What is Lionsgate+? Prime Video Adds New Streaming Option

Imagine a streaming service so new, its website only says, “Coming soon…”

That streamer is Lionsgate+, and while you can’t subscribe to it directly, or even get any information on their website, you can sign up and watch through Prime Video. There’s even a 7-day free trial. After that, it’s $6.99/month. Movies and shows are ad-free.

Lionsgate+ joins more than 130 possible add-ons to Prime Video.

What Can You Watch on Lionsgate+?

The platform is home to some excellent movies and TV series.

And if you need further enticement, you can see one of the biggest box office failures of all time: “Cutthroat Island.” It has an awesome soundtrack and Geena Davis as a pirate. Michael Douglas got paid $13 million and then left the project.

Until 2012, it held the Guinness World Record for the biggest box office failure, costing an estimated $98 million to make and pulling in only $10 million at the box office.

Wait – Doesn’t LionsGate Put its Stuff on STARZ?

Well played, industry watcher.

You may remember that Lionsgate was the movie and TV studio arm of a company that also owned STARZ. But last year, the companies split. The STARZ team always felt its stock price had been undervalued because it was tied to the studio. They used to complain about it on earnings calls all the time.

So now, Lionsgate has no obligation to keep its content aligned with STARZ in the future, though the companies do currently have a deal. And rather than becoming an “arms dealer” and only supplying movies and TV for other platforms, they’re starting their own streamer as a way to monetize titles that may not otherwise be on rotation with other providers. (In that way, it’s similar to another recent Prime Video addition: Sony Pictures Core.)

The Lionsgate+ name has actually been in use in international markets for a while. It was the new name for a service previously called StarzPlay. STARZ, of course, still exists.

What Future Content Can We Expect from Lionsgate+?

Lionsgate is a bit under-the-radar, but it has some strong franchises: “John Wick,” “Hunger Games,” “Twilight,” “Saw,” and “Now You See Me.” There are over 20,000 titles in the Lionsgate library overall.

The company had a recent hit with “The Housemaid” – that cost about $35 million and made nearly $400 million at the box office. There are plans to build that out into a franchise.

Lionsgate is excited about three anticipated hits coming to theaters this year: the Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael,” the first of two sequels to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” and the prequel film “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.”

It’s likely all of those films end up on Lionsgate+ at some point, but the company’s first on-demand streaming window is split between Prime Video and STARZ at the moment. Lionsgate+ appears to be a fallback when the titles cool.

The company is aiming for 8-12 theatrical releases per year.

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