MTLNOVEL Chapter 583: New Movie Arrangement
The "American Film Institute Report" also released the global box office total for the seven major studios in 2014, with Lionsgate Films leading with $4.85 billion and boasting 10 films with overseas box office revenue exceeding $100 million.
In second place is Fox Films with $4.77 billion, where films like "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" saw higher overseas box office revenue than in North America.
Warner Bros. Pictures ranked third with $4.38 billion, closely followed by Disney Pictures in fourth, with $3.95 billion.
Paramount Pictures came in fifth with $2.88 billion, among which "Transformers 4" was the only film to exceed $1 billion in global box office revenue last year.
Universal Pictures held the sixth spot with a global total box office of $2.52 billion.
Sony Pictures ranked seventh with $2.12 billion.
In terms of film profitability, Lionsgate Films topped the list with a net income of $2.25 billion, followed by Disney with a profit of $1.7 billion, and Fox Films in third with $1.5 billion.
Despite several films from Paramount Pictures doing well internationally, high production and marketing costs meant only a net income of $270 million, placing them seventh.
However, given the large scale and backing of billion-dollar groups, Disney and Warner Bros. Pictures have exceedingly high ancillary revenue.
Last year, Warner Group topped the revenue charts with a total income of $12.7 billion, with Disney also reaching $11.2 billion. Lionsgate Films only totaled $6.5 billion across movies, TV shows, advertisements, and videotapes, which is only half that of Warner's, indicating room for improvement in generating ancillary income.
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The annual box office report card for the seven major studios, released by the "American Film Institute Report," has garnered significant media attention. Although many were aware that Lionsgate Films had very impressive films last year, with certainly good box office results, its performance was surprisingly outstanding.
The annual total box office in the North American Region was $2.033 billion, with a global total of $4.85 billion and a net income of $2.25 billion.
Leading all three charts, Lionsgate firmly suppressed the Big Six Studios.
This also marks the first time in North American film history that an independent film company has snatched the crown and honor of the annual highest total box office revenue from the Big Six Studios.
Lionsgate Films immediately became the darling of the media industry, leading to widespread media coverage.
The "Los Angeles Times" dedicated an entire page to the growth history of Lionsgate Films, which was originally founded in 1997 with headquarters in Canada and relocated to Santa Monica, Los Angeles, in 2000.
In just over a decade, Lionsgate Films grew from an initial small film company worth tens of millions to a mid-sized film company worth hundreds of millions, earning its moniker as the eighth major in Hollywood.
The turning point for Lionsgate Films was in 2011, a year that should be recorded in North American film history. That year, Link acquired Lionsgate Films for $800 million amidst widespread skepticism in the media. Despite the pressure from the Big Six Studios, Lionsgate Films made a transformative change within a year.
In 2011, Lionsgate Films released 12 films with a total North American box office of $580 million, ranking seventh.
In 2012, Lionsgate Films released 20 films with a total North American box office of $1.48 billion and a market share of 14.2%, forcefully entering the industry in third place.
In 2013, Lionsgate Films released 19 films with a total North American box office of $1.817 billion, holding a market share of 16.9%, and ranking second.
In 2014, Lionsgate Films released 19 films with a North American total box office of $2.033 billion, capturing 19.5% of the North American total box office share, surpassing Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Fox Films, Paramount Pictures, and Sony, becoming the highest-grossing film company in both North America and the global movie market.
These figures show that Lionsgate Films' performance has been improving year over year for the past four years in the film sector.
Media outlets have also listed the 2015 upcoming film releases from Lionsgate Films, including heavyweights such as "The Hunger Games 4," "American Sniper," "The Revenant," "The Expendables 3," "Lucy," "Now You See Me 2."
There are also smaller, independent films like "The Big Short," "Into the Wild," "Wickedness by Nature," "White House Butler," "The Fox Hunter," "Remnants of Life," "Creed," "Split," "Insidious 3."
Plus, three commercial blockbusters in partnership with Paramount Pictures: "The Martian," "Terminator: Genesis," "San Andreas."
And the collaboration with Disney on "Sleeping Spell."
Based on investment scale, the number of films, and the movie lineup, this year's Lionsgate Films titles appear more aggressive than last year and could garner even more box office revenue.
Since the total annual box office revenue for Hollywood movies is around $10 billion, with a variance of at most $1 billion,
this over $10 billion is a large cake, with the seven major studios and hundreds of American film companies, as well as thousands of film companies around the world, trying to get a piece of the cake.
Last year, Lionsgate took a 19.5% slice of the cake, and if they get even more this year, according to this trend, someone within the seven major studios is bound to go hungry. In a worst-case scenario, they could face huge deficits or even bankruptcy.
Unfortunately for the competition, Lionsgate Films is now firmly established in Hollywood, with a stable market value of around $10 billion. They have entered into cooperation with Netflix, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Disney Pictures, as well as deep collaboration with independent production companies such as Palm Beach Films, Annapurna Pictures, Archaia Entertainment, and Sky Dance.
Lionsgate Films has become a crucial part of the film industry's ecosystem.
Pull one hair and the whole body moves.
Additionally, in recent years, Lionsgate Films has produced more than thirty high-quality, high-caliber art films, which have been not only popular among film enthusiasts but have also won the favor of the Golden Globes, Oscars, and major European film festivals, becoming the biggest Oscar winner in the past three years.
From this perspective, Lionsgate Films has found success not only in commercial films but also in art films, serving as a leader in the independent film industry.
Lionsgate Films's 'internal strength' is profound, and it won't be easy for other film companies to bring it down.
Furthermore, in TV production, Lionsgate Films and Netflix have launched a ten-series production plan in the last two years, and the few series that have been released have achieved tremendous success.
Last year, Lionsgate Films' total revenue from television series also exceeded 1 billion US Dollars.
As for advertising, last year Lionsgate Films earned up to 500 million US Dollars in product placement revenue, almost equivalent to the production costs.
The Los Angeles Times believes that Lionsgate Films has grown significantly, and it will be difficult for the Big Six Studios to reclaim their original market share. The next step for the Big Six should be to accept the presence of Lionsgate, find ways to produce even better movies, compete and win against their peers in the film market in order to survive in Hollywood.
Failing film companies will be eliminated. The Los Angeles Times predicts that Sony Pictures, currently embroiled in a media storm, is likely to be eliminated in the next round.
However, the newspaper also mentioned the current difficulties faced by Lionsgate Films.
That is, the highly popular "The Hunger Games" series is about to conclude, and so far, Lionsgate Films has not found a blockbuster IP to replace "The Hunger Games." While film series such as "Now You See Me," "Divergent," "The Conjuring," and "Insidious" have great potential, they can't fill the revenue gap left by the conclusion of The Hunger Games series at the box office.
If Lionsgate Films wants to maintain its current advantage, it must follow the example of the Big Six Studios and develop more popular film IPs, preferably also acquiring several superhero characters.
"Well written, but superhero characters aren't so easy to come by,"
Link put down the newspaper and said.
Since the end of the year before last, he had arranged for people to approach Disney Pictures' Marvel, Warner Bros. Pictures' DC Comics, and Fox Films' X-Men series, hoping to acquire one or two superhero characters from them, such as Black Panther, Ant-Man, Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Venom, etc.
All three companies refused.
Lionsgate Films proposed collaboration on development and investment, but even that was turned down by the three companies, who kept a tight grip on their properties.
Finally, after several contacts and negotiations, Lionsgate Films obtained the collaborative development rights to the 'Joker' character from Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner agreed to the deal because their movies hadn't been successful.
They also obtained the collaborative development rights for 'Black Widow' from Disney.
However, they failed to negotiate for other characters. The higher the offer, the less willing the companies were to cooperate. There were also rumors that Lionsgate Films had a keen eye for investments, and any film they wanted to buy was bound to have great potential and would surely be a box office hit.
Therefore, after negotiations fell through, superhero characters like Venom, Wonder Woman, and Black Panther became major development projects for several major film studios.
Without access to superhero characters, Link could only read more books, subsequently finding "The Invisible Man," "A Quiet Place," "Barbie," "Dune" and other best-selling books and screenplays that were well-received.
In addition, there were already "Jumanji," "Joker," "It," "Now You See Me Series," "John Wick Series," "The Conjuring Series," "Insidious Series," "La La Land," "Wonder," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and others.
In the next few years, Lionsgate Films wouldn't be short of movies to shoot.
With the arrival of the new year, Lionsgate Films had already established and begun to implement its film project plans for the year, which included "Jumanji," "Sing," "It," "La La Land," "Fifty Shades of Grey," "Hacksaw Ridge," "Lucy," "John Wick," "Insurgent," "The Conjuring 3," "Hereditary," and others.
There are also Palm Beach Films' "Carol," "When We Have Not Met," "The Shallows."
Plus several movies in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, and Sky Dance.
This year, Lionsgate Films will produce 20 movies, with an expected production investment of 800 million US Dollars and a marketing budget of 400 million US Dollars.
Although there are some promising films, Link still feels regretful.
At this stage, Disney has completed several major acquisitions, with the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, and the acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012,
Disney not only has a strong animated film production capability but also possesses numerous Marvel superhero characters, and Lucasfilm's "Jurassic World," "Star Wars" series.
Any of these hot IPs could rank among the top ten movies of the year in terms of box office revenue.
Lionsgate Films temporarily can't match up.
Then in 2017, Disney's acquisition of Fox Films brought hot IPs like "Avatar," "X-Men," "Deadpool," "Fantastic Four" under its umbrella.
In the next few years, unless there's an exceptional circumstance that leads to a film industry downturn, Disney could almost monopolize the North American film market.
Lionsgate Films, in order not to be left too far behind, needs to make extensive efforts to continue developing new film IPs.
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After Lionsgate Films topped the global box office championship, Link and Ivanka as owners of the film company, along with the company's executives, received media attention. Mainstream media began to pursue them, hoping to learn the story behind Lionsgate Films' development.
For the sake of the company's development, Link and Ivanka also found time to participate in a few broadcast and television interviews, answering some questions of public interest.
Because he was rather famous, and his life was full of stories, his and Ivanka's marital life also received a lot of attention; these interviews eventually all turned into gossip sessions asking about their love life, children, scandals, careers, net worth, and so on.
Link did not want to expose his private life and after giving perfunctory answers in a few instances, he stopped participating in media interviews or special interviews, leaving these matters to Ivanka and other company executives.
He was busy reading, training, taking care of his children, making films, and did not have spare time to interact with the media.
However, after the American Film Institute Report released last year's report cards for major film companies, Forbes magazine's new rankings were subsequently published.
Link's new position on the Forbes Billionaires List inevitably sparked public attention and heated discussion.