fine! It’s just weird to extrapolate that into a uniquely falsifiable critique.
Long time viewer. This was in my opinion hands down the highest quality video you have produced, from information density, originality, scriptwriting, and being able to communicate a very complex and ever-changing subject in a clear and concise way. I will probably go back and watch this video again, due to how enjoyable it was.
he said ABC is cable which its not, unwatchable
Stop simping bro. We get it. He’s good. God UA-cam is filled with simps.
No way thay guy is serious. . M
It's probably been a decade since I've seen a movie I liked as much as the movies I'd see once a month as a kid.
Maybe I'm just just old and jaded, but I don't need to see the same superhero movies and classics remade 9,000 times.
you're missing out on the more independent and mid budget side. Check out Good Times dir by the Safdie Brothers
You should check out some A24 movie
I feel this glossed over the dvd - streaming transition and how this affects movie releases a bit much.
Yeah, and the title is kind of misleading. It is far less a general look at movie disruptions from streaming and such, and more a Lionsgate company history and analysis.
Which is fine in itself, but really not what that title indicates
The thumbnail is accurate, but the title is quite misleading, indeed.@@reappermen
And the videogame industry has out-earned the film industry of decades. Activision Blizzard had revenue of $8.71B in the twelve months ending June 30, 2023, with 13.88% growth year-over-year. If a movie makes $1B, it's big news. World of Warcraft makes that EACH YEAR.
World of Warcraft is also World of Warcraft, who for over a decade where the single largest MMO with no peers and only less then a decade ago where dethroned from that position by Final Fantasy 14. While the industry overall is larger, when a video game is a billion dollar blockbuster it makes the news because it's rare.
Except no one just looks at just the film industry anymore…they look at streaming as well..and Netflix alone brings in over 8 billion in revenue….soooo ur argument is flawed.
@@ZontarDow What are you talking about? Video games making billions is not rare at all in fact it is more common than films. Diablo 4 alone in 2023 made close to 700 million in a few days after it released. You have mobile games that have made multiple times more than the highest selling film all time.
@@Tommorow1994 The highest grossing mobile game ever made has made 7 billion over a decade, which while an exceptional ammount for any medium isn't exactly in the same league as Avengers Endgame making 3 billion in 2 months, and sorry to burst your bubble because you don't watch the news but video games that do make a billion make it just as movies do.
Perhaps you should stick to topics you're aware of.
@@ZontarDow Again with the yapping out of your ass. The highest grossing mobile game has made an estimated $18 billion dollars, or $12 billion on the lowest estimate. Candy Crush still pulls in over a billion yearly to this day. Fortnite alone makes around $4 billion yearly to this day. Why does it matter when they came out when they are literally making billions yearly still? Hogwarts legacy just this year made close to $2 billion. The yearly Madden, FIFA and 2k make billions each yearly release. The yearly, COD makes a billion+ each release. I can still keep going. The reason you don't hear of games making billions is because it's common, unlike film, where it's a big deal and it makes big news. So take your own advice and don't talk about a topic you are ignorant of.
This ad tie in was by far the best. That damn masterworks ad was horrific lol
@modernmba Great vid. Note: @9:19 the studios never make their money back from the first 2 weeks. You forgot to deduct exhibition fees which is typically 30-50%, reducing weekly the longer the film stays in theaters. It is rare to make back your money from this window, let alone make a profit. The only 2 instances this happens is if your film does well and cost $5m or less (Blumhouse model) or your film makes $500m or more (Barbenheimer). Apart from exhibitors, there's distribution cost, sales cost but all those 'companies' either are partners/work for the studio or are owned by the studio.
Your example of The Batman: cost 200m, made 264m in two weeks. 79m-132m goes to the exhibitor. Lets say half, so 132m goes to studio. Marketing is about$150m. So in two weeks they're losing 18m. Typically, with these type of movies, 3x your budget is breakeven. They definitely surpassed that, hence, The Batman part 2 in 2025.
But again, great video.
All the best.
What are exhibition fees?
@@dannydaw59 fancy way of saying exhibitor/cinema's cut 🙂 They get a % from every ticket sold.
@ValliantRenegade has some good videos on how the studios make (or lose) money.
Also, Sony's operation is VERY similar as an independent movie studio. The difference is Sony never purchased a streamer like Lionsgate buying Starz. Would like to see a similar video delving into Sony's finances and future plans.
sony has a steaming service but its weird cause its only on their tvs
*cough* Funimation & Crunchyroll
How do you account for the "special accounting" only allowed for the movie studios? Hence the movie will never turn a profit since its always being expensed.
This is refreshing amongst the streaming war/ hollywood flop content. I like that the focus is on the indie studios we rarely thought about, but have been in the game for so long.
Great video. The movie revenue didn't consider the theaters taking 1/2 of the receipts the first 3 weeks, then the share drops starting in weeks 4 to 5. Many movies report the revenue and don't mention the theater's share, so the movie looks like a hit. A $200 million budget movie will need to cross $500 million to actually make a profit.
9:20 worth noting studios only recoup a percentage of sales, as movie theatres generally take in a percentage of overall ticket sales. Usually studios take in 60 percent opening weekend and then movie theatres get a bigger and bigger proportion of sales after that. So not all of box office sales is operating profit
Thank you so much for your work, guys! This channel is a goldmine. Such well-researched videos, good narration, visual, just everything.
Not to mention AMC hitting a home run with Breaking Bad. The continued success of the series when it was licensed to Netflix. AMC hitting another home run with the spin off Better Call Saul. Netflix then making a Breaking Bad original movie with El Camino. That entity alone lifting the success and future projects for AMC and Vince Gilligan.
Netflix is the reason several shows and movies have been successful after their initial run.
The Walking dead, however, has damned several companies that have adapted that franchise. AMC's audience is waning for one (no interest, *and* declining Pay-TV subs), Telltale Games (made the episodic visual novels) isn't around anymore and Image Comics... Well comics are failing in America because of the 'big two' having no variety.
ModernMBA provides excellent high-quality video and important topics.
The quality and detailed analysis of every topic in this channel is out of this world.
May I suggest to make a video like this using Broadway theater productions as main topic?
Thank you
Love your content.
This video has some odd audio issues. There’s a snapping sound in the background at some points and at around 38 minutes you repeat a sentence in the script.
Loved seeing Warrior used as an example. I love that movie and never thought it got the viewership it deserved
the fact they made these huge shows....yet we never knew. that's a big issue, being behind the scenes getting good money from making big names big hits is great.....until they don't need you anymore and no one knows you made some of the biggest hits of the past few decades
The title of this video should definitely include "Lionsgate." It's a video about Lionsgate, so that would make sense to do.
As usual great content!
Just wanted to note that it would be more accurate to explain in the beginning that the studios are getting only ~50% of box office. That makes the statement that “Top gun makes up the budget in its first week” inaccurate even without accounting for marketing budget.
This is THE ONE channel wherein I never skip the ads, because it is clear that the ads THEMSELVES are CONTENT and thus they Respect the Viewer. Very admirable.
lmao
keep creating. High quality content. your hard work appreciated.
37:53 Thanks for letting me know that James Bond franchise is on Amazon now! Looks like 12 of the 25 movies available for “free” (with a prime subscription). That IP has been so fragmented for so long.
Theatrical release probably lasts 2 months max now then it goes to Amazon digital rental and maybe streaming services after 3 months.
Wow I had no idea my fave films were produced by lions gate
I look forward to new Modern MBA with significantly more suspense than any slop put out by Hollywood
Lol same😂
Only problem with the channel is not “enough” content. Great stuff !
Had to stop watching. The Batman didn’t break even after its first two domestic weeks. The studios aren’t getting every dollar of box office gross and marketing the movie could be 100 plus million. It probably needed 500/600 million before break even.
Congratulations on 400K!
38:38 repetition of same sentence.
In this video there has been several cuts which breaks the flow of video.
we need more Pharma industry vids.
The future sucks
Good research
DisneyPlus began making some of their semi-new films (12 months or older) available on Netflix sometime in 2023, it's no longer DisneyPlus exclusive.
Its nice to hear a story about a company actually doing it's best to produce a good product, and not just years and years of various accounting tricks to stay solvent, ya know?
Quality content as always
Hum
The editing was somewhat sloppy in this one
I used to watch every movie that came out at the theaters, good or bad.
This was between 2002-2016.
Had some awesome theaters around me, those with restaurants, bars, coffee shop, and delivery to your seat, so it was fun.
Then I became more selective with movies, and after covid I’ve only been to the theater once a year just because what’s coming out is not worth my time.
I don't appreciate the misdirection/ckickbait of the video title. It's a Lionsgate analysis, which is great. But not what I clicked for.
I'm the first to leave similar comments to this one. I massively dislike the clickbaity way video are selling themselves these days, but i have to honestly ask if this is actually clickbait? Because the video title actually seems very dedcriptive and accurate to me?
Or did you assume lionsgate was already broken up/bankrupt from the title of the video?
@@horrorhotel1999 He changed the title. The original title was "An analysis of hollywood studios" or something along those lines, not even mentioning lionsgate.
Can you guys do this same exact video but record companies ? Thanks in advance, great video.
Love your video
I wanted to let you know there's an error at 8:40. Your graph shows avengers end game released in 2018 but it actually released in 2019!
It really doesn't get any better better. The quality of everything: writing, editing, narration, content, graphics... Amazing. Favourite channel full stop.
Yes😊😊😊
Its all a big joke.
the problem is that @10:20 that USED to be the monetization flow..but no longer.
Very nice video!
You use the word broadcasted. It is broadcast.
Also an opening week's box office number such as that cited with top gun Maverick, as covering its full budget, it's completely inaccurate. The studio and the exhibitor, meaning the theaters, have an agreement to split the box office number, so this is also inaccurate
00:06 Film studios are in a constant battle for box office success.
02:05 Big movie studios are owned by diversified conglomerates
06:21 Story blocks helps to achieve professional quality videos
08:19 Theatrical release determines commercial success
12:20 Streaming services affect movie monetization.
14:19 Lionsgate bet on independent Studios to shine eventually.
18:22 Lionsgate struggled with box office bombs and consecutive net losses.
20:05 Lionsgate's major commercial success in 2012
23:45 Risk-taking by Lionsgate and AMC led to massive success and industry recognition.
25:31 Lionsgate disrupted traditional TV show models with a 10-90 model.
29:02 Lionsgate faced challenges due to increasing competition and high showrunner deals.
30:47 Streaming disruption is pressuring cable and cellular networks.
34:14 Lionsgate's disastrous acquisition of stars led to significant losses and attempts to break up the two brands.
36:03 Stars is profitable and positioned as a companion product
39:40 Lionsgate faces uncertain future in movie industry
finally a great video!!!!!!
When MMBA leaves a duplicate line in the video and you have to figure out if your brain just skipped like a vinyl record
I didn't know Children of Men did so bad at the box office.
I actually went to see that with my best friend opening week, and we took our girlfriends, and really the theater was pretty full.
Weird editing error at the end with a double said line
Everytime I hear about Carl Icahn, the lord of pyramid schemes and ponzi schemes, failing at something, my mood improves
Excellent channel!
I have watched every video.
One thing the big 5 dont need for commercial success; a story.
its interesting that there are a lot of parallels from this industry to youtube videos.
Is there a link to where you found the data or what the sources are?
There always should be competition, without it, the industry will start to become stale. I also didn't know Lionsgate did Knives out, that's very cool!
In the ROI section, I’m curious if these recoup numbers include ancillary costs such as marketing, theatre splits, and etc…
it depends... but mostly no
Babe wake up, Modern MBA just dropped another banger.
Top quality video, however, it must be pointed out that movie box office does not equal to studio's revenue, because movie theaters take a big cut out of it. I believe the writer are aware of it, however it is indicated several times in the video that studio recruited the production cost with week 1 box office, etc, which would not be true in any case.
Top. as always.
Ad was WAY too long
High-quality!
Could you do a dive into video game industry esp in light of recent cuts to employees
Gon be a banger
I know you do consumer businesses for the most part but do you see yourself doing vertical SaaS or internet companies? Love your work either way!
The timestamps currently have an issue where it duplicates the Sponsorblock for two segments
It's easy. I see a new episode. I click like.
EXCELLENT VIDEO!!😂😂
Seems more like a lions gate documentary
Idky but the reference to 300 reminded me the a bootleg copy of 300 was shown to my 11th grade history class.
How does he not have more Patreon supporters?!!
…why did you specifically bring attention to the "Yellow Buildings" in the Warner Bros. Pictures logo and not the shield itself?
Two things:
1. They aren’t yellow in real life
2. We don’t even see "yellow buildings" at the beginning of the WBP logo anymore; we instead now see realistic CGI renderings of buildings (not even the return to gold from platinum changes this)
lol why the title is not Lionsgate????
What about the people there? Is there a correlation between success and certain key executives? I feel like it takes more than dumb luck to green light movies that really turn a profit.
Also, we're all tired of super hero movies, I think time is ripe for great movies based on story and script, rather than CGI.
I hope you mention the censorship. Movies I can't watch anymore have been sanitized. To include TV series, which characters have been intentionally destroyed. Or, canceled because they were to close to real life. I can't but see this in The Twilight Zone, Westworld, and 30 Rock. Watching anything "nostalgic" is a nightmare. How are things still the same today? The Wire. I don't blame companies. It's the majority who follow and submit to this Dystopia. Why was it so easy? No one complained to any of these companies. They love themselves and these monsters who care nothing about them. You can't claim to hate ads and live on a platform of 30 to 60 second videos.
14:46 if somebody told me that Blair Witch Project cost minus $1 to produce... I would believe it.
I hate the word “content”
me too, but everything is "content" now-a-days. It doesn't matter if it's cat videos or batman, because it s not about quality. It's just eyeballs
I like MidWay bought it on 4k
I like the torpedo not blowing up scene because we did have high percentage of torpedoes malfunction.
Great content ! Try to improve the narration its more monotonic, needs variation and humor considering it's length! Cheers!
Spider man no way home started streaming on starz before Disney plus. Need to fact check your info
10:43 I've heard Seinfeld became richest actor in the world even after years of going off thru syndication deals can anyone give more info on how this worked out
I like these videos, they are well produced. Couple of important notes on your analysis here tho: it doesn't take into account marketing costs, which can be half of the production cost or the share of ticket sales that goes to theaters. This can also be about 50% of sales
He shows marketing costs at 19:02 and 14:10
nice
"to treat users with respect" followed by a 4 min ad
This is the best content I've seen this year.
New here, but excellent work. Was a casual fan of Lionsgate in the 2000s, and I had no idea that they owned Starz until now.
Complex angle for this MBA story telling. Nicely done, the industry/landscape changes and scale of those changes in this business is possibly unprecedented - and you have presented quite a good story of focus, considering most stories, or commentaries in this space cannot be be told without significant obfuscation from the big 5. Capturing the shifting revenue sources complexity with the shifting business strategies that LionsGate has utilized is a good narrative. I hope they find their secret sauce again.
"Corporate America operates under the belief that complex problems can be solved with easy solutions" @ 30:08 - this is probably one line of script you could have done better. This statement firstly is very debatable, secondly the video is about one independent studio and the business strategies and decisions of that studio. Does this line of script imply that their (Lionsgate) business decisions are founded purely by a simplified belief of the wider corporate ethos? Is this a criticism of Lionsgate for making decision that too closely resembles other corporations bad decisions? Its really unclear what this script comment is meant to say. You go on to say, that if the changes that occurred in the industry hadn't of occurred it might have been a better decision with hindsight to acquire Starz. In effect your chapter "Shooting for the Starz" contradicts this opening line by showing they are small player in a very dynamic and co-dependent business eco-system, and this opening line is somewhat nullified by the subsequent (and very good) narrative.
I am a simple man; MBA posts a video, I watch
You made 3 mistakes in the first 15 mins:
1. (Major) the studio doesn't make ALL the box office money. They make about half of it after the theaters take their cut. So actually it takes longer (and happens more rarely) to break even
2. (Minor) 9:40 Did you really just say DVD and leave out Blu-ray?
3. (Major) 13:00 The streaming wars are ABSOLUTELY killing the revenue model. They are licensing their films to their own streaming services, losing massive amounts on license fees which the subscriber base growth does not provably and proportionately make up for. This was a HUGE sticking point in the writers' and actors' strikes.
also a lot of other costs like marketing expenses are not included in the production budget, for example top gun maverick was 170mln in production budget + 125 in marketing
Do you work in banking for media lol
@@dbsk06No, it’s common knowledge if you follow the movie industry even casually lol. I was disappointed. It makes me question his videos where I don’t have any preexisting knowledge tbh
Editing could’ve been tighter. There are many awkward pauses and cut-to-blacks, and a sentence was repeated probably from different takes.
It's all about avoiding regulation and avoiding paying employees
Audiences want good stories which has good marketing. Look at Oppenheimer and their marketing.
I didn't think anytrhing could make me root for Hollywood mega-corps over indie studios, but finding out that Lionsgate is the reason my childhood was defined by a never ending deluge of Tyler Perry garbage is pushing me pretty close
Tyler Perry is pushing garbage on BET+ now
9:15 your benchmarks for profit here are way off, even with just one of many factors added in: the cut that theatres take of box office is substantial, at least 45% in most cases