Lionsgate Studios Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 21, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Lionsgate said fiscal Q4 results reflected strong operating momentum, with Adjusted OIBDA up 17% to a 12-year high and free cash flow of $190 million, while trailing 12-month library revenue stayed above $1 billion for the third straight quarter.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company highlighted major theatrical wins from The Housemaid and Michael, with Michael on track to become Lionsgate’s first $1 billion worldwide box office film after Japan opens.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management described fiscal 2027 as set up for significant Adjusted OIBDA growth and substantial free cash flow improvement, supported by a strong film slate, higher TV deliveries, and a $1.3 billion backlog that is mostly due within 24 months.
  • Positive Sentiment: TV momentum remains important, with 12 of 13 scripted series renewed and the company expecting to double episodic deliveries in fiscal 2027 versus fiscal 2026, even as delivery timing makes the year somewhat back-end weighted.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Lionsgate emphasized its focus on branded IP and AI, saying it has deployed AI across much of the workforce to improve productivity and creativity, while maintaining that its standalone studio structure gives it flexibility and strategic optionality.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Lionsgate Studios Q4 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nilay Shah, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Nilay Shah
Nilay Shah
Head of Investor Relations at Lionsgate

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for the Lionsgate Studios Corporation's fiscal 2026 fourth quarter conference call. We'll begin with opening remarks from our CEO, Jon Feltheimer, followed by remarks from our CFO, Jimmy Barge. After their remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Also joining us on the call today are Vice Chairman Michael Burns, COO Brian Goldsmith, Chairman of the TV Group Kevin Beggs, Chairman of the Motion Picture Group Adam Fogelson, Chief Revenue Officer Jim Packer, and Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate and Co-CEO of 3 Arts, Brian Weinstein. The matters discussed on the call also include forward-looking statements, including those regarding the performance of future fiscal years. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

Nilay Shah
Nilay Shah
Head of Investor Relations at Lionsgate

This includes the risk factors set forth in our public filings for Lionsgate Studios Corp. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances. I'll now turn the call over to Jon.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Thank you, Nilay, and good afternoon, everyone. We just reported a quarter that is indicative of our earnings power, paving the way for outsized growth in fiscal 2027 and 2028. Since this is our fiscal year-end call, I'm going to take you through some of the highlights during the year. Last May, we completed the separation of Lionsgate and Starz into two standalone public companies, collapsing our dual-share structure into a single class of stock. The market's response confirms that a focused, content-driven Lionsgate is the right structure for unlocking value. We've put together one of the strongest content pipelines we've ever had. Over the next two to three years, over half of our film, television, and live entertainment slates will be comprised of branded, repeatable intellectual properties that we own or control.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

We secured renewals for 12 of our 13 scripted series, setting the stage for our television slate to nearly double the number of episodic deliveries from fiscal 2026 to fiscal 2027. We reported our third consecutive quarter of $1 billion trailing 12-month library revenue, creating valuable consistency in a constantly changing operating environment. We leaned into AI with a strategy designed to make technology a valuable part of the creative process and a driver of quality and efficiency across every part of our business. We ended fiscal 2026 and started fiscal 2027 with two massively successful movies, "The Housemaid" and "Michael," reasserting our brand and demonstrating our ability to compete effectively at every level of box office. "The Housemaid" reinforces our unique model and entrepreneurial approach.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

A provocative movie, an unconventional release strategy, a risk-mitigated financial structure with significant upside, and one of the highest box office-to-ancillary market conversion rates in the industry. We're excited to begin production later this year on "The Housemaid's Secret," based on the best-selling second book in the trilogy, for a December 17th, 2027, release.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

During the quarter, we took a number of other steps to keep this momentum growing, kicking off the marketing campaign for the next installment of our Hunger Games franchise, wrapping production on a new interpretation of Rambo with rising star Noah Centineo, wrapping production on Mel Gibson's Resurrection of the Christ Parts I and II, greenlighting the re-imagining of Blair Witch in partnership with Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster, and signing acclaimed Spider-Man director Sam Raimi to direct a remake of the classic horror thriller Magic. After the quarter, we opened Michael. The scenes of moviegoers dressing up, bringing their families over and over, and dancing in the aisles are a testament to what entertainment at its very best can do. With Japan still to open, Michael is on track to become our first movie grossing over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

We believe there is a lot more story to tell and a lot more music to share. Turning to television, the mantra remains the same. Lean into the creative strengths that enabled us to secure renewals of scripted TV series with 12 different buyers. Keep costs down and maintain our flexibility to make shows at every price point for every buyer and across a balanced mix of retained rights and cost-plus models. "The Rookie," our long-running procedural at ABC and Hulu, showed no signs of slowing down in the quarter. Coming off a Season eight finale that set a new streaming viewership record for the series and benefiting from an influx of younger audiences, the show was renewed for its ninth season, and we're excited to extend the brand with the ABC pickup of "The Rookie: North" with potential breakout star Jay Ellis.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

No discussion of our television business would be complete without a few words about the hit comedy "The Studio" on Apple TV. The series just took the international category at the BAFTA Awards to complete one of the most dominant award runs in modern television history by winning the top prizes at the Emmys, Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, and the PGA, DGA, and WGA Awards. We're so proud of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, the amazing cast and writers, together with our partners at Apple TV, for everything they have and are continuing to accomplish. In closing, our success in the quarter is about more than one hit movie. We're beginning to see signs that our operating environment is improving. People are returning to theaters. IMAX, Dolby, XD, and other premium large format screens are transforming the movie-going experience.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Great storytelling is emerging in new and unexpected places across traditional and digital media alike. Gen Z audiences are enabling shows like "The Rookie" to break out with renewed vitality as we're again seeing the resilience of our business in the largest entertainment market in the world. In this improving environment, the fact that our content pipelines are strong, our library is robust, our brand stands out, and our franchises are adding value from new markets and new audiences should give everyone confidence in a strong year ahead. In the coming weeks, we'll post several slides on our investor site that illustrate the core tenets of our business that I've touched on throughout my remarks. The proportion of repeatable branded properties on our film and television slates, the strength and consistent performance of our library, and the uniqueness of our business models.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

I encourage you to take a look because we'll be returning to these themes often on future calls. Now I'll turn things over to Jimmy.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Thanks, Jon. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll briefly discuss our fiscal fourth quarter 2026 studio financial results and provide an update on the balance sheet. Beginning with the quarter, Lionsgate Studios revenue was expectedly down year-over-year to $907 million, while Adjusted OIBDA reached a 12-year high of $165 million and was up 17% year-over-year. Operating income of $118 million was up over 50% compared to last year. Reported diluted earnings per share was $0.23 per share. Diluted Adjusted earnings per share was $0.37 per share. Free cash flow for the quarter was a strong positive $190 million, reflecting improved operating performance in the period as cash returns on our content investments and library were on full display. Trailing 12 months library revenue remained above $1 billion for yet another quarter, growing 5% year-over-year, continuing to demonstrate the durability and growing value of our content portfolio.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Breaking down the performance in the quarter, I'll start with the discussion of our studio segment profit. Studio segment profit, which reflects our motion picture and television segment profits before corporate overhead expense, increased 24% year-over-year to $218 million. We began highlighting our studio segment profit last quarter because this metric is generally more comparable to the studio Adjusted OIBDA figures reported by many of our peers. The increase in studio segment profit was driven primarily by strong motion picture performance. Moving to motion picture, revenue increased 23% year-over-year to $652 million, while segment profit grew 39% to $187 million.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

The quarter was driven primarily by the outstanding performance of "The Housemaid" and continued carryover from "Now You See Me: Now You Don't." Particularly noteworthy was "The Housemaid's" strong carryover into the home entertainment window, where it became the industry's highest gross in PVOD title among films with up to $150 million of domestic box office. Motion pictures results were particularly impressive given we leaned in heavily near the end of the quarter with incremental pre-release P&A spend for "Michael," as well as early P&A spend for "The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping" and "John Rambo." Turning to television, revenue was $255 million, and segment profit was $31 million. Television's year-over-year comparisons continue to reflect the timing of episodic deliveries and lower volume of scripted deliveries versus the prior year.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Television segment profit remained resilient, benefiting from continued strength in library performance, including "The Rookie" and "Mad Men." Importantly, we remain confident in TV's growth in fiscal 2027 as we expect to double the number of episodic scripted deliveries versus fiscal 2026. Turning to the balance sheet. This quarter marks a post-spin inflection point for strengthening our balance sheet as trailing 12-month Adjusted OIBDA and free cash flow benefit from fully replenished pipelines in motion picture and television. We ended the fiscal year with net debt of approximately $1.6 billion, an improvement of nearly $150 million relative to the prior quarter, driven by strong free cash flow. Year-end leverage improved well over a full turn to 6.1 times, reflecting both higher trailing 12-month Adjusted OIBDA and strength in free cash flow.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

At quarter end, we had approximately $800 million of unused capacity on our revolver available and $341 million of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet. Let's discuss how the business is positioned going forward. Our first year as a standalone company was a transition year, and we have all the pieces in place to enter fiscal 2027 with a lot of momentum. In particular, we enter the year with strong carryover contribution from our fiscal 2026 theatrical slate. In addition to starting the year with the exceptional performance of Michael, we have a highly anticipated motion picture release schedule and a large increase in scripted episodic deliveries within television. We now have enhanced visibility and continue to expect significant Adjusted OIBDA growth in fiscal 2027.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Additionally, this Adjusted OIBDA improvement is expected to result in substantial growth in free cash flow and a continuation of significant de-leveraging over the course of the year. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Nilay for Q&A.

Nilay Shah
Nilay Shah
Head of Investor Relations at Lionsgate

Thanks, Jimmy. Operator, can we open the line up for Q&A?

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question today comes from Vikram Kesavabhotla with Baird. Please go ahead.

Vikram Kesavabhotla
Vikram Kesavabhotla
Senior Research Analyst at Baird

Yeah. Hey, thank you for taking the questions. My first one is a higher level question on the industry, and you referenced this a little bit in your prepared remarks, but it seems like the box office has been in a really good place over the past few months, and I'm curious to hear your perspective on the drivers behind those trends. In particular, I'm curious if you think we're seeing a sustainable improvement in consumer demand at the box office or if you think it's too early to make that characterization. I realize that's a tough question to unpack with a lot of precision, but it'd be great to hear your perspective on the trends that you're observing out there.

Vikram Kesavabhotla
Vikram Kesavabhotla
Senior Research Analyst at Baird

Separate from that, Jimmy, I'm curious if you could just talk more about what the cadence of fiscal 2027 is going to look like from a profit perspective. It seems like there are some moving pieces to consider relative to fiscal 2026. You called out a few of those in the remarks. It'd be great if you could just talk more about some of the puts and takes we should be taking into consideration. Thanks.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Yeah. Thanks, Vikram. I'll start, and I think I'll turn it over to Adam to say just one thing that I think is sort of an interesting statistic right now, that the YouTube growth is actually being driven by 55+, and that actually the growth in the exhibition business, the moviegoing business, is actually being driven by Gen Z, who are up to about a 30%, 34%, I think, share of that market. Obviously, that's the group that we want to engage with right now. We're finding different ways to reach them. Overall, that's very exciting. That coupled with, obviously, this large screen formats that I talked about before. They're actually making the moviegoing experience really like the live, what's going on in live right now. It's just much more of an event, especially if you've got an event movie.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Adam, I don't know if you want to add to that.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Yeah, thanks, Jon. I would just say that I think the studios have done a tremendous job over the last couple of years of understanding and recognizing what type of experience moviegoers of all ages want to have in a movie theater, and how to reach moviegoers with marketing campaigns in a world where there is so much more fragmentation than there was once upon a time. I think you are seeing lessons learned by studios across the board, and I think there is much more content on the release schedule over the course of the next year and beyond that I think is going to continue to drive that type of attendance. It's really exciting to see, and I'm listening to it in my own house.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Young people are talking about movies and going to the movie theaters as an incredibly fun way to spend time with their friends. No question, the exit polls reflect what Jon said, which is that group is driving real outsize opportunity alongside groups that have gone in the past. I'm encouraged by what's coming.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Thanks, Vikram. For sure, we've got great visibility and confidence as we look at significant growth rolling into 2027 from a cadence standpoint. I would say that it's not as backend loaded as it was in the prior year, so not as backend loaded as fiscal 2026. TV is a little bit more backend loaded this year than motion picture. To give you some color, part of that visibility is we're doubling episodic deliveries going into fiscal 2026. You saw we had 12 of 13 returning series renewed. Of that, about 90% of those episodes are going to fall over Q2, 3 and 4. That's just normal delivery cycles, so that's why TV will be a little bit more backend loaded in that context.

Vikram Kesavabhotla
Vikram Kesavabhotla
Senior Research Analyst at Baird

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from David Joyce with Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

David Joyce
David Joyce
Senior Equity Analyst at Seaport Research Partners

Thank you. A couple questions. The first, it was a great exit to 2026, great start to 2027. Could you put a little finer point on the possible range of outcomes for the next year? Really, what does strong growth and significant growth mean, given that you are also laying the groundwork on sequels and some other films coming out? I'll have a follow-up, please.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Well, for sure. Thanks, David. Appreciate it. Yeah, we clearly do have greater visibility into fiscal 2027, as you would expect, as we're a bit closer, but it's still early in the year. We got to remind you, there's timing and release schedules both on our film slate, ultimately episodic deliveries, even the cadence of P&A spend. We're not going to put a range on that for you. We got great carryover coming out of the 2026 slate. You know that. I mean, Housemaid's written all over that. Obviously a great start to the year in terms of theatrical slate with Michael, but also great things to come as well as Hunger Games and beyond. In the TV episodic deliveries, I've already kind of provided some color there.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

I'd also point you, I think it helps with the confidence and maybe doesn't help you with the range, the backlog, which is contractual future revenues and cash flows, is $1.3 billion. That likewise gives us a lot of confidence, and probably 90% of that backlog will come within the next 24 months. It's not only strong carryover into 2027, but also fiscal 2028 is also nicely set up as well. Thank you.

David Joyce
David Joyce
Senior Equity Analyst at Seaport Research Partners

Well, appreciate that there's a lot of moving pieces and timing is still to come. Could you talk about some of the other TV titles besides "The Rookie" and the spinoff and "The Studio"? What are some others that you're excited about? Finally, could you provide a perspective on what the impact might be from the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery combination on your library business? Thank you.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Kevin, why don't you start?

Kevin Beggs
Kevin Beggs
Chairman of the TV Group at Lionsgate

Sure. This is Kevin Beggs speaking. In addition to "The Rookie" going into season nine, which is really quite an accomplishment, and as Jon alluded to in his remarks, getting younger every year in demographics, which is just simply unheard of in broadcast television. "The Rookie: North" spinoff is a great complement and expansion of that franchise. "The Studio," obviously, we're in season two. "The Hunting Wives" has been a breakout success for us on Netflix. We just wrapped shooting season two. We're in the middle of shooting "The Rainmaker," season two for USA Network, a huge international driver for our business. About to start shooting "Robin Hood," season two, and we continue to be deeply immersed in the Power Universe, the Power franchise that we share with Starz. Force wrapped up in early January.

Kevin Beggs
Kevin Beggs
Chairman of the TV Group at Lionsgate

That particular show, season five of "Power Book III: Raising Kanan," is coming in June, and we're in the first season of production on "Power: Origins," which is essentially a take on a young Power, and hopefully more Power in that pipeline. Speaking about the Skydance Paramount Warner potential combination, we're really excited about what Skydance and Paramount have done before that relative to opening up their platform to outside studio suppliers like ourselves, both in originals in my area and Jim Packer's distribution side. I think our thesis is that a strong, unified streaming player, whether they differentiate that to two brands or just one, is better than maybe two weaker ones in terms of firepower and ability to buy from the outside market. We know we need to compete with the best creative product that we can and come up with better financial models.

Kevin Beggs
Kevin Beggs
Chairman of the TV Group at Lionsgate

Knowing there's a receptive buyer, of course, makes that virtuous circle really work for us. Jim may want to talk about distribution.

Jim Packer
Jim Packer
President of Worldwide Television Distribution at Lionsgate

Yeah. Hi, David. I would say, talking about Paramount and Warner Brothers also, both of those platforms are really going to be wanting to be strong and compete internationally. HBO has just opened up a couple of new territories in the last 24 months. The one thing I've seen when all these types of mergers or consolidations go on is nobody stops competing. They just compete, and we have the kind of content that really fits competition well. Going back, I know Kevin talked a lot about the original shows, but if you just look at our library, I'll give you one quick stat that gives you a sense of the strength of our TV library. In fiscal 2022, we only had four series that were sold to the big six streamers, and if you look at fiscal 2026, we had 17 series.

Jim Packer
Jim Packer
President of Worldwide Television Distribution at Lionsgate

The most important part of that, 10 of those 17 ranked in the top 10 of those various top six streaming platforms. Things like "Nurse Jackie," "Hightown," "Mad Men," as you saw, went to number one or two on HBO, and "Spartacus." The library itself, from a TV perspective, continues to perform in a way that I think many clients are going to want.

David Joyce
David Joyce
Senior Equity Analyst at Seaport Research Partners

All right. Appreciate the color, all. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Omar Mejias with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Omar Mejias
Omar Mejias
VP and Equity Research at Wells Fargo

Hey, guys. Thanks for the questions. Jimmy, can you remind us what's the path to deleveraging here? Is 3R still a part of that deleveraging story, or are you now focused on organic deleveraging? Then my second question, Adam, following the stellar performance of "Michael," could you give us an update on "Michael" two and if you believe part two carries a similar strong commercial appeal as part one given the arc of the story? Thank you, guys.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Hey, Omar. It's Adam. I'll go first, and then I'll turn it over to Jimmy. We are really excited about the progress we're making with respect to a second "Michael" film. All the conversations that we've been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well. I would say that there is a ton of incredibly entertaining Michael Jackson story and much of the biggest and most popular parts of his music catalog that were not touched upon in the first film. Also, I would just say we can go forwards and backwards in telling this story. There are so many other events that happened, even in the timeframe of the original movie that weren't touched upon. We're very confident that we've got an incredibly entertaining movie that will appeal once again to a global audience as the pieces come together.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Omar, we're just naturally de-levering. With the visibility that we have in the context of EBITDA growth, significant growth into 2027, likewise, strong positive free cash flow momentum just coming through our operations. 3 Arts really isn't either here or there with regards to the de-levering. I'm looking at 4.5 times leverage off of 6.1 this period, which was, as you saw it, down just a little over a full turn from the prior quarter. Okay? All of that is natural. When we get into the fourth quarter of our fiscal 2027, as you know, there's a 3 Arts put there. We could easily absorb that. That would be about a half a turn. If it's the right thing to do for 3 Arts, then we'll do whatever we need to do that's great for shareholder value in the business.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

As far as de-leveraging, we're de-leveraging naturally.

Brian Weinstein
Brian Weinstein
Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate

Yeah. It's Brian Weinstein just jumping in. Look, it's an interesting time in our category. There's a ton of momentum in the entire space. There's a lot of investor focus. If you take a step back and you look at Excel's transaction with Goldman Sachs and The Team's process, formerly Wasserman, there is just quite a bit of enthusiasm in the space for us. In spite of some downward pressure in scripted and unscripted, we have real momentum in our core business. Look, our decision to diversify has proven to be the right one. Just to give you some specifics on the production side, we've got renewals with Running Point on Netflix and Will Trent, Nobody Wants This and The Hunting Wives and The Fallen Lives of Reggie Diggins. It feels good.

Brian Weinstein
Brian Weinstein
Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate

For our business, the long-term deal that SAG and the WGA struck are real positive sign going forward. In our diversification strategy, we got ahead of some of this stuff. We've signed clients in sports like Myles Garrett and Mookie Betts and Jayden Daniels and Sophie Cunningham. We feel real good about that. Obviously, the creator economy business is a big part of everyone's future, including ours. We're really proud we've got a client in Kane Parsons, whose film, The Back Room, is coming out soon. Started on his own youtube channel, made it into a major motion picture. It's just a sign of the sort of things to come as we move forward. We're excited.

Michael Burns
Michael Burns
Vice Chairman at Lionsgate

Yeah. I would add the strategic conversations we've alluded to before would probably involve some de-leveraging. They will for sure be driven by the strategy, not the de-levering.

Omar Mejias
Omar Mejias
VP and Equity Research at Wells Fargo

This is super helpful. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Operator

The next question is from Brent Penter with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Brent Penter
Brent Penter
Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the questions. First one from me on Michael. Is there any color you all can give in terms of EBITDA contribution from that movie? At least as we try and do our own math, how to think about the puts and takes versus another movie of a similar scale in terms of maybe a very strong international presale, but also factoring in the estates portion?

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Well, yeah. We're not going to break out the absolute contribution on that, but obviously it's strong. Keep in mind we have Universal as a partner on the international side. Of course, we handle the presales in Japan, which as Jon noted, is yet to open. Great demand and great things happening there, we think. We're just excited about this, and that's part of the momentum. Again, coming into the year extremely strong gives us enhanced visibility. We were always looking and striving for significant growth into fiscal 2027, and I think this lays it out, and I think we're in a good position to not only drive 2027 but also great carryover into 2028.

Brent Penter
Brent Penter
Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James

Okay. Great. Just in broad terms, without getting into numbers, how should we think about the sequel and puts and takes in terms of economics there? I think maybe there was some footage from the first one that's already been shot that you might be able to use. How might that benefit you for the sequel?

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Yeah. It's Adam. As we've said previously, looking at the story for the second movie is unfolding. We think we've got 25%-30% of a second movie already shot from the prior production activity. Obviously, that will have some benefit ultimately. We're going to make sure we make a big and satisfying movie for a global audience once again. I wouldn't want to quantify exactly what that's going to look like, but undoubtedly that 25%-30% will be material.

Brent Penter
Brent Penter
Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James

Okay. Great. Final question from me. The poison pill expired on May 7th. Can you all talk at all about what that enables for you or what conversations that has enabled now that the poison pill is no longer in place?

Michael Burns
Michael Burns
Vice Chairman at Lionsgate

It's not going to change our business materially. The shareholders can always decide if they want to re-up a poison pill, but we're going to leave it in their hands. We think at the time that we did it was the right thing to do. As you mentioned, it will be expiring the next shareholder meeting.

Brent Penter
Brent Penter
Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James

All right. Thanks, everyone.

Operator

The next question is from Sean Diffley with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Sean Diffley
Sean Diffley
Managing Director and Head of US Media and Telecom Equity Research at Morgan Stanley

Great. Thanks very much, team. Two, if I may. The first is curious how you see AI changing studio margins over time and different things that it could unlock for your business. The second follow-up to the poison pill question. Just as you think about the strategic landscape and obviously the value of IP, which has been underscored by Warner Brothers and other instances, how do you think about the standalone opportunity versus the potential benefits of being part of a bigger strategic organization? Thank you.

Michael Burns
Michael Burns
Vice Chairman at Lionsgate

The landscape continues to be moving towards more scale. It's creating significant opportunities for a pure play studio like ours. We love the core assets that we've put together over the last 25 years, both built and acquired, and we're laser focused on maximizing the shareholder value. We separated the business to create a standalone studio and collapsed into a single share class, which has given us a great deal of maximum optionality, but also certainly increased our liquidity dramatically. And we feel like we have a world where scale and franchises as well as very well-known IP, have never been more relevant.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

From studio margins perspective, we feel good about that. We had really strong margins in the fourth quarter, you can't always look to something like "The Housemaid," for example, which was very modestly priced and even less expensive when you look at it relative to our New Jersey tax credits that were something special here. It did $400 million of global box office. You can't look at that margin. Generally speaking, good margins going into next year. If you look at our fiscal 2026 margins in total growing those in motion pictures, we go into 2027. TV, right around the same level, I would think. You've got a lot of renewals, but there are some sophomore series that are building in terms of profitability and margin. Certainly profitable, but margins building.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

I think I feel really strong about 2027 margins continuing to increase or hold certain levels in TV.

Michael Burns
Michael Burns
Vice Chairman at Lionsgate

I just want to clarify one thing. We put the pill in a year ago. It has expired.

Sean Diffley
Sean Diffley
Managing Director and Head of US Media and Telecom Equity Research at Morgan Stanley

Thanks very much.

Operator

The next question is from Matthew Harrigan with Benchmark. Please go ahead.

Matthew Harrigan
Matthew Harrigan
Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark

Thank you, and congratulations. I guess it came out a few hours ago that you're actually going to separate The Resurrection, Ascension Day 26 and 27 versus having them so tightly clustered, which I always thought was kind of maybe not economically optimal. You get more cannibalization, you get more anticipation for the second film. Is there anything to comment on there other than the economics probably look better with better separation? Just out of curiosity.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Hey, Matthew. It's Adam. Thanks for the question. You hit the nail right on the head. We claimed those two dates because those were the two most obvious dates where a film like The Resurrection could conceivably go, and we were able to protect both dates. Having just seen production wrap actually slightly ahead of schedule and slightly under budget, the scale of what Mel and the team have created is astonishing, and we couldn't be more comfortable that there are two standalone exquisite movies. With Ascension Day falling effectively at the beginning of the incredibly lucrative summer moviegoing corridor taking advantage of that in consecutive years as other films in multiple parts have done so well, just felt like the right decision. The reality is that initial dating was designed more than anything, to protect the two possible dates we might want.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

We're excited now that we've landed on this as our go-forward strategy.

Jimmy Barge
Jimmy Barge
CFO at Lionsgate

Matthew, with regards to just the economics on fiscal 2027. As you move that out of the back end of 2027, that's a slight improvement. Realize we're also dropping "Day Drinker" in on that date and you're going to have P&A there. It's actually relatively neutral, probably slightly down a bit. Just those changes on their own relative to fiscal 2027.

Matthew Harrigan
Matthew Harrigan
Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark

Secondly, I know this is really conjectural, but you had the CDance 2.0 sell-off among the studio stocks in February, and then we had some talk today on "Hell Grind" that shown at Cannes, which was supposedly produced for $500,000, which certainly doesn't look like a top studio film. It looks a lot better than you'd expect for $500,000 from what I've seen. How do you feel about just obviously, you've got benefits on the timeline for getting movies out faster and costs, how do you feel about emergent competition from maybe people outside even the traditional studio rather in particular on the streaming side?

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Look, as you well know, through the history of our business, all the technological advances have unlocked value for media companies. This is going to be the same. I'm very bullish. We're very bullish that AI is a total net positive for us. We want more people engaged with content. We're across all of our digital footprints, YouTube, social channels, and then we'll be launching. I'm very excited, but we're launching a new fan and creator site. We're engaging with the fans wherever they are and these digital toolkits that we're going to give them that will empower them to interact with our content, to extend our brands, to build new versions of our brands. We're excited about the use of AI across the board. In our own company right now, we've deployed it over 80% of our workforce whether it's Copilot, whether it's ChatGPT Enterprise, Snowflake, whatever.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

We're utilizing it across the board for productivity, for advanced analytics. Across the board, whether it's just the operations of our business in terms of sales or whether it's enhancing our pre-production, post-production. AI is a total net positive for us. Again, we want to engage with our fans. We want to give them digital toolkits.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

To create different versions, obviously in a protected environment, obviously with the authority and approvals of our talent. We're really excited about it. Our early engagement with Runway enabled us to take an early look at generative AI. Big plus for us, big value add, looking forward to more and more deployment.

Matthew Harrigan
Matthew Harrigan
Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark

Great. Thanks, Jon. Thanks, Adam.

Operator

The next question is a follow-up from Vikram Kesavabhotla with Baird. Please go ahead.

Vikram Kesavabhotla
Vikram Kesavabhotla
Senior Research Analyst at Baird

Yeah. Hey, thanks for letting me ask a couple more questions here. I just wanted to follow up on Michael, given that it was such a standout result for you. Now that you've had time to reflect on the feedback and the reactions, why do you think that this film performed as well as it did? It seems like you did some unique approaches to marketing around that film that may have benefited the performance as well. I'd be curious if you could elaborate on some of the strategies that you used there that helped drive the success.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Sure. I'm happy to try to offer some thoughts. Look, I think we said on multiple earnings calls prior to the release of the film that the fact that Michael is inarguably one of the most influential artists in human history, and that so many of, not only his songs, but his dance, his impact on fashion, his impact on motion pictures, his impact across so many different areas, had a profound emotional effect on people all over the world. The idea that when people had a chance to, if they're old enough, relive many of those extraordinary moments, and for younger people who we were not shocked but thrilled at how many young people are really engaged with his music and his life. Antoine and Graham did an extraordinary job of capturing that with energy. We expected something big.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

We were planning for something big when we said to everyone that it was the most-watched trailer in the history of the studio. It wasn't just that fact. It was looking into the details of who was responding to it. You're seeing the ancillary benefits because his music's at the top of the charts now as well. In terms of marketing, it is definitely a different era than when I was running marketing 20 years ago. How you reach people has significantly changed. I give an immense amount of credit to both our marketing and our distribution teams, and in partnership with Universal. We really found ways to create stunts that were not only exciting to the people who were seeing them in the moment but became viral and passed along on every platform in social media.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

You just can't buy your way into awareness and enthusiasm anymore. You have to create the tools for fans to share with one another. I think the teams here and around the world did that extraordinarily well.

Vikram Kesavabhotla
Vikram Kesavabhotla
Senior Research Analyst at Baird

Okay. That's helpful. Just last one from me. Curious if you could talk about or refresh us on your philosophy around balancing the mix of tentpole films versus mid-budget films over the next few years, and particularly given the success you've had recently with "The Housemaid" and "Michael," if any of that has affected your perspective on how you plan to manage the portfolio going forward.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Yeah, no, it has not changed it. It's reinforced what I've been talking about, what Jon has been talking about, and the conversations that we've been having. It's nice that when you mention a movie like "The Housemaid" and a movie like "Michael," you are talking about two very different movies. One, lower end of mid-budget film, that while it had a passionate fan base from book sales, it was not a massive fan base from book sales. "Michael" being a very large movie, and both of them were extraordinarily profitable. The criteria we're using to decide what films to make remains unchanged. Do we believe it can be creatively great? I'm so thrilled every time we make another announcement about what filmmakers and what actors and actresses are coming on board, what producers we're working with. Can it be creatively great?

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

Is there a marketing strategy that allows us to do what I was just talking about, that allows us to reach consumers where they are now and the way they want to be impacted? Then is there a rational business plan? Can you make enough money and reasonable success to justify the risks that go into every film? So we've definitely been working hard to make sure that our existing IP, when we see an audience demanding more, that we're giving them an exciting version of what they're demanding. When Jon mentioned in his opening remarks, things like "Blair Witch" or another "Hunger Games" movie, those are very modestly priced films. When we're talking about a "Hunger Games" or we're talking about a "Michael," those are larger films.

Adam Fogelson
Adam Fogelson
Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate

When any film is able to pass the threshold criteria that I laid out, it becomes a great candidate, and I think we'll have two to four tentpoles and the rest of the films will fit into a variety of other cost categories.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Yeah, I think I'd just add that word tentpole implies just a huge box office, a huge project. You could interchange tentpole and franchise, they're just branded properties. As I said in my remarks, we're going to be posting, and we're going to keep doing that in the future. We're going to be posting at least one slide that just shows what our pipeline looks like going forward in terms of television, film, and live entertainment. I think everyone's going to be really surprised to see how many branded properties we have. I think you'll be able to look at that and you will see that we have as many well-known branded properties as any studio in the business, so we'll be filling the pipeline with those properties in the future.

Jon Feltheimer
Jon Feltheimer
CEO at Lionsgate

Obviously, whether it's a "Housemaid" that was made for about a fifth of the price of "Michael," you can call that now a tentpole, you can call it a franchise. I think the key thing is take a look at that slide. I think you'll be excited to know how much visibility we have in terms of proved IP going forward.

Vikram Kesavabhotla
Vikram Kesavabhotla
Senior Research Analyst at Baird

Okay. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the color.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Nilay Shah for any closing remarks.

Nilay Shah
Nilay Shah
Head of Investor Relations at Lionsgate

Hi, everyone. Please refer to the Press Releases and Events tab under the Investor Relations section of our website for a discussion of certain non-GAAP forward-looking measures discussed on this call. Thank you.

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
Analysts
    • Adam Fogelson
      Chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate
    • Brent Penter
      Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James
    • Brian Weinstein
      Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate
    • David Joyce
      Senior Equity Analyst at Seaport Research Partners
    • Jim Packer
      President of Worldwide Television Distribution at Lionsgate
    • Jimmy Barge
      CFO at Lionsgate
    • Jon Feltheimer
      CEO at Lionsgate
    • Kevin Beggs
      Chairman of the TV Group at Lionsgate
    • Matthew Harrigan
      Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark
    • Nilay Shah
      Head of Investor Relations at Lionsgate
    • Omar Mejias
      VP and Equity Research at Wells Fargo
    • Sean Diffley
      Managing Director and Head of US Media and Telecom Equity Research at Morgan Stanley
    • Vikram Kesavabhotla
      Senior Research Analyst at Baird
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