Lionsgate Studios Posts Record Motion Picture Quarter, Cools From Q4 Peak
Revenue climbed 48% year-over-year to $776.6 million as Michael's billion-dollar box office run drove Motion Picture profit to a first-quarter record, even as results eased from the December quarter's 12-year high.
Lionsgate Studios (LION) reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $776.6 million, up 48% from a year earlier, as its Motion Picture segment more than doubled in size on the strength of Michael's billion-dollar worldwide box office and ancillary revenue from The Housemaid.
The results extend an acceleration that began well before the quarter closed. Motion Picture segment revenue grew 35% year-over-year in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 and 23% in the fourth quarter, but the first quarter of fiscal 2027 pushed that growth past 100%, to $587.3 million from $267.3 million, with segment profit surging to a first-quarter record of $105.0 million from $2.4 million a year earlier. The gain offset a third consecutive year-over-year decline in Television Production revenue, which fell to $189.3 million from $288.5 million as segment profit dropped to $10.2 million from $26.0 million; the drop was due to the timing of episodic deliveries.
The quarter's revenue came in below the $906.5 million reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, itself a record after climbing from $724.3 million in the third quarter, reflecting the seasonal step-down that typically follows a strong holiday slate. Operating income eased to $25.6 million from $117.5 million in the fourth quarter, though it improved from an operating loss of $10.6 million a year earlier. Adjusted OIBDA followed the same pattern, falling to $79.3 million from a 12-year high of $165.4 million in the fourth quarter while still marking a sharp improvement from negative $3.7 million in the prior-year period.
Net loss from continuing operations attributable to shareholders narrowed to $28.8 million, or $0.10 a share diluted, from $94.0 million, or $0.35 a share, a year earlier, though the quarter reversed from net income of $70.2 million, or $0.23 a share, in the fourth quarter. Non-cash share-based compensation expense rose to $41.1 million from just $1.7 million a year earlier, a new and substantially larger charge running through both the income statement and the company's adjusted-earnings reconciliations.
Adjusted free cash flow swung to $128.9 million from negative $111.9 million a year earlier, though it declined from $190.4 million in the fourth quarter. That cash generation helped cut leverage by nearly two turns sequentially to 4.3 times trailing-12-month Adjusted OIBDA. Cash and equivalents rose to $425.8 million from $341.5 million at March 31, while accounts receivable fell to $665.9 million from $784.8 million. Current film-related obligations climbed to $1,622.1 million from $1,293.4 million over the same period as noncurrent film obligations fell to $414.4 million from $656.5 million, indicating a shift of production financing into the current-liability bucket as those obligations near maturity.
The company has a filmed entertainment backlog — contractual future revenue not yet recognized — of $1.5 billion, up 21% year-over-year. Trailing-12-month library revenue was $987 million, slipping below the $1.0 billion reported in the fourth quarter and the record $1.05 billion posted in the third quarter, ending a streak of sequential highs in that metric.