Production company Legendary Entertainment has revived its bid to acquire Lionsgate, causing shares of Lionsgate to pop more than 15% Tuesday on the report, according to Bloomberg citing anonymous sources. Legendary submitted a takeover offer that values Lionsgate at $3.5 billion, which includes $1.9 billion in debt. A merger with Lionsgate could allow Legendary to self-distribute its films.
Representatives for Legendary and Lionsgate declined to comment on the report.
Other companies that have expressed interest in Lionsgate but have not submitted formal takeover offers have included Banijay and Mediawan. Banijay just merged with the U.K.’s All3Media, officially now known as Banijay Entertainment.
Legendary, the production company behind movies including the “Dune” franchise and “A Minecraft Movie,” last year also had been eyeing a deal to acquire Lionsgate, whose franchises include John Wick, the Hunger Games and Saw. Legendary reached out about a potential partnership with Lionsgate Studios following the split-off of Starz, which formally separated from Lionsgate in May 2025. Lionsgate Studios, comprising its TV and film production and distribution divisions and a content library with 20,000-plus titles, has been a separately traded entity since then.
For the June 2026 quarter, Lionsgate saw overall revenue jump 48%, and its movie segment posted income of $105 million for the period. That was driven by Michael Jackson biopic “Michael,” which is the studio’s biggest movie at the box office to date and the first biopic to top $1 billion in theatrical release. Lionsgate’s quarterly net loss attributable to shareholders was $28.8 million, an improvement over a net loss of $94 million a year earlier, as its television division posted a decline in revenue and profit.
As of June 30, Lionsgate had $425.8 million in cash and equivalents and total debt of $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, in 2024, Legendary bought out the stake Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group owned in the company. The pact left Legendary and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management in control of the company. Apollo acquired a stake in Legendary in 2022 for $760 million.
Lionsgate is scheduled to release financial results for its fiscal 2027 second quarter (the three months ended Sept. 30, 2026) after market close on Thursday, Nov. 5.
