Lionsgate Teams With Sony In New Multi-Year Home Entertainment Pact

Lionsgate and Sony have made a multi-year agreement in which the latter will handle distribution of the former’s physical home entertainment releases in the U.S. and Canada.

While many major studios have collapsed their marketing and distribution ops to focus jointly on theatrical and streaming releases, what is simply going on here is that Lionsgate is getting a new home entertainment distribution partner. Lionsgate use to distribute their DVDs, etc through 20th Century Fox. Following Fox’s acquisition by Disney, that deal will lapse in July, and the new one with Sony will commence.

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Similar to their deal with Fox, Lionsgate will continue to maintain its own independent sales and marketing teams while leveraging Sony’s supply chain and distribution services. The agreement was jointly announced by Jason Spivak, EVP, Distribution, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and Ron Schwartz, President, Worldwide Distribution, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

“We’re excited to embark on this new relationship with Lionsgate in physical home entertainment,” said Spivak. “By working together, we can identify and leverage efficiencies in the supply chain that will benefit not only our respective studios, but also retailers, and ultimately, the millions of consumers who enjoy Sony Pictures and Lionsgate feature films and TV programs in the 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD formats.”

“We’re pleased to be working with Sony Pictures, a respected world-class distributor who shares our philosophical commitment to the customer,” said Schwartz. “This collaboration makes both our businesses even stronger, and our new agreement enhances our ability to serve the retail community and consumers with innovation, adaptability and strong content slates in the years to come.”

As was touted earlier this week, Paramount+ will include popular Lionsgate movies like The Hunger Games in their library when it launches on March 4.

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