LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT is creating a Hollywood force by having bought Summit Entertainment for $412.5 million. Summit, famous for its 'Twilight' movies has been purchased by LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT, which aims to focus on young adult audiences.
The 'Twilight' franchise, having grossed over $2.5 billion worldwide, will now be under the same roof as Lion Gate's upcoming four-part series 'The Hunger Games'. Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer said of Summit: 'They have a tremendous outreach with fans and the ability to reach them through email, Facebook, et cetera. Starting right now, today, we are going to utilize that institutional knowledge to move 'Hunger Games' ahead even more quickly.' Summit co-chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger commented on the deal: 'It was never about cashing out; it was about making sure this historic company we built continues to live on, now with healthy parental support. At the end of the day, this became the best and most exciting opportunity to keep the company going and make it 2 and 2 equals 5 or 6.' Lions Gate now aims to pay off Summit's debt by 2016 with boosted earnings expected from April of this year.
The Hunger Games have also had three of its books rank 1, 2 and 3 on USA Today's best-seller list with about 23 million books in print and it's first movie scheduled for release in March (2012). The finale of Summit's five-movie machine, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2," is due out in November.