Wall Street traders, always fickle, have a new favorite media company: Lionsgate.
Shares of the mini-major continued to climb this week after jumping 25% following stronger than expected earnings and a buoyant slate of new movies headed to theaters. The stock closed Thursday at $10.69, a big leap from the $5.46 low it recorded near the end of December. What’s odd about the jump is that it can be credited to that most antiquated of media revenue streams: theatrical moviegoing.
With Wall Street turning its back on streaming-centric metrics like content spend and subscriber growth, a studio that can still make money the old-fashioned way, from theater tickets to VOD and licensing fees, is suddenly more valuable.