Lionsgate Stock Slides Following Soft ‘Allegiant’ Opening

Company’s shares, struggling since mkid-November, dipped 4.1 percent after weak weekend

Allegiant
Maggie Q, Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller, Zoe Kravitz, Theo James and Ansel Elgort in "The Divergent Series: Allegiant." (Murray Close)

Lionsgate stock took a tumble when the stock markets reopened Monday, after a rough opening weekend for film “Allegiant.”

On Friday, LFG closed at $22.62 per share. Monday morning, it opened at $21.69. That’s a drop of less than a buck, but down 4 percent for the modestly-priced stock.

Lionsgate stock has been struggling since mid-November, last experiencing an overnight crash in early February when it unveiled disappointing third-quarter financials.

Here’s a shot of the stock over the course of five days:

Lionsgate

“Allegiant” opened last weekend to roughly $29 million — well under the debuts of 2014’s “Divergent” ($54 million) and last year’s “Insurgent” ($52 million).

Originally tracking for $30 million to $40 million, poor reviews and fatigue with both the young adult genre and the franchise took a toll on “Allegiant,” the first of two planned releases based on the final book in the “Divergent” trilogy by Veronica Roth. Audiences gave the film a “B” CinemaScore. That’s better than the critics, who have it at a dismal 10 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

Three weeks before the opening of “Allegiant,” Lionsgate debuted “Gods of Egypt,” which had a steep $140 million production budget but only took in $14 million, becoming the biggest flop of the young year.

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