Lionsgate, which recently spun off its film and TV studio from Starz, reported quarterly results on Thursday, but its CEO continued to extol the potential of AI in public remarks to Wall Street.
Revenue for the studio that produced “Ghost” and “The Hunger Games” totaled $475.1 million, down 21.3% from $604 million in the same period last year, when Lionsgate reported revenue. Lionsgate’s operating loss was $46 million, down from a loss of $107 million in the year-ago period. Net loss narrowed to $113.5 million compared to a loss of $163.3 million in the same quarter in 2024. Netflix posted a loss per share of 39 cents, compared to a loss of 68 cents in the year-ago period.
In 2024, Lionsgate announced a deal with Runway to train AI models on the company’s content library, which the studio would use to develop new material. “We continue to discover exciting new use cases as we apply AI to more areas of our business to improve productivity, reduce costs and expand our creative toolkit,” Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer said on an earnings call with analysts. Lionsgate emphasized that he will support AI only if “appropriate guardrails are established” and copyrighted material is not misused without the consent of rights holders.
In the most recent quarter, the film division’s revenue was $276.4 million, down from $409.4 million. The company stated that the reason for the decline was that it released five wide theatrical releases in the same period last year, compared to two wide theatrical releases, “The Long Walk” and “The Strangers Chapter 2,” in the three months to September. Segment profit was $30.5 million, an improvement from $1.7 million in the same period in 2024.
In the Television segment, segment revenue decreased to $198.7 million from $416.6 million in the prior year period, and segment profit decreased to $12.5 million from $24.4 million in the prior year period. Lionsgate, which produced the adaptation of John Grisham’s “Rainmaker” over a three-month period, said the decline in profits and revenue “reflected the timing of episode delivery, with some pushed into the second half of the fiscal year.”
Lionsgate has struggled at the box office in recent years, but the studio hopes its upcoming return to Panem with The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and the Michael Jackson biopic Michael will help it get back on track. The company recently announced a deal with Millennium to acquire all future film and television rights to the “Expendables” series and worldwide distribution rights to the next “Rambo” film.
Lionsgate stock fell more than 7% in after-hours trading.
