Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation or Lionsgate , is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia on July 3, 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.As of 2012, it is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America and the sixth most profitable movie studio.

 

History

Lionsgate was originally known as IMI Computer Corp. on May 26, 1986 and later known as Beringer Gold Corp. Beringer Gold later was incorporated as Lions Gate Films under the Business Corporation Act in British Columbia and was founded on July 3, 1997 by Frank Giustra, a Canadian 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, including Montreal-based Cinépix Film Properties (also known as Cinéxus-Famous Players Distribution), Trimark Pictures, Mandate Pictures and, most notably, Artisan Entertainment (which itself had formerly been LIVE Entertainment).

 

They sold off their Canadian distribution rights to Maple Pictures, founded and co-owned by two former Lionsgate executives, Brad Pelman and Laurie May[when?]. Recently, Lionsgate sold their subsidiary Maple Pictures to film distributor Alliance Films, which is based in Montreal, Quebec.

 

Its first major box office success was American Psycho in 2000, which began a trend of producing and distributing films too controversial for the major American studios. Other notable films included Affliction, Gods and Monsters, Dogma, Saw and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which, until the release of The Hunger Games in 2012, became the studio's highest grossing film.
 

Lionsgate had played a significant role in the co-financing and co-partnership with Relativity Media on its films until 2010 when the latter company split from its deal with Lionsgate to form its own self-distribution unit.

 

On August 1, 2005, Lions Gate Entertainment acquired the entire library of Modern Entertainment, the U.S. film division of the Swedish television company Modern Times Group.

 

In 2006, Lionsgate acquired the American television production and syndication company Debmar-Mercury. This studio is recognized for its role in a number of daytime TV programs.

 

In 2007, Lionsgate bought a partial stake in independent film distribution company Roadside Attractions.

 

Lionsgate, along with MGM and Paramount Pictures/Viacom, is also a co-owner of Epix, a new pay TV movie channel which debuted on October 30, 2009 on Verizon FiOS IPTV systems, that will rival HBO and Showtime. Lionsgate also stated they would be starting work in music albums.

 

The distribution of selected recent non-in-house films for pay-per-view and on-demand are under the supervision of NBCUniversal Television Distribution under Universal Pictures (Universal formerly held home video and television rights to many of the early Lionsgate films), while all others (particularly the in-house films) are distributed for both cable and broadcast television through Lionsgate's syndicated division.

 

Lionsgate's library of movies and TV shows can be seen on digital platform Hulu.

 

Lionsgate announced on January 13, 2012, that it had acquired Summit Entertainment, producers and distributors of the Twilight Saga films, for $412.5 million.The two companies have planned on merging since 2008.

 

The Lionsgate film "The Hunger Games" grossed $68.3 million when it premiered at the U.S. box office on March 23, 2012. It was the best opening day ever for a non-sequel and the fifth highest of all time. Of that total, $19.7 million was earned via Thursday midnight screenings.In its first weekend, The Hunger Games grossed $152.5 million, making it Lionsgate's highest grossing film after just three days.

 

On October 6, 2012, Lions Gate Entertainment announced that Brian Goldsmith became the co-COO of the company and joining co-COO Steve Beeks. 

 

Films

Main article: Lionsgate Films

Aside from home video distribution of films sub-licensed from other studios, Lionsgate's library consists of films from the respective companies Lionsgate succeeded-in-interest, such as Producers Sales Organization, Vestron Pictures, and Artisan Entertainment, in addition to their in-house material. Their complete ownership depends on the worldwide regions of license.

 

Television

Lionsgate Television produced such series as The Dead Zone, Five Days to Midnight, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Boss, Tyler Perry's House of Payne and the Emmy Award-winning Mad Men. Lionsgate also recently acquired TV syndication firm Debmar-Mercury in 2006 with 20th Television handling ad-sales with the exception for Meet the Browns, as the ad-sales are handled by Disney-ABC Domestic Television and Turner Television co-distributing the series. Lionsgate also owns the TV Guide Network.

 

Spin-off properties

The Lions Gate Studios property in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada was sold to a private company, Bosa Developments, and is now called North Shore Studios, and no longer have an affiliation with Lionsgate Entertainment. In 2006, the company acquired land in Rio Rancho, New Mexico for construction of a new studio facility. The former Lionsgate office located in Toronto is now owned by Maple Pictures (basically the spiritual successor for the original Lions Gate), the distribution arm of Alliance Films, a major Canadian motion picture distribution/production company, resulting in Lions Gate's demerger into two companies, Lionsgate (the American company formerly known as Artisan) and Maple Pictures (the Canadian company formerly known as Lions Gate).

 

Video

Lionsgate has a home video library of more than 13,000 films with all of the former Artisan Entertainment releases (many the result of output deals with other studios), including such titles as Dirty Dancing, Earth Girls are Easy, Army of One, Total Recall, On Golden Pond, and the Rambo series. Lionsgate also distributes select NBC programs such as Will & Grace, Little House on the Prairie and The Biggest Loser; Mattel's Barbie-branded videos and Clifford the Big Red Dog videos from the Scholastic Corporation and is also the current home video distributor of HiT Entertainment titles, including Barney & Friends, Thomas and Friends and Fraggle Rock.

 

Video properties currently owned by Lionsgate Home Entertainment include those from Family Home Entertainment, Vestron Video, Lightning Video (a former Vestron company), and Magnum Entertainment.

 

Music publishing

Lionsgate possesses its own record label and music publishing company in the form of Lionsgate Music and Publishing. Lionsgate Music established a joint venture with music publishing company Wind-up Records.

 

Variations in Management Strategies

Lionsgate currently has 607 full-time employees, and its strategies to manage them and encourage productivity vary based on their rank within the company (Company Size 2011). In order to retain the executive officers that are vital to its operation, Lionsgate enters into multi-year employment agreements that offer a base pay and annual bonuses. The bonuses are meant to act as incentives to “motivate executives to achieve annual financial, operational and individual performance objectives” (Annual Report Form 10-K/A 2011). Furthermore, stock bonuses are given to key employees. Additional awards may far outweigh the base salary, and in 2011, the CEO received a salary of $1,200,000, a bonus of $1,900,000, and stock awards of over $4,700,000. Besides providing monetary incentives that economists like Smith believe any rational person would respond to, Lionsgate employs one aspect of high commitment practices for its top tier managers by tying them to the company through stock awards (Walton 2001:79).

 

These actions contrast with the treatment of lower level employees, who are not awarded stock. While Lionsgate does not attempt to appeal to lower level employees in the same degree as top managers, they do advertise a “great working environment” where people will often be in contact with others (Lionsgate Jobs 2012). In this way, Lionsgate does recognize Fritz Roethlisberger and William J. Dickinson’s idea that a work environment must “be treated as a social system,” as people are not always economically rational actors and instead are influenced by their emotions and relationships with others (Roethlisberger et al. 1939: 84). It is also one of Lionsgate’s express goals to avoid “alienation from the Company,” which Karl Marx believed was a very important factor in employee dissatisfaction (Code of Business Conduct 2011: 1).

 

Methods of Employee Management

Many of the specific aspects of employee management at Lionsgate relate to Max Weber’s description of bureaucracy. To work at Lionsgate, employees are required to have certain credentials, such as a Bachelors Degree, and are often expected to have prior experience in the field they are entering (Lionsgate Jobs 2012). In addition to listing the qualifications of top managers on many official documents, it is also explicitly stated that there “are no family relationships among the directors or executive officers” (Annual Report Form 10-K/A 2011). This demonstrates that the attainment of a position is impersonal and earned (Weber 1968: 956). Furthermore, responsibilities, especially for lower-level employees, are clearly defined in the job descriptions (Lionsgate Jobs 2012). There is also a clear “office hierarchy” and specific processes by which decisions are made at Lionsgate, which are features of bureaucracy (Weber 1968: 957).