Several studios have continued to suffer at the box office in the post-COVID, post Hollywood strikes, but Lionsgate, which owns properties such as John Wick, The Hunger Games, and Saw, had what can only be called an uncharacteristically bad 2024, which is having significant impact on their box office haul and financial stability.
Hollywood is rife with stories of studios going bankrupt over a single unsuccessful project. Battlefield Earth tanked Franchise Pictures, New Line Cinema couldn’t recover from The Golden Compass, and It’s a Wonderful Life forced Liberty Films to be acquired by Paramount Pictures.
At Lionsgate, Megalopolis, The Crow, and Borderlands were all similarly major bombs that were each pulled from theaters earlier than expected. But that’s only the beginning. Lionsgate actually experienced no less than 13 financial setbacks in 2024.
Miller’s Girl, starring Martin Freeman and Jenna Ortega, failed to recoup half of its expenditure, generating less than $2 million against a $4 million production budget. In the first half of 2024, Imaginary, Arthur the King, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Unsung Hero, and Ordinary Angels all underperformed box office estimates, even if some were successful. Aside from The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson’s latest film, starring Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson), the remainder had relatively low budgets.
But now Lionsgate has entered studio-ending territory in recent months, with predicted tentpole blockbusters performing worse than their original films. In addition to Borderlands, The Crow, and Megalopolis, 1992, The Killer’s Game, and Never Let Go dragged the company down even further.
Title: | Budget: | Box Office Haul (Worldwide): |
Miller’s Girl | $4,000,000 | $1,714,512 |
Ordinary Angels | $13,000,000 | $20,571,534 |
Imaginary | $13,000,000 | $43,781,680 |
Arthur the King | $19,000,000 | $40,829,349 |
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare | $60,000,000 | $26,974,933 |
Unsung Hero | $6,000,000 | $21,222,038 |
The Strangers: Chapter 1 | $8,500,000 | $47,803,285 |
Borderlands | $120,000,000 | $32,978,510 |
The Crow | $50,000,000 | $23,799,336 |
Megalopolis | $136,000,000 (Lionsgate only covered distribution fees) | $11,147,389 (ongoing) |
The Killer’s Game | $30,000,000 | $5,931,154 |
Never Let Go | $20,000,000 | $21,750,508 |
1992 | $8,500,000 | $2,906,073 |
Last year, the studio had amazing box office success with Saw X, John Wick: Chapter 4, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. However, after funding blockbuster movies such as The Crow and Borderlands, that financial stability might be getting shaky. Their only remaining entries at the box office in 2024 are Cillian Murphy’s Small Things Like These, a horror movie starring Laurence Fishburne called Cellar Door, a two day special showing of John Wick for its 10th Anniversary, a family comedy called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Sylvester Stallone and Jason Patric in Armor. which has a VOD and cinema same day release.
For Lionsgate to survive its dismal 2024, it must succeed next year. Lionsgate’s strongest franchises may be all that could help the company recoup its terrible box office earnings from this year in 2025. In addition to a highly anticipated Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, the studio will release From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Saw XI, and Now You See Me 3 next year. If that’s their best offerings, we could soon see the demise of Lionsgate.
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English (US) · 