Lionsgate acquired a 20 percent stake in the Spyglass Media Group yesterday, including approximately 200 titles, which is most of the production company’s feature film library. While the major terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, it was revealed that Spyglass’ senior leadership team will remain in their current roles, including chairman and CEO, Gary Barber, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In the deal, Spyglass will keep about 70 of its titles, including the latest installment of the hit Scream movie franchise, which is set to be released on January 14, 2022. The company will also keep such assets as the 2017 film, The Upside, which starred Kevin Hart and Bryan Lee Cranston; the television fashion competition series Project Runway; and the revival of the popular Hellraiser series, which is currently in pre-production.
The movies that Lionsgate acquired from Spyglass include Scream 4, Scary Movie 5 and Paddington. Lionsgate also acquired such Quentin Tarantino films as Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds and The Hateful Eight.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker’s movies were distributed into theaters by the Weinstein Company, whose film and television library was acquired by Spyglass in a bankruptcy auction in 2018 for $289 million. Other Weinstein Company movies that Lionsgate acquired in its new deal with Spyglass include Fruitvale Station, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Silver Linings Playbook, The King’s Speech and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World.
The 200-title Spyglass library is set to be added to Lionsgate’s existing collection of 17,000 movies and television series. The studio acquired the titles from the production company after it made earlier deals with Artisan, Trimark and Summit Entertainment.
“This agreement continues to grow our valuable portfolio of IP while partnering us with Gary Barber, one of the leading entrepreneurs and content creators in the business,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer in a statement. “It is a win/win deal that creates significant incremental value for both companies while continuing to add to our global content distribution platform at a time when the demand for premium content is greater than ever,” he added.
“I am grateful for the steadfast support from our strategic investors and am thrilled to align with Jon Feltheimer and all our partners at Lionsgate as we look forward to expanding our relationship in creating great content and exploring strategic opportunities together in the marketplace,” Barber shared in his own statement.
As Lionsgate is entering into business with Barber and Spyglass, the companies are also starting to look for content that they can create together. The production company will receive operating capital from Lionsgate to focus on developing new projects.
