• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, July 16, 2021

Lionsgate Entertainment has acquired about 200 movie titles from the trove once owned by Harvey Weinstein’s company as part of a deal to buy a 20% stake in Spyglass Media Group.

The agreement also includes a multi-year first-look TV deal between Lionsgate Television and Spyglass.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Spyglass’ private-equity firm owner, Lantern Capital Group, which acquired the Weinstein Co.’s film and TV library three years ago in a bankruptcy auction, will retain the rights to about 70 titles.

Lionsgate’s newly acquired content assets include feature films from the “Scream” and “Hellraiser” franchises, Quentin Tarantino titles, “Fruitvale Station,” “The King’s Speech,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” and “Paddington.”

The films will join its existing library of 17,000 movie and TV titles, already expanded through deals with Artisan, Trimark and Summit Entertainment.

The library, along with an original content push, are key to Lionsgate’s strategy to build Starz into a “B-tier,” add-on streaming service, as described by Starz CEO Jeff Hirsch at a Morgan Stanley conference in March.

Starz, which costs $8.99 per month in the U.S., had a combined cable and streaming audience of about 27 million (more than half from streaming) as of February, and is shooting to reach 60 million combined (most from streaming) by 2025, Hirsch reported.

Ultimately, Starz aims to draw about 20% to 40% of the 200 million to 300 million that “A-tier” services attract, he said.