Lionsgate Officially Acquires eOne from Hasbro
By Movieguide® Contributor
Entertainment giant Lionsgate announced Wednesday that its acquisition of Hasbro’s former entertainment platform, eOne, is officially complete.
“The transaction announced last August adds 6,500 film and television titles to Lionsgate’s large library; diversifies and strengthens its scripted and unscripted television businesses; extends its portfolio of brands and franchises; and expands its presence in Canada and the UK,” Deadline reported.
The deal came with a $375 million price tag in addition to some loans for financing production.
GREY’S ANATOMY, CRIMINAL MINDS and DESIGNATED SURVIVOR are among the notable titles in the platform’s library.
“The transaction also includes film development rights to Hasbro’s ‘Monopoly’ brand. Lionsgate knows that property well and had specifically carved out the film development rights as part of the overall deal,” Deadline wrote.
Movieguide® previously reported on the likelihood of Monopoly’s debut on the big screen:
To begin this new era of its entertainment production, Hasbro “look[s] forward to partnering with [Lionsgate], especially on a movie adaptation of Monopoly.”
…With Lionsgate’s acquisition of eOne, the movie seems closer to production than ever, especially with the recent success that video games and toy movies have enjoyed. And the famous board game might finally make its way to theaters.
MovieWeb notes that the movie adaptation of the game could be a huge success, as several other successful movies are based on board games. Movies CLUE and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES each have IMDB ratings above 7. Rotten Tomatoes even gave the latter a score of 91%.
“Most Hasbro IP led by family brands will remain with the Pawtucket, RI-based toymaker including animated projects PEPPA PIG, TRANSFORMERS: EARTHSPARK and MY LITTLE PONY: TELL YOUR TALE. Hasbro’s restructured creative development and business affairs team — now called Hasbro Entertainment — will be shepherding its projects and development of franchises that also include GI Joe, Play-Doh, D&D and Magic: The Gathering, Power Rangers and the company’s board game portfolio,” Deadline reported. “When the eOne deal was announced in August, Hasbro said it had 30+ projects in development.”
Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said, “The eOne acquisition concludes a busy year in which we continued to execute our strategy of strengthening our studio business as we prepare for the separation of Lionsgate and STARZ into pure play standalone companies.”
He continued, “As we’ve conducted our integration planning, our analysis has reaffirmed our conviction that eOne will be a valuable and highly accretive addition to our business. We are pleased to welcome eOne’s talented group of employees to our Lionsgate family.”
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +1