Entertainment
Will Lionsgate Be Sold?
While Paramount Skydance labors to swallow the grand meal that is Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate stands out as a morsel waiting to be plucked.
Some aggressive investors can’t wait for Lionsgate to surrender to the inevitable. A good home could be found with a bigger studio, or a tech giant could pick it up and add its AI know-how to its production. For now, the studio’s next act has yet to be written.
Meanwhile, venture capital activity slowed in July, according to data from PitchBook, and the Paramount-WBD saga continues to generate gallons of ink in the press.
Thanks for reading.
THE DEEP DIVE
Anson Funds Roars at Lionsgate to Sell Studio
The story of Lionsgate being acquired has had as many sequels as “John Wick.” This week, a new chapter emerged amid reports that Anson Funds, which owns 6.1 million Lionsgate shares, is urging the studio to sell.
With a market cap of $3.5 billion, it would be pretty easy to swallow up. And rumors that someone’s looking to buy it seem to come up every six months.
“Why is it that someone hasn’t already bought Lionsgate?” asked Eric Clark, Portfolio Manager at LOGO ETF, a fund that focuses on consumption, including the experience economy.
- Lionsgate has a scaled movie and TV studio and is one of the few independent ones left standing.
- Helped by the hit “Michael,” Lionsgate had a strong quarter. One analyst boosted his revenue forecast for Lionsgate in 2027 but reduced his earnings-per-share expectations.
- Plenty of companies, from rival studios to tech companies, could be a suitor for Lionsgate. One fund manager sees Netflix as the best fit.
While Lionsgate shares did see some movement this summer and spiked at above $16 as the takeover chatter heated up, they’ve largely moved within a tight band. It started the year above $9 and closed at $11.72 on Thursday.
Sagar Gupta, who leads activism strategy at Anson, wrote a letter to Lionsgate warning that Wall Street thought the studio was “more likely to be an AI casualty than an AI beneficiary.”
The firm noted that Amazon bought MGM and Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard. “Technology and streaming players are already willing to acquire premium IP rather than simply license it,” said the letter, as first reported by Semafor.
Anson bought into Lionsgate in 2024, before the spinoff, but selling the studio was already in its sights.
Anson declined to comment, but a slideshow presentation made in December 2024 said “As a high-quality pure play of digestible size, we believe Lionsgate is one of the best-positioned public assets for a potential takeout.”
Even after hits like “Michael” boosted Lionsgate’s earnings, Anson still believes its shares are undervalued, said an insider who confirmed the contents of the letter. The firm called for Lionsgate to more effectively use AI to help the studio run more efficiently and boost the value of its inventory, even as many in Hollywood continue to push back against the technology.
“If (Lionsgate) shares do not rerate appropriately following the full separation, we believe the board should consider a sale of the company, along with potential divestitures of unscripted TV and 3 Arts as interim steps to maximize value,” the firm laid out in its presentation.
On Lionsgate’s earnings call last week, CEO Jon Feltheimer said the company’s pure-pay content strategy is working. Asked about M&A, Vice Chairman Michael Burns said, “In spite of what the headline suggests, we haven’t engaged in any substantive conversations.”
Burns added that “given the strength and the breadth of our IP and our franchises, we remain one of the most compelling assets in a rapidly consolidating marketplace. We also recognize that scale matters more than ever in this environment, and that’s precisely why the value of our portfolio only becomes more relevant over time. And given the M&A backdrop, the strength of our assets and our stand-alone operating performance, we believe we have real strategic optionality, and that’s something we’re focusing on every single day.”
As for potential buyers, Anson listed in its presesntation 16 potential acquirers for Lionsgate including Netflix, Google, Paramount Skydance, Comcast NBCUniversal, Disney, Apollo/Legendary, Open AI and Anthropic.
“Netflix would be the best buyer,” said Clark. By bidding for Warner Bros., Netflix has already tipped its hand, and the streamer is well equipped to create new content from franchises like “John Wick,” “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”
“It’s probably absurdly cheap,” said Clark. “I just wonder what is it that keeps it independent.”
LOGO ETF holds stock in Netflix. It’s other entertainment holdings include Spotify, TKO and Formula One.
DEAL SHEET
- Former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner led a group that has agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter in a deal that values the NBA team at $12.5 billion, a record for a sports franchise sale. Iger is a fan and at Disney oversaw ESPN, which had a rights deal with the league. “We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of [former Laker owners] Jerry and Jeanie Buss,” Iger and Kushner said. “Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”
- Ari Emanuel’s events company Mari agreed to acquire Broadway and London theater company ATG Entertainment from Providence Equity Partners. Terms were not disclosed, but the Financial Times reported the deal was worth £4.5 billion or about $6 billion. ATG operates 70 venues and hosts productions including “The Lion King,” “Wicked” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
- Apollo Sports Capital made a $2.6 billion financing deal with New York Yankees’ holding company Yankee Global Enterprises. The agreement is a mix of credit and equity, and the proceeds will be used to grow the franchise and refinance debt. Apollo Sports CEO Al Tylis will join the YGE board. The Steinbrenner family keeps full control of the Yankees, the companies said.
- National CineMedia, an in-theater ad company, agreed to buy Captivate Holdings, which sells digital video advertising in elevators and lobbies, in a deal that values Captivate at $275 million. The deal “allows NCM to leverage its national and local sales organizations, creating cross-sell opportunities; and injects needed growth and enhanced earnings visibility into the legacy biz,” said B. Riley analyst Drew Crum.
- Patrick Whitesell’s WTSL made an investment in Alex Cooper’s Unwell Media Company, that values the “Call Her Daddy” podcaster’s firm at $400 million. “With WTSL’s backing, the company is now also poised to accelerate our media platform’s growth through acquisitions and investments,” Cooper said.
WRAP 20 INDEX
It was a stronger week for the Wrap 20 Index now that we’ve had a chance to digest the quarter’s earnings results.
FUNDING FILE
Venture capital activity in media and entertainment cooled in the heat of July.
According to data from PitchBook, there were 35 deals in the U.S. Entertainment Software, Publishing and Media and Information category worth $119.2 million in July, down from 52 deals worth $582.5 million in June.
A year ago, there were 52 deals worth $412 million.
The biggest deal involved Ursa Space, a satellite intelligence company, which raised $27.9 million in venture growth funding.
Fluxco Media and Information Services, which helps companies locate power transformers, raised $26 million in pre-seed funds.
In the U.S. Media Companies category, there were 16 deals worth $42.3 million in July, compared to 17 deals worth $420.3 million in June.
A year ago, 29 deals worth $405.4 million happened.
FINANCIAL ROUNDUP
The Paramount-WBD Saga (Continued)
The battle over Paramount Skydance’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery reached the bargaining stage this week.
Paramount CEO David Ellison put a big chip on the table, threatening to move the company out of California if the lawsuit, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, isn’t settled quickly.
With a trial scheduled for March, Paramount is looking to resolve the dispute and close the acquisition or face daily “ticking fees” to WBD of $7 million starting Oct. 1.
“We would be delighted to engage” in talks “in order to repair the industry, create more jobs, bring more jobs and production back,” Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim said.
Bonta noted that Paramount is “eager” to settle, and said the states are open to good faith proposals, but “we’re focused on litigation and going to trial for the time being.”
Ellison has contended that the key reason the deal is being held up is political concerns about his company owning CNN. Ellison’s father and bankroller Larry Ellison is close to Trump and has reportedly promised changes at CNN if it is acquired, a charge that Paramount has denied.
Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) sent Ellison a letter accusing him of “colluding” with President Trump and urging him to answer questions.
To assuage concerns about political influence on CNN, Paramount has discussed creating an editorial board and other ways of safeguarding its independence, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We always remain open to internal improvements to journalistic integrity,” Paramount said in a statement.
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Director Randall Einhorn has shot every kind of TV show from “The Office” to “Fargo” to “The Muppets.” But his work on “Abbott Elementary” set the visual language of the ABC series for a very specific purpose. Just like the good teachers of Philadelphia’s most (in)famous elementary school, Einhorn, his fellow directors, and the show’s cinematographers and camera team do not want viewers to be passengers, passively receiving information.
They want us to be participants.
Creating a lighthearted, participatory visual style often means visuals that have to strike a balance: depicting the “Abbott” teachers in a clean, cinematic way that emphasizes the everyday heroism of teaching as a vocation and also making frames messy, or slyly reacting with the camera, making the audience lean in.
“It is that fine balance of making [the shot] look caught and making it look good,” Einhorn told IndieWire. “What I always say when I’m directing — I want the audience leaning in when they can’t see something well enough. The reason they can’t see something well enough is not an accident. It’s because I want them paying attention and leaning in so that when there’s something really delicious that does come along and appears [in camera], it’s very savory.”
This is hard enough on the normal “Abbott” sets, where every light has been intentionally placed, and the whole environment is controlled and optimized for filming. But when “Abbott Elementary” takes field trips, which have only gotten more ambitious over the course of the Quinta Brunson show’s five seasons, it becomes a whole other beast. Or whatever species of fauna the Phillie Phanatic is.
Indeed, Episode 4 of Season 5, “Ballgame,” involved a lot of shooting at the Phillies’ stadium of Citizens Bank Park, both on an actual game day and an off-day where the show needed to capture 14 pages of dialogue while they could still, somehow, control the sound. Einhorn, the producing director of “Abbott Elementary,” preps top-down schematics of everything in his episodes to sketch out how the cameras can interact with the characters and not see each other. But now he needed to do that with extremely fixed set conditions, changing weather conditions, and about 400 extras.
“We had three wedges [of seats] because we have three cameras. So we had to cover a fair bit of area with people,” Einhorn said. “I shot all the dialogue pieces and everything that was supposed to be happening on the non-game day, but [the characters] are also reacting to what’s happening on the field. So I’m whipping down to what’s happening on the field, hoping tomorrow that that does actually happen.”
Einhorn had 70 planned whips to connect the Off Day and Game Day footage for the hijinks of “Abbott” crew showing up to a Teacher Appreciation game at Citizens Bank Park. There ended up being 140 times that Einhorn and his team whip all the cameras between what was happening with them in the stands and what was meant to be happening on the field, or up to the Fanavision that Ava (Janelle James) will stop at nothing to get her and boyfriend O’shon (Matthew Law) on the Kiss Cam.
Of course, what actually happened on Game Day was Phillies’ star Kyle Schwarber, set to have a little cameo in the episode, hit four home runs. “ What the hell?” Einhorn joked. “But you could see it was very real. [The reactions] went back to Sheryl Lee Ralph, and her eyes are crazed, you know? She’s a great actor, but this was real. She was like, ‘Yeah!’ It was [her being] a Phillies fan, and it was really, really fun to see.”
Einhorn had rehearsed Schwarber before the game; and then after the four homers, he came back on the field and the “Abbott” crew had to shoot out his scene — nearly two and a half pages with the full show ensemble, 10 characters plus entrances and exits — in half an hour because the sprinklers were about to come on. “All of this is happening whether we’re ready for it or not,” Einhorn said.
But the somewhat guerrilla nature of the shoot enhances the things that help make the style of “Abbott Elementary” such a fun one. “We were really far away from our characters, but that’s also a look that I really like. It gives you that feeling that you’re privy to something that maybe you shouldn’t be privy to. It makes hearing what they say and seeing what they do just that little bit more delicious,” Einhorn said.
And after all the planning and all the logistics and all the shifting cloud cover, it makes the spontaneous moments of magic all the more special. “This was really, really difficult. I’ve never had to do 14 pages in a day with 10 characters on location. It makes you pay attention, and it takes a village,” Einhorn said. “But sometimes — our camera operators are so good. There’s one shot. Kyle Schwarber hits this home run, boom, and Jeremiah [Smith], our camera op, gets that, goes over to the bell ringing, and then to the Fanavision, and then we’re back to our cast. It’s like,‘Yeah. Thanks, man. That’s a great shot.’”
“Abbott Elementary” is streaming on Hulu.
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EXCLUSIVE: After two seasons, the Onyx Collective series Deli Boys has been canceled at Hulu. The crime dramedy stars Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, and Poorna Jagannathan.
The reason for the show’s cancellation is due to ratings, sources say. The series was a priority for Onyx, which pushed for the addition of a new series regular and a supporting cast to help attract new viewers, sources told me at the time. Following the casting of Fred Armisen in the series regular role, the show was renewed for a second season. Next, the supporting cast additions were announced for Andrew Rannells, Kumail Nanjiani, Lilly Singh, Robin Thede and Tan France.
Deli Boys was unique in that it centered South Asian characters, with the series creator Abdullah Saeed (Pakistani American) and the core three lead actors being of South Asian descent, a rarity in Hollywood in 2026. The series boasted representation for the community with many behind-the-scenes jobs, as well.
There are examples of TV shows featuring at least one South Asian actor in leading roles, including Mindy Kaling’s (Indian American) Hulu series Not Suitable For Work, featuring Avantika, an Indian American actress in the series regular cast; Prime Video’s 56 Days, led by Avan Jogia, whose father is British Indian; and CBS’ Ghosts stars Utkarsh Ambudkar, who is of Indian descent.
Deli Boys follows Mir and Raj Dar (Ali and Shaikh), a pair of pampered Pakistani American brothers who lose everything and are forced to reckon with their Baba’s (Iqbal Theba) secret life of crime as they attempt to take up his mantle in the underworld. Jagannathan stars as Naveeda “Lucky,” Baba’s confidant and a crime boss auntie.
In Season 2, Armison played Max Sugar, a legendary gambling savant with an uncanny ability to read people like cards in the half-hour series. His casino empire is global, but his crown jewel is in Philly.
Deli Boys was a special series for the actors like Jagannathan, who previously told Deadline, “What I love about this role is that Lucky has masculinity to her and a fieriness and a physicalness that I’ve never been able to play. It’s definitely not a role you’ve ever seen a South Asian woman play; you don’t see women play these types of roles. But she is stabbing someone with her left hand and shooting someone else with her right while taking somebody’s eye out with her heel. It’s on all possible fronts.”
Jagannathan will next be seen in HBO Max’s Lanterns, premiering August 16.
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Amplified has promoted assistants Kris Chesnokova and Christina Wachter to manager.
Born in Uzbekistan, Chesnokova immigrated to the United States at the age of four. She began her career at Riot Games before making the transition into talent management at Amplified. As a Talent Manager, Kristina works with both emerging and established talent, helping clients build careers across traditional film and television while also supporting those pursuing their own paths through content creation and independent creative ventures. She is passionate about finding talented people with unique voices and helping them navigate an ever-changing entertainment landscape.
After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, Wachter began her career at IAG in the Scripted Literary and Media Rights departments, where she cultivated an appreciation for representation. An avid reader, she is drawn to character-driven storytelling and enjoys collaborating with writers as they shape projects for film, television, and beyond. At Amplified, she represents a diverse roster of emerging and established writers currently including Andrina Wekontash Smith (Deli Boys), Isabel E. (Tell Me Lies), May Darmon (Solar Opposites, Star Trek: Lower Decks), Katie Avery (Pretty Little Liars: Summer School), and Patrick Emralino (The Cleaning Lady).
“We are thrilled that our very first assistant class at Amplified will be promoted to manager,” Amplified partners said in a statement. “Christina and Kris are exemplary colleagues, passionate, and have been incredibly hungry to achieve this promotion. We can’t wait to see what they will accomplish in their new roles.”
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