Lionsgate

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation (or Lionsgate) is a Canadian-American entertainment company. The company was formed inVancouver, British Columbia, on July 3, 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. As of November 2013, it is the most commercially successful mini major film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio. Lionsgate Films is not to be confused with Robert Altman's former company, Lion's Gate Films, although both names refer to the same Vancouver landmark, the Lions Gate bridge.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation (Lionsgate) was formed in 1997 by Frank Giustra and Avi Federgreen with a $16 million investment including another $40 million from other investors which included Keyur Patel and Yorkton Securities' executives such as G. Scott Paterson.

The distribution of selected recent non-in-house films for pay-per-view and on-demand are under the supervision of NBCUniversal Television Distribution under Universal Pictures (Universal formerly held home video and television rights to many of the early Lionsgate films), while all others (particularly the in-house films) are distributed for both cable and broadcast television through Lionsgate's syndicated division.

On September 13, 2010, Lionsgate and Televisa formed a joint venture, Pantelion Films, to produce for the next five years eight to 10 films a year targeted for the U.S. Latino market. Lions Gate sold off its Canadian distribution unit, Maple Pictures, in September 2011 to Alliance Films.

On December 23, 2013, Lions Gate announced they have crossed over $1 billion domestically and internationally for the 2nd year in a row with the success of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Now You See Me, Instructions Not Included, and Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain.