Legendary Bids for Lionsgate Two Weeks After Skydance Close

Apollo-backed Legendary Entertainment submitted a takeover offer for Lionsgate Studios on October 20, according to people familiar with the matter. Shares closed at a $3.62 billion market cap after a 14.41% jump to $12.15. Lionsgate, Legendary and Apollo Global Management all declined to comment, with Lionsgate’s earnings call still set for November 5.

The bid landed 14 days after Paramount closed its Warner Bros. Discovery purchase and folded both of Legendary’s theatrical landlords into one company, Skydance.

Legendary has revived talks to acquire Lionsgate and submitted a takeover offer, according to people familiar with the matter https://t.co/HI3FeMTUFL

— Bloomberg (@business) October 20, 2026

An Offer Lands Without a Price

People familiar with the talks said Legendary had weighed a Lionsgate bid in 2025, then went quiet, then put an offer on paper. They did not attach a public number to that offer. The print that moved the stock was the close itself: $12.15, up $1.53 from $10.62, on 297.56 million shares.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The status: Talks have been on and off since the summer of 2025, and an offer has now been submitted.
• The buyer: Legendary is co-owned by Apollo and company management, with Joshua Grode as chief executive and Mary Parent running tentpoles.
• The calendar: Lionsgate reports after the close on November 5, and the Hunger Games prequel is due in mid-November.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The price: No bid value has been published by either company or by the people describing the offer.
• The board: There is no sign yet that Lionsgate chief Jon Feltheimer will take the first paper that arrives.
• The pacts: It is unclear what happens to Legendary’s live distribution deals if Lionsgate becomes the in-house pipe.

A near-market offer is easy to walk from. Lionsgate has lived for years as the studio everyone is said to want, and the leak reads like a seller using Apollo to smoke out a richer name. Banijay, Mediawan and Bolloré circled after the Starz split and never filed bids. Netflix has said it is not interested.

Paramount and Warner Now Share One Owner

On October 6, Paramount completed its $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. The combined company took the Skydance name, listed under SKYD, and carried about $80 billion of debt, with $6 billion of cost cuts planned over three years. David Ellison, the new company’s chief executive, called it a historic day for the industry and said the aim from the start had been to put the two studios together as one competitor.

From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere. Now that ambition is a reality.

David Ellison, Chief Executive, Skydance, October 6 statement

That close changed Legendary’s map. Warner Bros. still handles select Legendary franchises, including Dune: Part Three, due in December against Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday, and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, dated 2027. Paramount, under a pact signed September 4, 2025, markets and distributes Legendary’s other theatrical films worldwide except China, where Legendary East keeps the job. Those two doors now open into the same building.

Financier-producers have been buying the majors they used to rent. Skydance once put money into Paramount pictures; it now owns Paramount and Warner. Legendary started as a co-financier, passed through Dalian Wanda, and now sits with Apollo. A Lionsgate buy would follow the same path: the tenant trying to own the theater.

The First Film Under a Three-Year Paramount Pact

Street Fighter, co-produced with Capcom and directed by Kitao Sakurai, opened in the United States on October 16 as the first title under that three-year Paramount deal. Paramount is the distributor. Legendary and Capcom funded the picture, budgeted at $82 million.

Box Office Mojo logs a domestic opening of $30.8 million and $52.8 million worldwide through the first days of release, across 3,575 theaters. The hoped-for worldwide open was about $70 million. The film led the weekend anyway, with a B- CinemaScore, and it is still a tenant picture on Skydance screens while its producer shops for a rival distributor.

LEGENDARY’S LIVE THEATRICAL PACTS

• Paramount / Skydance: Three-year global deal except China, opened by Street Fighter on October 16.
• Warner / Skydance: Dune: Part Three in December 2026 and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova in 2027, plus other franchise titles already promised.
• Legendary East: China marketing and distribution, carved out of the Paramount pact.

Self-distribution through Lionsgate would collide with those leases. The industrial logic is still plain. Renting two studios was a hedge. Renting one studio that just took on $80 billion of debt, and that has pledged 30 theatrical films a year while it cuts $6 billion, is a concentration risk Apollo can see on a spreadsheet.

How Apollo Ended Up as the Hidden Buyer

The name on the offer is Legendary. The capital sits at Apollo. Wanda bought Legendary in 2016 at a $3.5 billion valuation. Apollo funds put in $760 million in 2022 for a minority stake, and partners Aaron Sobel and Lee Solomon joined the board. In October 2024, Legendary bought out Wanda’s remaining interest with cash on its own books, without a fresh Apollo check, and split ownership roughly down the middle with management.

The transaction winds up being very accretive to both management and Apollo, which, after the transaction is over, we will own the business roughly equally.

Joshua Grode, Chief Executive, Legendary Entertainment, 2024 interview

Grode told interviewers then that dealmaking was ahead. Apollo’s own partners had already flagged Legendary as a platform for follow-on buys in media and talent. The Lionsgate approach in the summer of 2025, months after the Starz split, was that thesis in motion. The October 20 offer is the same thesis after Ellison closed the other door.

THE PATH TO THE OFFER

1. 2016: Dalian Wanda buys Legendary at a $3.5 billion valuation.
2. 2022: Apollo funds invest $760 million; Sobel and Solomon join the board.
3. October 2024: Legendary buys out Wanda with balance-sheet cash; Apollo and management own the company roughly equally.
4. May 6, 2025: Lionsgate completes the Starz split and becomes a pure studio.
5. Summer 2025: Legendary first weighs a Lionsgate bid; talks later go quiet.
6. September 4, 2025: Paramount and Legendary sign a three-year theatrical pact.
7. October 6, 2026: Paramount closes Warner Bros. Discovery and becomes Skydance.
8. October 16, 2026: Street Fighter opens as the first film under the Paramount pact.
9. October 20, 2026: People familiar with the matter say Legendary has submitted an offer.

A $3.62 billion equity check, plus $4.24 billion of Lionsgate debt, is a much larger round-trip than the 2022 minority check. Apollo would have to fund it from new dry powder, new borrowing, or both. That is the part of the story the Legendary brand does not carry on its own.

A 20,000-Title Library Comes With Heavy Debt

Since the library of more than 20,000 titles moved with the studio in the Starz separation, Lionsgate has been a cleaner target: film and TV, a distribution arm, and a catalog that still throws off cash. Library revenue stayed above $1 billion for a third straight quarter at fiscal year-end. Feltheimer said in August that Dirty Dancing was the largest single library contributor in the latest quarter.

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jafar Jackson, was a billion-dollar grosser earlier in 2026. John Wick and The Hunger Games remain the live theatrical engines. Twilight and Saw sit in the catalog. 3 Arts Entertainment, the management-production shop, is part of the package. So is a TV operation that still licenses to Starz.

LIONSGATE TAPE AND BOOKS, OCTOBER 20

The equity print looks like a mid-major. The enterprise value is $7.43 billion once the $4.24 billion of debt is counted. Thirteen analysts still have a $15.08 average target, 24.12% above the close, and the 52-week range runs from $5.90 to $16.70. The stock is about double its low and still well short of its high. Anyone writing a take-private check is buying that gap, and the debt, not just the lion logo.

Anson Funds Already Told the Board to Sell

Anson Funds Management held 4.325 million shares, 1.45% of the company, as of its June 30 filing, after selling 29% of the position in the quarter. In a July letter, portfolio manager Sagar Gupta told the board the market had started sorting studios into AI winners and AI losers, and that Lionsgate’s stock had been hit by new video models. He urged the company to redefine itself or be sold. Anson had already pushed for a sale around the Starz split.

The rise of generative AI has led the market to sort companies bluntly into ‘AI winners’ and ‘AI losers.’

Sagar Gupta, Portfolio Manager, Anson Funds, July letter to Lionsgate’s board

Two larger holders matter more on a vote. MHR Fund Management owns 12.7%. Liberty 77 Capital owns 12.6%. Together they sit on about a quarter of the stock. Feltheimer holds about 1%. A bid near $12 does not have to clear a control premium those names will like.

WHAT THE OFFER WOULD ACTUALLY BUY

• The catalog: More than 20,000 film and TV titles, with library revenue still above $1 billion a quarter at year-end.
• The live series: Hunger Games and John Wick in theaters, plus Twilight, Saw and Dirty Dancing in merchandising and live shows.
• The pipe: A theatrical distribution operation Legendary does not own, which is the point of the bid.
• The shop: 3 Arts Entertainment and a TV studio that already sells to Starz.
• The bill: $4.24 billion of debt against $425.8 million of cash.

The IP is the collateral. The distribution arm is the prize. Legendary already makes Dune, the Monsterverse and game adaptations. It does not need another franchise as badly as it needs a way to put its own pictures into theaters without asking Ellison’s booking desk.

November’s Hunger Games Arrives Before Anyone Comments

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is dated for mid-November. John Rambo, with Noah Centineo, has wrapped. Mel Gibson’s two-part Resurrection of the Christ is dated for next year. Those dates belong to Lionsgate whether or not Apollo’s offer is still on the table when they land.

Dune: Part Three still belongs to the Warner side of Skydance in December. Street Fighter still belongs to the Paramount side. For a few more months, Legendary would be trying to buy one distributor while it owes prints to another that just absorbed the first.

Lionsgate’s earnings call is set for November 5, after the market close. Mid-November, Sunrise on the Reaping reaches theaters. Legendary, Apollo and Lionsgate have said nothing in public about the bid.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a possible takeover, written for information only. It is not investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell shares of Lionsgate Studios, Apollo Global Management, or any other security, and it is not legal advice on a merger. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser, and where needed a securities lawyer, before acting on deal talks or share-price moves. Share prices, debt figures, slate dates and the status of the offer come from the sources named as of the dates given in this piece and can change without notice.