Hollywood Shake-Up: Legendary Entertainment Bids $3.5 Billion for Lionsgate
Legendary Entertainment has reportedly revived its bid to acquire Lionsgate, offering $3.5 billion including debt, a move that saw Lionsgate's shares jump over 15%. This potential merger could enable Legendary to self-distribute its films, leveraging Lionsgate's strong franchises and content library following its split from Starz.
The production company Legendary Entertainment has reportedly revived its bid to acquire Lionsgate, a move that sent Lionsgate shares surging over 15% on Tuesday.
According to Bloomberg, Legendary has submitted a takeover offer that values Lionsgate at $3.5 billion, a figure that includes $1.9 billion of Lionsgate's existing debt.
This potential merger could provide Legendary with the significant strategic advantage of self-distributing its films, a capability currently lacking.
Legendary is known for successful franchises such as "Dune" and the upcoming "A Minecraft Movie," had previously expressed interest in acquiring Lionsgate last year.
While Lionsgate, a studio with popular franchises including "John Wick," "The Hunger Games," and "Saw," has been a long-rumored acquisition target, with other companies like Banijay and Mediawan also having shown interest, though without submitting formal offers.
A key element of Lionsgate's structure is Lionsgate Studios, which formally separated from Starz in May 2025.
Lionsgate Studios operates as a separately traded entity, encompassing the company's television and film production and distribution divisions, alongside a vast content library boasting over 20,000 titles.
Financially, Lionsgate reported a strong performance for its June 2026 quarter (Q2 FY2026), with overall revenue jumping 48%.
The movie segment particularly excelled, posting an income of $105 million for the period.
This success was significantly bolstered by the Michael Jackson biopic, "Michael," which became the studio's biggest box office hit to date and the first biopic ever to cross $1 billion in theatrical release.
Despite these gains, Lionsgate recorded a quarterly net loss attributable to shareholders of $28.8 million, an improvement from the $94 million net loss a year prior.
However, its television division experienced a decline in both revenue and profit, and as of June 30, Lionsgate maintained $425.8 million in cash and equivalents against its total debt of $1.9 billion.
Legendary Entertainment, meanwhile, underwent a significant ownership change in 2024 when it bought out the stake held by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group.
This transaction left Legendary under the control of itself and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management, which had initially acquired a stake in Legendary in 2022 for $760 million.
Lionsgate is expected to release its financial results for its fiscal 2027 second quarter (the three months ended September 30, 2026) after market close on Thursday, November 5.