- Lionsgate’s Globalgate consortium plays a significant role in the media powerhouse’s efforts at world connectivity through a film-financing structure that harnesses “the upside of international film production”
- Globalgate’s partnership with France’s TF1 Studios marks its 13th partnership aimed at taking advantage of the worldwide boom in local-language features by remaking local hits for non-U.S. markets
- Lionsgate recently launched its first movie-themed amusement park on an island conveniently situated near Macau’s gaming empires and Hong Kong’s international business communities
- The company plans to open a movie-themed park on South Korea’s Jeju Island next year
- China’s amusement park industry is projected to bring in $12 billion in annual revenues by next year
World entertainment content powerhouse Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF.A) (NYSE: LGF.B) continues to build a global, vertically oriented profile offering ways for people to connect with each other and have fun through a variety of innovative platforms. One way that the company is demonstrating its potential for bridging global divides through its revenue-generating activities was manifest in a recent partnership with TF1 Studios, the theatrical division of French commercial television company TF1 Group (http://ibn.fm/zPrk1).
TF1 Studios will provide local French theatrical content for remakes that are primarily marketed to other non-U.S. markets outside France. TF1’s partnership with Lionsgate’s Globalgate content platform grants the local-language film company its 13th curated working production and distribution partner under an umbrella that includes studios such as Mexico’s Televisa, Tobis in Germany, RAI Cinema in Italy and Kadokawa in Japan.
Globalgate uses “a distributor-aligned film-financing structure to harness the upside of international film production” in a variety of foreign markets (http://ibn.fm/GN5ve). The company currently has more than 40 films and series in development, including remakes of Mexican hit Instructions Not Included for the Indian and Korean markets; Argentine romance comedy No Kids for Germany, Korea and Mexico; and Korean action-thriller Terror Live for the Japanese and Indian markets.
“Globalgate has successfully harnessed the fast-growing local content market and their growing roster of blue-chip production and distribution partners is both very compatible with TF1 Studio and will advance our footing in France and globally,” TF1 Studio Deputy CEO Nathalie Toulza Madar stated in a news release.
Lionsgate’s most recent global project is its Lionsgate Entertainment World high-tech, movie-themed amusement park on China’s Hengqin Island, situated near Hong Kong and Macau. The 240,000-square-foot vertically constructed indoor park opened July 31, offering visitors an immersive experience, with 25 attractions built around Lionsgate’s film properties The Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent, Escape Plan, Now You See Me and Gods Of Egypt (http://ibn.fm/pxaEL).
The amusement park is a key component of the Novotown development, which is focused on non-gaming tourism just across the water from Macau’s “Las Vegas of Asia” casino and shopping attractions, as well as Hong Kong’s nearby international business population. The development itself is part of the Chinese central government’s plan to link the economies of Macau, Hong Kong and major cities in Guangdong Province, where Hengqin Island is located, following suggestions by Macau’s gaming industry that relaxed border formalities between Hengqin and Macau should be encouraged in order to boost tourism trade between the two (http://ibn.fm/peWTP).
Market analysts at World Travel Market anticipate that China’s booming theme park industry could draw revenues of $12 billion by 2020 (http://ibn.fm/fkKez), which would mark an increase of 367 percent from 2010 as the country’s middle income demographic expands.
Movie-themed attractions have long been the focus of tourism agencies in sun-drenched cities, and Lionsgate’s move to join in the market potential grants the company a significant Asian young adult customer base. The company had earlier planned to launch a similar amusement park in New York’s Times Square as the first entry in its strategy of building branded indoor entertainment centers in high-traffic urban areas in major U.S. and European cities, but, in July, Lionsgate announced that it was abandoning the New York site (http://ibn.fm/XIGqd).
The company plans to open its Lionsgate Movie World outdoor theme park on Jeju Island in South Korea next year, and it continues to operate other, smaller theatrical-themed entertainment centers around the world, including live stage attractions such as the Lionsgate Zone of the Motiongate theme park in Dubai, the Saw Escape Room in Las Vegas and the touring Hunger Gamez exhibition.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Lionsgate.com
