It was a swing so crazy that it could have failed spectacularly.
In 2024, Lionsgate, home to modern franchises like “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games” and owner of one of the best libraries out there (including films from Artisan, Trimark, Summit and the Weinstein Company), launched Lionsgate Limited. The boutique label combines cult classic titles from the company’s library with specialized versions of new releases, utilizing elements employed by other labels like Criterion (think custom artwork and deluxe packaging) and even releasing some of their movies on new VHS editions for the ultimate collector.
This kind of studio-led buy-in for a medium whose popularity has seen massive drops in sales was an expensive gamble. But against all odds, the bet has paid off. Lionsgate Limited’s team, which picks titles partly by scouring social media and discussion boards, has tapped into a vein of collectors and been embraced by the community, with their bespoke packaging and restored visuals, all while keeping an eye on the bottom line. Popular titles on its site (the only place, by the way, that you can pick these up) routinely sell out, at which point they are simply unavailable. A version of “Scream 4” sold out in 15 minutes and was sent to reprint immediately.
“Basic Instinct,” “Angel Heart” and the remake of “The Crazies” have all sold out. But hey, it’s called Lionsgate Limited not Lionsgate Forever.
What makes Lionsgate Limited’s success so jarring is how it starkly contrasts with the industry-wide retreat in physical media. Disney’s home video division, which was once one of its most important business units and led to a cottage industry of direct-to-video sequels and spinoffs of some of its most popular titles, has all but been shuttered.
What has been growing is a cottage industry of 4K UHD media specifically catering to collectors. They’re more likely to turn to boutique labels like Connecticut-based Vinegar Syndrome, Shout Factory (which also recently closed its online store after being acquired by Radial Entertainment), Arrow Video and, of course, the Criterion Collection, which has become the most prestigious home video label thanks to a canny combination of great selections (this year has included John Boorman’s “Point Blank” and an upcoming Mike Mills box set), outstanding branding and some killer social media, exemplified by videos of celebrities and filmmakers in the Criterion Closet – a former bathroom in its New York office that is stocked, floor to ceiling, with DVDs.
Lionsgate Limited has emulated that approach, catering to diehards and exercising its own social media savvy with its strategy for physical media.
Jill Anderson SVP of Content Strategy & Library Management for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said that the idea for an in-house boutique label had been floated internally for years, until they landed on a moment, in her words, “Where we were seeing trends of physical media where there were core people trying to keep it alive and keeping people engaged.”
Indeed, physical media sales declined less than 10% in 2025 compared to over 23% in 2024 and 50% in 2023, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, and a growing number of Gen Z-ers are embracing Blu-rays and DVDs as “the new vinyl,” flooding video stores and opening a new source of consumer. The timing for Lionsgate Limited was perfect.
“We just saw an opportunity really to fill the gap for the content that Lionsgate has to create really bespoke collectible packages, and most of the people in the building have a history with physical media that we’re really excited about it, and want to honor the legacy of film, as well as TV,” Anderson said, hinting that TV series could also be headed to the enviable Lionsgate Limited catalog.
How Lionsgate Limited makes its selections
Anderson said the goal was to bring together archival material from previous releases, pair that with newly created supplements and use “really cool artists” to create the artwork and packaging for the sets.
“I brought everybody in a room and was like, Can we actually do this? And we launched it from there,” Anderson said about the entrepreneurial spirit of the company.
“The ethos of the company is, Bring it forward and tell us what you think we should be working on. When we created a business plan to show that this could be profitable and we really could create a lane where we can do this ourselves, they were like, ‘Then do it, have at it and show us what this could be,’” Anderson said. “As long as there was no huge risk that we were taking, we knew the market we were going after. We knew that we’ve done this before – in the history of Lionsgate, we’ve created these sets before, so we knew there was a lane that we could play in. It was just figuring out how successful we could be.”
In terms of how they select titles that will receive the vaulted Lionsgate Limited treatment, Anderson said that they’re always keeping an eye on social media and in forums for the titles that have gone missing and that fans are demanding return. They also analyze sales potential, attempting to “remain profitable in a way that fans are still excited, but everybody’s still excited too about what we’re moving forward.”
They also look at anniversaries, seasonality and listening to filmmakers who will occasionally say, “I’ve wanted to revisit this for a long time” or “I feel like we didn’t do it right the first time.”
This happened with Eli Roth, who got to release a 4K of his underrated thriller “Knock Knock” and a deluxe version of his debut “Cabin Fever.”
“I absolutely love what the Lionsgate Limited team has been doing with their catalog,” Roth said. “Horror fans are collectors of premium physical media, and Lionsgate Limited really understands how to give them something worth collecting.
“From the meticulous transfers to the real investment in extras and beautiful packaging, these releases feel valuable and never like a double-dip,” he added. “Many of these films were overlooked at the time and never received the deluxe treatment they deserved. Now fans get to see them in 4K, in all their gory detail, like never before. The transfers we did for ‘Knock Knock’ and ‘Cabin Fever’ were so stunning, it finally felt like I had the definitive versions of my films.”
Sometimes the company will also see an opportunity to do a Lionsgate Limited version of a title that might also get a mainstream release, like the recent “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair,” which makes Quentin Tarantino’s uncut version of “Kill Bill” available to the masses for the first time outside of local theatrical showings. And it’s not relegated to just older titles: Lionsgate Limited will release an edition of its box office smash “Michael” with unique artwork and a 50-page booklet of bespoke photography this summer.
Lionsgate Limited also unexpectedly resurrected the Vestron Video line of Blu-rays, which was inspired by the titles made by direct-to-video Vestron Video from 1981 to 1993. The line used to be available from mainstream retailers like Amazon and combined actual Vestron titles (which Lionsgate now has access to) like “Ghoulies Go to College” and “Earth Girls Are Easy,” with titles from other subsidiaries like Live Entertainment, Carolco, Trimark and Artisan. Previously, the titles were well-adorned Blu-rays, but Lionsgate Limited has made several of the titles 4K releases for the first time – things like Charlie Sheen alien movie “The Arrival,” Canadian werewolf classic “Ginger Snaps” and mid-1990s action movie “The Substitute.”
They have also been great about partnering with international labels to unleash versions of movies that have yet to receive domestic release, including an ongoing collaboration with Studiocanal.
As to what new release titles receive the Lionsgate Limited treatment, we were curious. We imagined that Bryan Fuller’s horror comedy “Dust Bunny,” released last year, would have gotten the honor. But instead it was released as a relatively bare-bones edition through regular retailers.
Anderson admitted that “Dust Bunny” was a title that they had considered for Lionsgate Limited that ultimately didn’t make the cut.
“There are a lot of internal discussions, between all the fans, cinephiles and movie enthusiasts in the building,” Anderson said. “There are very strong opinions of what we do and what we don’t do, and that was one that was targeted as, Should we do this?”
While it didn’t make the cut for its initial release, it doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be a maxed-out version available in the future.
What’s next
And the sky really is the limit when it comes to Lionsgate Limited. New discs are announced each month, with jaw-dropping releases like a recent tribute to Eleanor Coppola and her documentary work coming at a steady place. Anderson said that she is constantly stopped in the hallways of Lionsgate with people congratulating her on the label and asking how to get a discount on titles.
Lionsgate Limited is constantly experimenting, according to Anderson. Television is something that is on the docket. They’ve talked to filmmakers about doing titles from earlier in their career (like they did with Christopher McQuarrie’s directorial debut “The Way of the Gun“), always with the intent of putting out the definitive release of those titles, where even “the packaging is more than a box, it’s part of the experience.” (Look no further than the incredible “Freaky Tales” 4K release, in a video store-worthy VHS box, pictured above.)
“Internally we’re super proud of what we’ve created, even if we weren’t selling anything,” said Anderson. “Everybody’s just super excited that we’re creating something new that we haven’t done on our own before, direct to the consumer, just for packaged physical media. But it’s been really successful, beyond what we imagined.”
And Anderson is not resting on her laurels. Instead, she is thinking about the job at hand.
“We’re focusing on, How do we grow and how do we create a bigger audience for Lionsgate Limited? Because there are a lot of people in the know, but we’re finding out other times you’ll see people go, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know there was Lionsgate Limited. What is that?’ We’re still trying to make sure the core audience that loves physical media knows who we are and knows what we sell,” said Anderson.
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