Agreement Covers Streaming Rights for Upcoming Blockbuster
Titles Robin Hood,
Patriots Day, American Assassin, The Glass Castle
and Wonder
Deal Also Encompasses Significant Number of Library
Titles
SANTA MONICA, Calif. and
BEIJING, Nov. 29, 2016 /CNW/ -- In a move further
extending the reach of its global content platform, Lionsgate
(NYSE: LGF) has signed a new long-term output deal for a broad
range of commercially exciting feature films and a number of
prestigious Lionsgate library titles with China's largest comprehensive online video
platform, iQIYI, the two companies announced today.
The agreement covers subscription (SVOD), transactional (TVOD),
and advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) rights for films streaming
on iQIYI's platform in China,
which includes over half a billion unique users. iQIYI will
have exclusive streaming rights in China to Lionsgate theatrical titles covered
by the agreement, enable broadcasting of the titles and launch a
major promotional commitment to them on its platform.
iQIYI, which has been streaming Lionsgate titles in China since last fall, served as Lionsgate's
promotional partner earlier this year on the global blockbuster
Now You See Me 2, the highest-grossing Lionsgate film ever
released at the Chinese box office.
The deal includes upcoming titles such as Otto Bathurst's eagerly-anticipated
Robin Hood, starring
Jamie Foxx and Taron Egerton, Lionsgate/CBS Films' Patriots
Day, the acclaimed AFI Fest closing night dramatic thriller
about the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber directed by
Pete Berg and starring Mark Wahlberg, The Glass Castle, based on
the worldwide best-seller and starring Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody
Harrelson, Lionsgate/CBS Films' American Assassin,
starring Michael Keaton and
Dylan O'Brien in the
counter-terrorism thriller, and the uplifting Wonder,
starring Academy-Award® winner Julia
Roberts, Owen Wilson and
The Room's Jacob
Tremblay.
"We're delighted to expand our relationship with iQIYI, a
world-class platform at the cutting edge of delivering premium
quality films to online Chinese audiences," said Lionsgate
Executive Vice President of International Sales Wendy Reeds. "We have collaborated with
iQIYI on the promotion and distribution of some of our biggest
releases in China, and our new
agreement represents a great opportunity to bring a slate of
blockbuster films and a deep portfolio of library titles to one of
the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world."
"Lionsgate has emerged as a major creative force in the global
marketplace, and we're proud to continue adding their incredible
pipeline of star-driven movies to our platform," said Yang
Xianghua, senior vice president of iQIYI. "iQIYI already has
the largest online movie library in China, and this agreement with one of
Hollywood's major studios
significantly expands the selection of premium quality movies we
will bring to our audiences."
The agreement was negotiated for Lionsgate by Senior Vice
President International Business & Legal Affairs Christian
Perala based in the Company's London office.
ABOUT iQIYI
Founded in April
2010, iQIYI has grown into China's largest Internet and mobile video
service provider. An independently operated subsidiary of Baidu,
the world's largest Chinese search engine, iQIYI is focused on
providing Chinese users with the best possible online video
experience, and has become an industry leader in developing
innovative products and technologies.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a premier next
generation global content leader with a diversified presence in
motion picture production and distribution, television programming
and syndication, home entertainment, international distribution and
sales, branded channel platforms, interactive ventures and games,
and location-based entertainment. The Company's feature film
business spans eight labels and includes the
blockbuster Hunger Games franchise, the Now You
See Me and John Wick
series, Tyler Perry's Boo! A
Madea Halloween, the
critically-acclaimed Hacksaw Ridge, Nerve, CBS
Films/Lionsgate's Hell or High Water,
Sicario, Roadside Attractions' Love &
Mercy and Mr. Holmes, Codeblack Films'
Addicted and breakout concert film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain and Pantelion
Films' Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing
Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.
The Company has nearly 80 television shows on 40 different
networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and
syndication businesses. These include the ground-breaking hit
series Orange is the New Black, the fan favorite drama
series Nashville, the
syndication success The Wendy Williams Show, the hit drama
series The Royals, the Golden Globe-nominated dramedy
Casual and the breakout success Greenleaf.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is
an important source of recurring revenue and serves as a foundation
for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and
Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality
entertainment in markets around the
world. www.lionsgate.com
For further information, please contact:
Peter Wilkes
Lionsgate
310-255-3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
Celine Sun
iQIYI
celinesun@qiyi.com
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SOURCE Lionsgate