Lionsgate

The 2023 separation of Starz from the film and TV studio, followed by Lionsgate Studios going public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, was a direct response to years of debt and a stock price that never reflected the value of owning franchises like "John Wick" and "The Hunger Games." The studio has leaned hard into expanding both — "Ballerina" extending the Wick universe and "Sunrise on the Reaping" bringing the Hunger Games prequel line back to theaters — rather than developing new tentpoles from scratch.

We think that's the correct survival strategy for a studio this size, but it's also a tell: Lionsgate no longer has the balance sheet to gamble on original franchises the way it did when "The Hunger Games" first launched, so it's mining what already works. The thing to watch is whether the standalone studio can generate a genuine new hit in the next couple of years, because two franchises carrying an entire public company is a thinner margin for error than Lionsgate has ever operated with before.