I wasn't aware that Ichan was after Lionsgate too...interesting. The bit about the MGM catalogue is out of date, according to what I've read. MGM sold off the best parts of it's vaults years ago during an earlier crisis.
^^MGM still owns a rather hefty library of movies and tv shows-the profits generated by sells are the only thing that's kept the studio aloat during recent years. They have several MGM branded cable channels operating around the world, and they are partners in the thistv network, a service set up to feed programming to local broadcasters; digital subchannels. The bulk of their schedule is MGM owned movies. I hope Lionsgate comes out of this alright. Mergers of late haven't always turned out to be the best thing for the most solvent of the joining entities...And has anything ICHAN has done, benefited any company he's gotten his mitts on? http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/lionsgate-and-icahn-agreeing-to-cease-fire/#comments Damn...wish my daddy could buy me a studio. Yep, I'm hatin' on him.
How is Lionsgate still around after all the crap that they churn out? I hope that a successful merger will rejuvenate both studios, or else both will fall into the black hole of old media never to be seen again, and that would be bad for MGM. I'd like Lionsgate to go though. Never seen anything they did that was any good.
I just took a quick wikipedia look at what movies they've produced over the last decade. Wow. That's a lot of crap. The few exceptions usually have some stipulation indicating that Lionsgate wasn't the main studio involved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Entertainment
The only good that can possibly, and not very likely, come from this is that somehow we get more Republic films on DVD. For crying out loud, there is still roughly 12 John Wayne movies they could release....
Lionsgate is showing up more and more in the DVD market as a distributer, and I've seen some pretty good movies lately that they released. They were also a partner in many of the Marvel animated DVD releases in recent years, and those were all good. Ichan doesn't know crap about running a media company, his involvement in the Marvel bankruptcy proves that. Nor is he all that interested. He gets either MGM, Lionsgate, or both, and they're toast.
Yeah, most of the TV show DVDs that I've got recently for my kids have been distributed by Lionsgate.
^There are almost two Lionsgate's really: the film studio and the video distributer. The studio side does the "Saw" movies, which are a fairly decent earner. They're doing the Conan remake. The distributer side is the side that's "catch as catch can". Either you're getting DTDVD "B films", or you're getting stuff like the Marvel DTDVDs, where Lionsgate is a "moneyman" and distributer.
Excuse me, but Affliction, Buffalo 66,Gods and Monsters, Mr. Jealousy, and Love and Death on Long Island are nothing to sneeze at; these films were the best ones of the 1990's! Just because they made some stinkers doesn't mean that they are a crappy company artistically (they also make Mad Men as well.)
Fair enough. Then 3:10 to Yuma, Precious, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Drag Me to Hell would all like a word with you. Lionsgate isn't a bastion of high cinematic art, but it's not a hellhole.