‘Michael’ Crosses $1 Billion at the Box Office as Lionsgate Roars Back

Not long ago, Lionsgate — the last major independent movie company — seemed headed to Hollywood’s scrap heap.

It couldn’t seem to find a hit. The studio released 17 movies in 2024 and generated just $251 million in domestic ticket sales. That figure was 85 percent lower than Lionsgate’s 2012 peak, when Katniss Everdeen, the “Twilight” vampires, Madea and the “Expendables” mercenaries helped generate $1.72 billion. As the slump persisted into last summer, Lionsgate shares fell to $5.76, their lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, when most theaters closed with no reopening in sight.

The conventional wisdom on Wall Street and in Hollywood: Lionsgate’s best hope was to find a buyer. If old-line movie giants like Paramount and Warner Bros. had concluded they needed to merge to compete with Big Tech, what chance did little Lionsgate have?

But the studio has since done something few thought possible — it has given itself options.

Over the weekend, Lionsgate’s contentious Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael,” crossed $1 billion at the global box office, becoming the studio’s first movie to reach that milestone, according to Rentrak, a film data service. Lionsgate took on the $150 million project after Hollywood’s biggest studios passed, believing that decades of child-molestation accusations against Mr. Jackson made it too risky. (Universal and Kino Films joined with Lionsgate to distribute the film overseas.)

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/business/media/michael-movie-lionsgate.html