Company's Home Entertainment Business Continuing To Build Momentum Following Record Year
SANTA MONICA, Calif., and VANCOUVER, B.C., June 12, 2013 /CNW/ - Ron Schwartz, a 20-year veteran of Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) and its predecessor companies, has been promoted to President and General Manager of Lionsgate Home Entertainment Sales and Distribution, the Company announced today.
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The promotion recognizes Mr. Schwartz's ongoing leadership role in growing the Company's $1 billion-a-year home entertainment operations as they continue to build momentum following the most successful year in their history.
Led by the blockbusters HUNGER GAMES and THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1, two of the three biggest home entertainment releases in the industry last year, Lionsgate achieved nearly 10% market share in calendar 2012, ranking among the top five home entertainment distributors. The Company is off to a fast start in calendar 2013 as well, driven by releases such as THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2, one of the biggest home entertainment titles of the year to date.
During Mr. Schwartz's tenure, Lionsgate's 15,000-title library has achieved eight consecutive years of revenue growth. He recently helped orchestrate the Company's distribution deal with A&E Network, adding thousands of titles to the Lionsgate library. Lionsgate's digital and on demand revenues also grew by 46% last year to a record $270 million, and the Company is widely recognized as an innovator in delivering content to digital and traditional platforms alike.
Mr. Schwartz is also a key member of the team that acquires films, in conjunction with sister company Roadside Attractions, for Lionsgate's growing specialty theatrical business. The Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions partnership has already acquired and released such critically acclaimed and commercially successful films as WINTER's BONE, THE COVE, FRIENDS WITH KIDS and the day-and-date theatrical/VOD successes ARBITRAGE and MARGIN CALL.
"Ron is a gifted and experienced executive who has helped guide our home entertainment business to several years of sustained and profitable growth," said Lionsgate Co-Chief Operating Officer and Motion Picture Group President Steve Beeks. "He has a keen grasp of the direction in which our business is heading, and he is ideally qualified to position Lionsgate as a global leader and innovator in delivering content to the full spectrum of home entertainment platforms."
Prior to his promotion, Mr. Schwartz served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Lionsgate Home Entertainment for seven years, playing a key role in the Company's adoption of new technologies and formats such as BluRay and Ultraviolet and establishing Lionsgate as the industry leader in box office–to-DVD and box office–to-VOD conversion rates. He joined Lionsgate predecessor company Trimark in 1992.
In addition to Mr. Schwartz, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer, Vice Chairman Michael Burns, Co-Chief Operating Officers Steve Beeks and Brian Goldsmith and General Counsel and Chief Strategic Officer Wayne Levin have all signed new long-term agreements with the Company during the past year.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has 28 television shows on 20 networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the comedy Anger Management, the broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication successes Tyler Perry's House of Payne, its spinoff Meet the Browns, For Better Or Worse, The Wendy Williams Show, Are We There Yet? and the upcoming Orange Is The New Black.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first installment of The Hunger Games franchise, The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Now You See Me, Tyler Perry's Temptation, Warm Bodies, Snitch, Texas Chainsaw 3D, The Expendables 2, The Possession, Sinister, The Cabin in the Woods and Arbitrage. Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
For Lionsgate corporate inquiries, please contact:
Peter D. Wilkes
310.255.3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
Kinley L. Cross
310.255.5114
kcross@lionsgate.com
SOURCE: Lionsgate
