Legendary Entertainment Submits Takeover Offer for Lionsgate
The Dune studio's bid would hand it a 20,000-title library — John Wick, The Hunger Games, Saw — and its own theatrical distribution arm.
Legendary Entertainment has submitted a takeover offer for Lionsgate, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, reviving acquisition talks between the two studios.
Legendary, the producer behind the Dune and Minecraft franchises, is owned by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and company management. A takeover would give it access to Lionsgate’s library of more than 20,000 film and television titles — including the John Wick, Hunger Games, Twilight and Saw franchises — and, crucially, a theatrical distribution network of its own.
Legendary first explored a deal in July 2025. The two sides have held on-and-off talks since then, but the new offer is a concrete step: an actual bid on the table, with terms still undisclosed.
Investors moved fast. Lionsgate shares jumped more than 15% during Tuesday’s trading session, pushing the studio’s market value to about $3.6 billion. The studio also carries roughly $1.9 billion in debt.
Neither company commented. A Lionsgate spokesperson declined to comment, and Legendary and Apollo did not respond to requests for comment.
The deal would solve a long-standing problem for Legendary. The company makes blockbusters but has relied on studio partners — Universal, Warner Bros. and now Paramount — to release them. Owning Lionsgate’s distribution arm would let it put out its own films, while the cash-generating library would turn Legendary into something closer to a major studio.
Pressure on Lionsgate has been building. Activist investor Anson Funds, which holds about a 1.5% stake, has pushed the studio to embrace AI or sell itself. Other suitors — Banijay, Mediawan and France’s Bolloré Group — expressed interest but never filed formal offers. Netflix told TheWrap it is not interested.
The approach follows a year of consolidation talk across Hollywood. Netflix’s $83 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets collapsed earlier this year after the streamer declined to match a rival bid from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance. Lionsgate, which separated from Starz last year, reports its fiscal second-quarter results on November 5.
