- “The Housemaid” boosted Lionsgate’s film division segment profit to $181 million, up by 39%
- Trailing 12-month library revenue hit $1 billion for the third straight quarter
- The second quarter of 2026 is likely to be even bigger with the release of “Michael,” which will cross $300 million in domestic grosses this weekend
Thanks to its strengthening library revenue and the holiday box office and post-theatrical success of “The Housemaid,” Lionsgate got 2026 off on the right foot with a $70.2 million profit in the first quarter and a 4.7% year-over-year increase in revenue to $906 million.
The revenue for the quarter blew past projections of $809 million by Zacks Investment Research, while reported adjusted earnings of 37 cents per share topped Zacks’ projections of 23 cents. Lionsgate’s stock took an afterhours bump of 3.8% to $13.80/share at time of writing.
“All of the pieces of our business are coming together – our library has achieved a billion dollars in trailing 12-month revenue for three quarters in a row, more than half of our film, television and live entertainment slates are comprised of branded, repeatable properties, and massive hits like ‘The Housemaid’ and ‘Michael’ are strengthening our brand and increasing our forward visibility,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “We enter fiscal 27 positioned to deliver the earnings power and value creation that our shareholders expect.”
A Box Office Force Once More
The boost in Lionsgate’s revenue came from its film division, which reported segment revenue of $651.9 million and segment profit of $187.1 million. That equates to year-over-year growth of 23% and 39%, respectively.
The Freida McFadden thriller adaptation “The Housemaid,” which opened last December, grossed $70 million domestically in the first quarter and finished its theatrical run with nearly $400 million grossed worldwide. The post-theatrical and ancillary revenue from that film and Lionsgate’s November 2025 release “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” were also major contributors to the surge in motion picture group profit and an adjusted quarterly OIBDA of $165 million, the highest reported by Lionsgate since 2014.
The film division made up for a 25% drop in segment revenue for the TV division from $40.5 million in the prior year quarter to $30.5 million. This was attributed to episodic deliveries, particularly for Lionsgate’s hit Apple TV satire “The Studio,” which is currently in production.
Michael-Mania
Of course, next quarter is set to be even bigger for Lionsgate and its film division thanks to the incredible success of Antoine Fuqua’s “Michael.” Set to pass $300 million domestic this weekend, it ranks as one of Lionsgate’s top 5 highest grossing films of all time, and with the help of an overseas release helmed by Universal, it is set to become the first biopic to gross $1 billion worldwide.
When asked about the sequel in an earnings call, motion picture group chair Adam Fogelson said that all the talks with “appropriate parties” on the project — which presumably would include Fuqua and Michael Jackson’s estate — are going “exceptionally well.”
I would say that there is a ton of incredibly entertaining Michael Jackson story left — and much of the biggest and most popular parts of his music catalog that were not touched upon in the first film,” he said.
“I would just say we can go forwards and backwards in telling this story. There are so many other events that happened, even in the time frame of the original movie, that weren’t touched upon, so we’re very, very confident that we’ve got an incredibly entertaining movie that will appeal once again to a global audience as the pieces come together,” Fogelson continued.