Jim Packer, Lionsgate’s president of worldwide television distribution, is sure that the upcoming spin-off, Michael Jackson biopic, of the studio’s film and TV production and library business will become a powerhouse for building successful franchises.
At the Gabelli Media & Entertainment Symposium, Packer highlighted the company’s focus on intellectual property, citing the highly anticipated Michael Jackson biopic Michael as an example.
He predicted that the film, set for release in April 2025, will be the studio’s biggest movie ever, generating significant buzz with each new photo release.
Packer also highlighted the success of Lionsgate’s Hunger Games series, which has grossed approximately $3.3 billion at the box office.
“We’ve taken that franchise and it doesn’t map to Harry Potter, but from a financial standpoint and an IP standpoint, it’s as important to us as Harry Potter is to Warner Bros,” Packer told in the conference.
His remarks came after Suzanne Collins and her publisher Scholastic declared on Thursday morning that the novel Sunrise on the Reaping, the next book in The Hunger Games series, will be published the following year.
Packer stated that besides the money on the table, he must consider the scale of a platform that is interested in licencing content from his studio.
“In a situation where somebody is going to offer my team more per-month on a movie like John Wick or Hunger Games for one month, versus somebody wants to buy five months at a little less, we might go five, because it’s a balance of the two,” Packer insisted.
