Lions Gate Entertainment
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- ''Lions Gate redirects here. For the bridge in Vancouver, Canada, see Lions' Gate Bridge.
In 2003, the company bought the assets of Artisan Entertainment, which was best known for the release of The Blair Witch Project in 1999.
The Name
Lions Gate was named after the bridge of the same name that crosses the narrows of Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, Canada (Lions' Gate Bridge). It is also referenced to a commemorative gate erected by Alexander The Great, upon the death of Hephaestion in 324 BC in Hamadan, Iran (Persia) called the 'Lions Gate' (Hamedan Stone Lion). In 2006 the brand name was changed to Lionsgate.Divisions
Film Distribution
Lionsgate Films is a Canadian production-distributor company, a subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment. It is currently the largest and most successful independent film distributor-studio in North America. It focuses mainly on foreign and independent films, and is perhaps best known for distributing films that are too controversial for the large American companies like Fahrenheit 9/11 and American Psycho.Lionsgate has differed greatly under different managers. The original company was founded by director Robert Altman, who named it after a Vancouver landmark, the Lions' Gate Bridge. Among Lionsgate's first films included 3 Women (1977) and A Wedding (1979). In 1981, Altman sold the company to Jonathan Taplin.
The current incarnation was initiated in 1997 by Frank Guistra, a Vancouver investment banker hoping to capitalize on the growing film industry in his home town. The company bought a number of small production facilities and distributors. Its first success was American Psycho, which began a trend of producing and distributing fare too controversial for the major American studios. Other successes included Affliction, Gods and Monsters, Dogma, and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (which turned out to be the studio's highest grossing film in their history).
In 2000, Guistra left the firm and it was taken over by Jon Feltheimer and Micheal Burns. They decided to focus on the profits of videos and DVDs and began buying struggling firms that controlled large libraries. The two most notable acquisitions were Trimark and Artisan Entertainment. These two along with other firms gave Lionsgate the second largest DVD library of any company which includes Total Recall, Reservoir Dogs, On Golden Pond, Young Guns, Dirty Dancing and It's A Wonderful Life, in some cases via output deals with StudioCanal, ITC/Carlton, and Republic Pictures (the result of prior licensing deals with Lionsgate's home video predecessor Artisan).
Very rarely does Lionsgate co-produce films with major studios. For example, Lionsgate teamed with Miramax Films for the 2004 sequel and with Paramount Pictures for 2002's Narc and 2004's The Prince & Me. Lionsgate was also a silent partner in 20th Century Fox's 2004 sci-fi film The Day After Tomorrow. And also in 2004, for the first time ever, Lionsgate joined forces with independent rival United Artists in producing Hotel Rwanda. The company also has a television division that has made shows such as The Dead Zone. The company also recently has launched a record label.
Its continued success is demonstrated by celebrity support such as with the all-star cast of Crash (the first film from the studio to receive the Academy Award for Best Picture), combined with the success of Nicolas Cage's movie Lord of War, and even with Saw 2, which won its opening weekend at the box office [link]. Another important recent franchise is Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion, which recently was the first film of 2006 to be the #1 Movie in America for two weeks in a row. These demonstrate its great power as an independent studio, slowly creeping to be proven worthy as a great competitor with the mainstream distributors.
Lionsgate has recently undergone an agreement with WWE Films to distribute movies such as See No Evil, which was released on May 19th, as well as the upcoming The Marine, starring John Cena to be released in September 2006.
List of Lionsgate Films
1990s
2000s
Music
- Lionsgate Records
Television
The company produced such series as The Dead Zone and Five Days to Midnight.Studios
Based in Canada, Lions Gate studio properties also are rented to other film studios including the filming of the Warner Bros. film, Catwoman.Video
Has a home video library of more than 8000 films (many the result of output deals with other studios), including such titles as Dirty Dancing, Total Recall, On Golden Pond and the Rambo series. Lions Gate also distributes Mattel's Barbie-branded videos and Clifford the Big Red Dog videos from the Scholastic Corporation.External links
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