Lionsgate has taken an fairness stake within the generative AI video firm Runway and plans to drag from its present catalogue of franchises for an AI short-form sequence, increasing a partnership the 2 firms struck in 2024 and cementing the studio’s bullish strategy to the expertise.
The growth will even see Lionsgate and Runway begin a brand new growth program to create new content material — and, thus, mental property — utilizing AI, with a rollout deliberate for a number of tasks that incorporate generative AI. The businesses will even launch a sequence of “filmmaker-focused events.”
The monetary phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, although Lionsgate’s fairness stake within the AI agency shouldn’t be a money funding.
“Runway is a great creative partner, an exciting part of our AI strategy and a valuable driver in expanding our storytelling capabilities,” Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns mentioned in an announcement. “This is an iterative process. As we continue to expand the use cases of Runway technology across our production operations and introduce its tools to more of our filmmakers, we believe it will help our talent redefine and reshape the art of the possible in their creative endeavors.”
The businesses first struck a partnership in September 2024, with Lionsgate using Runway’s expertise for pre-visualization, storyboarding, components of the post-production course of and a potential repurposing of content across rating scales and genres. However Thursday’s announcement marks a dramatic growth of the deal, probably permitting characters from a few of Lionsgate’s properties — the studio declined to point what these could be — to emerge in an AI venture. A few of its largest franchises embody “John Wick” and “The Hunger Games.”
“We consistently see that the studios most serious about AI are thinking about it as a creative resource, not a cost-cutting tool,” Runway co-founder and co-CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela mentioned within the assertion. “Lionsgate gets that. This expanded partnership will help more stories be told, faster. That’s core to our mission at Runway, and we’re excited to help create the next generation of iconic content.”
Lionsgate’s full-throated embrace of AI has come amid a flurry of consternation surrounding the expertise throughout Hollywood, with firms attempting to navigate potential offers with generative companies that each defend their legion of characters whereas abiding by union contracts governing the usage of actors and writers’ work. Lionsgate hired Kathleen Grace in February as its first “chief AI officer,” and Burns mentioned at a convention final week that AI will save the corporate “tens and tens of millions of dollars a year” in movie and TV manufacturing prices.
Through the Gabelli Sports activities & Media Symposium in New York, Burns additionally appeared to trace on the expanded partnership, labeling Lionsgate “an interesting strategic partner” and referencing the corporate’s work with Runway, which raised money earlier this yr at a $5.3 billion valuation.
“I made a joke with [CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela] when we first did our deal with him, I said, ‘You know, maybe someday, we’ll buy you,’” Burns mentioned, according to Deadline. “Now, he’s probably smirking at me, saying, ‘Well, let’s take a look at how our valuation turns out.’”
Lionsgate’s most recent fiscal quarter, from January by means of March, noticed the corporate’s general revenues hit $906.5 million, up from $865.6 million year-over-year, and a internet revenue of $70.2 million, up from a $117.4 million loss in the identical quarter final yr.
