Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

The Motion Picture Association of America Annual Report also announced the total global box office results of the seven major film studios in 2014. Lionsgate ranked first with $4.85 billion, and 10 of its films had overseas box office revenues of over $100 million.

Fox ranked second with $4.77 billion. Movies such as "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" had higher overseas box office results than North America.

Warner Bros. ranked third with $4.38 billion, and Disney ranked fourth with $3.95 billion.

Paramount ranked fifth with $2.88 billion, of which "Transformers 4" was the only movie with a global box office of over $1 billion last year.

Universal ranked sixth with a total global box office of $2.52 billion.

Sony ranked seventh with $2.12 billion.

In terms of film profits, Lionsgate ranked first with a net income of $2.25 billion, Disney ranked second with a profit of $1.7 billion last year, and Fox ranked third with $1.5 billion.

Although several films released by Paramount Pictures had good international box office, the production and publicity costs were too high, and the net income was only 270 million US dollars, ranking seventh.

However, since Disney and Warner Pictures are large and powerful, backed by a 100 billion group, the peripheral income is extremely high.

Last year, Warner Group ranked first with a total income of 12.7 billion, and Disney's income also reached 11.2 billion. Lionsgate's total income from movies, TV series, advertisements, videotapes, etc. was only 6.5 billion US dollars, only half of Warner, and there is still room for improvement in creating peripheral income.

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After the annual box office results of the seven major film studios were announced by the "American Film Association Annual Report", they attracted great attention in the media. Although many people knew that Lionsgate's movies last year were very powerful and the box office results must be very good, they did not expect it to be so good.

The annual total box office in North America was 2.033 billion, the global total box office was 4.85 billion US dollars, and the net income was 2.25 billion US dollars.

Ranked first on the three lists, it pressed the six major film studios under it.

This is also the first time in the history of North American movies that an independent film company has been able to snatch the crown and honor of the annual total box office from the six major film studios.

Lionsgate immediately became the darling of the media industry, attracting media coverage.

The Los Angeles Times used a full page to report the growth history of Lionsgate. Lionsgate was first founded in 1997, with its original headquarters in Canada, and moved to Santa Monica, Los Angeles in 2000.

After more than ten years of development, Lionsgate has grown from a small film company with tens of millions of dollars to a medium-sized film company with hundreds of millions of dollars, known as the eighth largest in Hollywood.

2011 was a turning point for Lionsgate, and it was also a year that should be recorded in the history of North American film.

In this year, Link spent 800 million US dollars to strongly acquire Lionsgate, and under the collective pessimism of many media, and under the suppression of the six major film studios, Lionsgate underwent a complete transformation in just one year.

In 2011, Lionsgate released a total of 12 films, ranking seventh with a total North American box office of 580 million.

In 2012, Lionsgate released 20 films, with a total North American box office of 1.48 billion, and ranked third in the film industry with a 14.2% share.

In 2013, Lionsgate released 19 films, with a total North American box office of 1.817 billion, accounting for 16.9% of the total box office share, ranking second.

In 2014, Lionsgate released 19 films, with a total North American box office of 2.033 billion, accounting for 19.5% of the total North American box office share, surpassing six old film companies such as Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Sony, becoming the highest-grossing film company in the North American and global film markets.

Judging from these data, Lionsgate's performance in the film industry has been getting better and better in the past four years.

Some media also listed the list of Lionsgate's films to be released in 2015, including "The Hunger Games 4", "American Sniper", "The Revenant", "The Expendables 3", "Lucy", "Now You See Me 2" and other heavyweight blockbusters.

There are also small-budget independent films such as "The Big Short", "Wild", "Inherent Vice", "The Butler", "Foxcatcher", "Trainwreck", "Creed", "Split", and "Insidious 3".

And three commercial blockbusters "The Martian", "Terminator: Genisys" and "San Andreas" in cooperation with Paramount Pictures.

"Maleficent" in cooperation with Disney.

Judging from the scale of investment, the number of films and the film lineup, Lionsgate's films this year are more competitive than last year, and may get more movie box office.

Since the total box office of Hollywood movies is around 10 billion per year.

These more than 10 billion US dollars are equivalent to a big cake, and the seven major film studios and hundreds of film companies in the United States and thousands of film companies around the world are trying to have a bite of the cake.

Last year, Lionsgate ate 19.5% of the cake. If it eats more this year, according to this situation, someone in the seven major film studios should be hungry, and in more serious cases, it will cause huge losses or even bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, Lionsgate has now established a firm foothold in Hollywood, and its market value is stable at around 10 billion US dollars.

It has also cooperated with Netflix, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Disney Studios, and has in-depth cooperation with independent production companies such as Palm Beach Studios, Annapurna Pictures, Appian Trail Pictures, and Skydance Pictures.

Lionsgate has become an important part of the interest system of the film industry.

A single move affects the entire body.

In addition, Lionsgate has released more than 30 high-quality art films in recent years, which are not only sought after by movie fans, but also favored by the Golden Globe Awards, the Oscars, and the three major European film festivals, becoming the largest Oscar winner in the past three years.

From this point of view, Lionsgate has not only achieved success in commercial films, but also done a good job in art films, and is the leader in the independent film industry.

Lionsgate has a deep "internal strength", and it is not so easy for other film companies to bring down Lionsgate.

In addition, in the production of TV series, Lionsgate and Netflix have launched ten TV series production plans in the past two years, and several movies and TV series that have been launched have achieved great success.

Lionsgate's total revenue from TV series last year also exceeded 1 billion US dollars.

In terms of advertising, last year Lionsgate's film revenue from advertising placement was as high as 500 million US dollars, which almost covered the production cost.

The Los Angeles Times believes that Lionsgate has grown and it may be difficult for the Big Six to regain their original market share. The next step is for the Big Six to learn to accept Lionsgate's existence, find ways to make more and better movies, compete with peers in the film market and win, so as to survive in Hollywood.

Failed film companies will be eliminated. The Los Angeles Times predicts that Sony Pictures, which is in the storm of public opinion, may be eliminated in the next round.

However, the newspaper also mentioned the current dilemma faced by Lionsgate.

That is, the popular movie "Hunger Games" series is about to end, and so far, Lionsgate has not found a popular IP that can replace "Hunger Games". Although the series of movies such as "Now You See Me", "Divergent", "The Conjuring" and "Insidious" also have great potential, they cannot make up for the loss of the Hunger Games series in terms of box office results.

If Lionsgate wants to maintain its current advantages, it must follow the Big Six and develop more popular movie IPs, and it would be best if it could have a few superhero characters.

"It's well written, but superhero roles are not so easy to get."

Link put down the newspaper and said.

Since the end of last year, he arranged for people to contact Disney's Marvel, Warner's DC Comics, and Fox's X-Men series, hoping to get one or two superhero characters from them, such as Black Panther, Ant-Man, Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Venom, etc.

None of the three companies agreed.

Lionsgate proposed co-development investment, but the three companies also didn't agree, keeping it very secret.

Finally, after several contacts and negotiations, Lionsgate obtained the co-development rights of the "Joker" character from Warner. The reason why Warner was willing to cooperate was that the movie they made was not successful.

Lionsgate got the co-development rights of "Black Widow" from Disney, and it has more advantages in developing female-themed movies.

Other characters failed to be negotiated. The higher the offer, the less willing several companies were to cooperate. There are also rumors that Lionsgate has a good investment vision. Any movie they want to buy must have great potential and will be a big hit.

So after the negotiations broke down, superhero characters such as Venom, Wonder Woman, and Black Panther became the key development projects of several major film companies.

Unable to get a superhero role, Link could only read more books, and found bestsellers and good scripts such as "The Invisible Man", "A Quiet Place", "Barbie", and "Dune".

In addition to the existing "Jumanji", "Joker", "IT", "Now You See Me", "John Wick", "The Conjuring", "Insidious", "La La Land", "Wonder", and "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Lionsgate will not lack movies to shoot in the next few years.

In the new year, Lionsgate's film project plan has been formulated and implemented. This year's movies include "Jumanji", "Sing", "IT", "La La Land", "Fifty Shades of Grey", "Hacksaw Ridge", "Lucy", "John Wick", "Divergent 2", "The Conjuring 3", and "Hereditary".

There are also "Carol", "The Untold Story", and "The Shallows" from Palm Beach Studios.

In addition to several movies in cooperation with Paramount Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, and Skydance Pictures.

This year, Lionsgate will produce 20 film projects, with an estimated production investment of 800 million US dollars and a publicity budget of 400 million US dollars.

Although there are these good-looking movies, Link still feels regretful.

At this stage, Disney has completed several large acquisitions, including the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, and Lucasfilm in 2012.

Disney not only has strong animation film production capabilities, but also owns many Marvel superhero characters, as well as the "Jurassic World" and "Star Wars" series under Lucasfilm.

Any of these popular IPs are among the top ten movies of the year.

Lionsgate can't compare for the time being.

Then in 2017, Disney acquired Fox Films and brought popular IPs such as "Avatar", "X-Men", "Deadpool" and "Fantastic Four" under its umbrella.

In the next few years, if there is no special situation and the film winter comes, Disney can almost dominate the North American film market.

If Lionsgate wants to avoid being left too far behind, it needs to make great efforts to continue to develop new film IPs.

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After Lionsgate became the world's box office champion, Link and Eva Ka, the owners of the film company, and the company's executives were also sought after by the media. The mainstream media began to chase them, hoping to find out the story of Lionsgate's development from them.

For the development of the company, Link and Eva Ka also took time to participate in several radio and television interviews to answer some questions of public concern.

Because he is quite famous and has many stories, his marriage life with Eva Ka has also attracted a lot of attention. These interviews have all turned into gossip scenes in the end, asking about relationship problems, children, scandals, career, net worth, etc.

Link did not want to expose his private life, so he perfunctorily participated in a few interviews and did not participate in media interviews or interviews later, leaving these matters to Eva Ka and other senior executives of the company.

He was busy reading books, training, taking care of children, and making movies, and he did not have extra time to deal with the media.

It was only after the "American Film Association Annual Report" announced the performance of major film companies last year that the new list of "Forbes" magazine was released one after another.

Link's new ranking on the Forbes Rich List inevitably attracted public attention and heated discussions.