The No. 1 movie on Netflix this weekend — by a long shot — was a sci-fi actioner called “War Machine,” starring “Reacher” breakout Alan Ritchson, but what many might not know is the film was actually produced by Lionsgate.
While the studio behind “John Wick” and “The Housemaid” is theatrically focused, it made moves the last few years in streaming that have raised eyebrows. Post-pandemic it partnered with Hulu to release “Run,” then in 2022, when surveying the landscape for romantic comedies, teamed with Amazon to release the Jennifer Lopez rom-com “Shotgun Wedding” on Prime Video to success. It also partnered with Amazon on the 2025 “Simple Favor” sequel when the budget — largely due to the actors’ salaries — hit a threshold that was too risky for theatrical.
And now there’s “War Machine,” which Lionsgate developed as its next project with “Hitman’s Bodyguard” 1 and 2 filmmaker Patrick Hughes, and illustrates the value of getting everybody aboard on the streaming direction. As Lionsgate Motion Picture Group President Erin Westerman explained to TheWrap, the decision to partner with Netflix on the release of the action movie — which hit 39.3 million views in its first few days on the streamer — was one made as a team, with Hughes and Ritchson intimately involved in deciding to forego a theatrical release.
“Our intention was to make it theatrically, and then when our sales team went out to start conversations with the international buyers, the streaming market was just so frothy that we had a conversation with Todd Lieberman, our producing partner, with Alan Ritchson, our star, about the fact that this was a really viable option for it, and we all chose together to go to Netflix,” Westerman told TheWrap in an interview after the film’s big debut.
The movie, which Westerman said was made for “a respectable number” but declined to reveal budget specifics, was shot in Australia and New Zealand and follows an Army Ranger candidate who finds himself battling a giant robot that’s hunting his unit.
It was Netflix’s passion that made them the winning bidder for the film, Westerman said, while Ritchson — who has a movie deal at Amazon — was keen to expand his reach (pun intended) beyond his home streamer.
The result was a win for all involved, and for Lionsgate, Westerman said she hopes the success of “War Machine” shows that when the studio decides to send a film to streaming, it’s a decision made in collaboration with the filmmakers, not as a dumping ground for movies the studio isn’t confident will hit in theaters.
“We develop for theatrical. And I think that’s ultimately why the quality has been so good and why the filmmakers feel so taken care of, because we’re all just in it together to make the best version of the movie and find the right home.”
Read on for our full conversation with Westerman about the road to releasing “War Machine” and how Lionsgate decides which titles head to the streaming market.
Everything we talked about with “The Housemaid” last time we spoke came true — the female audience turned out, it played all through January. Huge hit.
It’s been so fun, and the talent deserved it so much. So we’re just happy we could deliver for them.
And here’s another hit with “War Machine.” So I know Lionsgate was developing this and then Netflix acquired it. Tell me about that process – how did this come to debut on Netflix instead of theaters?
We’re super proud of it. We don’t have a streaming service, which I think is what a lot of other studios do. We see streaming as an opportunity when it’s the best fit for a movie, because everything we do here is bespoke. One of our focuses is that filmmakers are IP for us. The same way that we’re hoping to make a Paul Feig and a Francis Lawrence movie every year, Patrick Hughes has been family to us, so we had massive hits with him with “Hitman’s Bodyguard” 1 and 2, so “War Machine” began in 2017 just as our next Patrick Hughes movie. Our intention was to make it theatrically, and then when our sales team went out to start conversations with the international buyers, the streaming market was just so frothy that we had a conversation with Todd Lieberman, our producing partner, with Alan Ritchson, our star, about the fact that this was a really viable option for it, and we all chose together to go to Netflix.
Was this before or after “Reacher” came out? Because that really made Alan pop.
We went to the market a little over a year ago, so yes, it was post-”Reacher.” He had a three-picture deal at Amazon, so they were obviously quite interested. But he saw this as an opportunity to make a movie outside of Amazon and build a relationship with another streamer. We had made a movie with him called “Ordinary Angels” in our faith-based business that had done moderate business, but we had sort of fallen in love with him. He’s just such a he-man with a heart of gold. So doing “War Machine” at Netflix was a wonderful way to keep two pieces of talent that we had had great experiences with together and in the family.
What made Netflix the right fit for this?
I would say first and foremost passion. Aaron Janus at Netflix loved it so much and saw it so clearly, and they were really bullish about the team, and so that was honestly the driver. We could have made it theatrically, we could have taken it to one of the other streamers that was bidding on it, but their passion won out, and they were tremendous partners. And it was a negative pickup for them, so the movie was greenlit and they just jumped in as the distributor.
We’re sitting here Monday morning quarterbacking. Obviously, the numbers are great. What was your reaction when you saw so many people responded so well to it?
You never know. Honestly, you have to assume it’s possible, to believe in it. But I do think that who Alan is as an actor, I think people just connect to him emotionally. And I think it felt different in a world of a lot of programmer-y action, I think the idea of being action plus sci fi just felt distinctive. It’s also a beautiful movie, because it was built with a theatrical-level team.
People are really responding to it.
We’ve done a lot of these, and I think one of the things that I’ve realized is that it’s always a decision we make with our partners together. It began with Hulu back in 2020 with a little movie we had made already intended for theatrical. The pandemic changed the course of those plans, but we sold this little movie “Run” to Hulu, and we had a couple options at that moment in time for distribution for that movie, but ultimately we made the decision together with our partner. Seb Ohanian, who’s now partnered with Ryan Coogler, was the producer on that movie.
“Shotgun Wedding” was a movie we built again with Todd Lieberman. We had made that movie, and it was testing really well. We were excited about it, but it just felt a little bit like the best of those movies had sort of turned over to streaming. So we all had a conversation about what our options were, and after the movie was made, decided together and took that movie to the market, had multiple buyers in the streaming space. We still explored a theatrical release, and sort of just weighed the decision together. Ultimately everybody decided together to go to Amazon, which was a big hit for them. And if you talk to anyone on that movie, they felt the bespoke nature of distribution that this company creates for people. Same thing with “A Simple Favor 2.” We wanted to make that movie, but the talent wanted sequel-level salaries, which felt very fair at that moment, but the theatrical market couldn’t bear it. So we decided together early on to go find a streaming partner to great success on all sides.
Are there other Lionsgate-produced films coming up that are heading to streaming?
We have a movie in post with Amazon called “The Devil’s Mouth,” which is Jeff Wadlow doing a shark movie. But we just build them, and then the distribution announces itself as an option. We don’t develop for streaming. We develop for theatrical. And I think that’s ultimately why the quality has been so good and why the filmmakers feel so taken care of. Because we’re all just in it together to make the best version of the movie and find the right home.
We have a project right now that is genre, it’s a low budget film, and we’re in a negotiations right now with Dave Bautista, and I think that one’s going to go the way that “War Machine” did. We’re going to go to the marketplace, and because he’s willing to, if it ends up being theatrical, take one deal, and if it’s streaming, take another deal. We have optionality on that movie. That one will be exactly what “War Machine” is, which is we will bring the conversation to the group once we have a bunch of information about our options. But it was built for theatrical, and it very well might become theatrical.
What does the success of a movie like “War Machine” mean for Lionsgate?
I think it’s our filmmaker partners, who we’re building movies with, knowing that this is a potential outcome that they could be excited about, because it will be a decision that gets made together. I think that’s an important thing for people to know. At this point, we’ve done it to great success from a qualitative standpoint, like everyone looks at all of those scenarios and feels proud. I think that’s rare. I don’t know that that’s how people who have built films at other studios feel when their content moves to a streaming platform. The repeat business from filmmakers is the thing that I’m really, really proud of.
“War Machine” is now streaming on Netflix.
