Lionsgate announced its report for the second quarter of 2024, reporting a total revenue of USD 834.7 million. The revenue has dropped by 8% and the company reported a net loss of USD 59.4 million, which translates to roughly 25 cents lost per share of the company. While this is less than the expected revenue of USD 857.7 million, predicted by Wall Street analysts, this is not entirely bad news for the company. Lionsgate reported a net loss of USD 70.7 million in the year-earlier period, so this is an improvement over past performance.
Furthermore, Lionsgate had an operative income of USD 18.8 million, with an operating loss of USD 16.8 million just a year ago. The reason behind this overall trend is supposed to be the aftermath of last year’s twin Hollywood strikes, and the decline in sales as Starz, owned by Lionsgate, lost about 500k subscribers.
Lionsgate’s Motion Picture segment has had a better quarter as its segment profit increased by 24% to USD 86.1 million, although the revenue decreased by 15% to USD $347.3 million. This has been attributed to strong box office response for the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 1” along with the home entertainment theatrical titles.
Jon Feltheimer, CEO of Lionsgate and Lionsgate Studios, said, “We’re pleased to report a solid quarter despite unprecedented industry disruption and the after-effects of the strikes. Our Motion Picture Group, Starz and our library performed well, though financial results in our television segment reflected a heavily backloaded year. Importantly, we generated great momentum during and after the quarter by taking a number of steps toward full separation by calendar year-end, subject to the timing of normal regulatory approvals.”
According to the company, the year-over-year decline was due to the “difficult comparison” with the same quarter in the prior year, since it included carryover theatrical revenue from “John Wick: Chapter Four”. Riding on this success, Lionsgate Television is developing a TV series as a sequel to the John Wick films. Furthermore, Lionsgate is also working on releasing the film adaptation of the next book from the “Hunger Games”, scheduled for November 2026.
Additionally, Lionsgate’s Starz business also reported a 1% increase in its revenue of USD 345.3 million and its segment profit grew by an impressive 54% to USD 58.5 million. It is understood that revenue growth was driven by an increase in price back in 2023 and growth in year-over-year OTT subscribers, offset by the decline in linear TV viewership. Hence, overall it appears that Lionsgate is on the right track with numbers on its side to instill investor confidence and promised growth in the coming years.