8/8/2024

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mee-Lay Shaw, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

speaker
Neelay Shaw
Head of Investor Relations

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for the Lionsgate Studios Corporation's Fiscal 2026 First Quarter Conference Call. We'll begin with opening remarks from our CEO, John Feldheimer, followed by remarks from our CFO, Jimmy Barge. After their remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Also joining us on the call today are Vice Chairman Michael Burns, COO Brian Goldsmith, Chairman of the TV Group, Kevin Beggs, Chairman of the Motion Picture Group, Adam Fogelson, President of Worldwide TV and Digital Distribution, Jim Packer, and Senior Advisor to the Office of the CEO at Lionsgate and Co-CEO of 3Arts, Brian Weinstein. The matters discussed on the call also include forward-looking statements, including those regarding the performance of future fiscal years. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. This includes the risk factors set forth in our public filings for Lionsgate Studios Corp. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances. I'll now turn the call over to John.

speaker
John Feldheimer
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Neilian. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We're reporting a quarter in line with expectations in what will be a busy transitional year for our studio As we continue to refill our film and television pipelines, expand key franchises, create fresh revenue streams for our library, and extend our IP to a new generation of consumers. During the quarter and throughout this fiscal year, we're taking a number of important steps towards returning to the solid and significant growth in fiscal 27 that we've previously projected. The Hunger Games' Sunrise on the Reaping began shooting in Spain last week with Francis Lawrence directing one of our strongest Hunger Games casts ever for a November 20, 2026 release. Together with our partners at Universal, we dated our global theatrical event film, Michael, for release in theaters and on IMAX on April 24, 2026, kicking off our fiscal year with a major tent pole and giving an early start to next summer's box office. As you read earlier this week, we will release Mel Gibson's Resurrection of the Christ, his long-awaited follow-up to The Passion of the Christ, in two parts, six weeks apart. The first film will open on Good Friday in March 2027, and the second film will be released on Ascension Day in May 2027. Our fiscal 27 is now anchored by three major tent poles, The Hunger Games, Michael, and the first Resurrection film. The second Resurrection film allows us a tent pole start to fiscal 28. During the quarter, we announced a new Saw deal, partnering with Blumhouse and Atomic Monster and putting the franchise back in the hands of its original co-creators, James Wan and Lee Wan-El. The deal elevates Saw to a new level of potential box office performance while maintaining our existing ownership and distribution. Our Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg-produced comedy, The Studio, for Apple TV Plus, earned 23 Emmy nominations, the most ever for a freshman comedy, and the series has already been renewed for a second season. The Hunting Wives, from Lionsgate Television and 3 Arts Entertainment, has entered the zeitgeist, debuting at number three on Netflix's top ten list in its first week. Remarkably, it has moved up to number two on their global list of English-speaking shows, though it is only playing in the U.S. Finally, our library, driven by a significant lift in the John Wick titles due to the release of Ballerina, reported strong quarterly revenues on its way to setting yet another record with nearly a billion dollars in trailing 12-month revenue. Turning to our individual businesses, the Motion Picture Group's results in the quarter were impacted by the domestic box office performance of Ballerina. However, the film is approaching $140 million at the worldwide box office, overperforming in the ancillary markets, and most importantly, satisfied our John Wick fans. This year's slate is backloaded with Francis Lawrence's gripping adaptation of the Stephen King novel, The Long Walk, the feel-good comedy Good Fortune starring Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari, and the third installment of the Now You See Me franchise with Reuben Fleischer directing. The wildly entertaining thriller The Housemaid, directed by Paul Feig and starring Sidney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, based on the New York Times best-selling novel, is testing exceptionally well and has all the earmarks of a holiday season breakout. But our slate extends far beyond the theatrical box office. To engage a new generation of audiences who want to watch and experience their content, we've expanded the focus of our global products and experiences group to include virtual experiences, interactive games, and partnerships with leading digital platforms that complement our ongoing initiatives. In the virtual world, we recently announced a partnership with Roblox, which has more than 100 million daily active users, to license our franchises to the next generation of talent in the creator economy. As part of our effort to extend our franchises into real-world experiences, we opened the John Wick Experience in Las Vegas in March and received a 4.9 Google rating from visitors. We're currently in talks to expand it to other cities. And several of our key properties are being readied for launch on Broadway and other stages around the world with advanced tickets and selling well in anticipation of the Hunger Games on stage opening in London in October and La La Land, shepherded by Wicked producer Mark Platt, targeting a Broadway opening next year to be followed by Dirty Dancing and then Wonder. Turning to television, we reported a strong quarter driven by higher episodic deliveries, higher margins on our new series, and lower G&A as we continue to cut costs. During the quarter, we continue to lean into the high-end premium series that have always been our core strength. The studio and the hunting wives join a slate that includes the comedy Ghosts and the procedural The Rookie, which continue to be perennial ratings leaders on CBS and ABC respectively. Coming up, we have the epic gladiator drama Spartacus House of Asher and the spin-off Power Origins for Stars, the Twilight TV series adaptation Midnight Sun for Netflix, and John Wick under the high table for a major streamer. The Rainmaker, adapted from John Grisham's bestseller, debuts on USA Network next week. Though we continue to see pressure in the broader TV operating environment, we're continuing to deliver noisy properties that resonate across every genre, economic model, and type of platform. Whether it's our partnership with Roblox, unlocking opportunities for creators, or restructuring our saw deal to take it to the next level of box office performance, rolling out three dozen proprietary fast channels to create new revenue streams for our library, or partnering with Roku earlier this week on the new Esfad service Howdy, collaborating with YouTube on branded channels for Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, amassing six million TikTok followers for our movies ranking second only to Disney among Hollywood studios, or earning a record 23 Emmy nominations for the studio on Apple TV+. We're delivering content to every audience, every demo, and every kind of platform in our capacity as a content arms dealer of choice. In closing, there are a lot of things we cannot control in the current operating environment, streamers cutting back as they focus on profitability rather than subscriber growth, a blockbuster centric box office that has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, and a new generation of audiences who look at content in completely different ways than their predecessors. But there are also a lot of things we can control, extending our brands to reach the critical Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience. We're the first mover in incorporating AI technology across our businesses, increasing efficiency, creating significant cost savings, and helping us program our self-directed channels, cutting costs and streamlining our organization to align with where the business is headed, and continuing to exploit and strengthen our core asset, our library and portfolio of IP, with more than 30 franchise properties in active development and production through prequels, sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. If we execute well in these areas, we will return to the kind of growth in fiscal 27 that our shareholders expect. Now I'd like to turn things over to Jimmy.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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