Lionsgate and motion picture group chair Joe Drake have reached a new multiyear employment agreement, retaining the executive who has led the film division since 2017, the studio announced on Tuesday morning.
“Joe and his team continue to execute our core mission of creating great intellectual properties with a strong slate of tentpole films ready for launch beginning with John Wick: Chapter Four,” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said. “He is an entrepreneur with strong talent relationships and a firm grasp of the global theatrical marketplace, and he will continue to be a great partner in helping us move the Company forward.”
Drake initially served as Lionsgate’s motion picture group chair from 2007-2012, overseeing the launch of the “Hunger Games” and “Expendables” series along with the expansion of the “Saw” horror franchise. In 2012, he left Lionsgate with producing partner Nathan Kahane to create the production company Good Universe, which produced films like “Neighbors,” “Don’t Breathe” and Spike Lee’s remake of Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy.”
Drake returned to the Lionsgate chair in 2017 after the studio acquired Good Universe, with Kahane being named president of the motion picture group. Under their leadership, the studio had a strong box office year in 2019 led by “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum” with $326 million grossed worldwide and Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” with $311 million grossed worldwide.
Lionsgate’s upcoming slate includes a fourth “John Wick” movie this March as well as a spinoff “Wick” film “Ballerina” starring Ana De Armas. Lionsgate will also revive the “Hunger Games” series with the prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” coming out in November 2023. A third installment of the series “Now You See Me” and a remake of “Dirty Dancing” are also in development.