Lionsgate Home Entertainment

Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Home entertainment
Predecessor	Family Home Entertainment Artisan Entertainment
Founded	2000
Headquarters	Canada
Products	Care Bears Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars Saw
Parent	Lions Gate Entertainment

Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios. Mainly concerned with the distribution of the Lions Gate film library, it also distributes Mattel's Barbie-branded videos, as well as Clifford the Big Red Dog videos from Scholastic and Stickin' Around videos from Nelvana. Lionsgate Home Entertainment also currently distributes videos from HIT Entertainment^[1], MGA Entertainment^[2], and Jim Henson Home Entertainment^[3].

It was previously named Cinépix Film Properties Inc. (CFP). In 2001, in Quebec, it was renamed Crystal Films, and in Ontario and other provinces, Maple Pictures.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment also operated two subsidiaries in its early heydays: Avalanche Home Entertainment, which released smaller Canadian B-movies on video and DVD; and Sterling Home Entertainment (a joint venture with Scanbox International, a Danish film company), which released American low-budget movies, as well as DiC Entertainment's back catalogue (before distribution of this library is shifted to Shout! Factory in 2005), on video and DVD. Both subsidiaries were dissolved in 2005.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment movies are released on Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray 3DHD, Blu-ray 4DHD.

Lionsgate Home Entertainment titles are currently distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

On August 4, 2008, Lionsgate announced that it had completed a deal with ABC Studios to acquire the distribution rights to several shows including According to Jim, Reaper, Hope & Faith, 8 Simple Rules and Boy Meets World.^[4]

Lions Gate also distributes most of the theatrical properties currently held by Republic Pictures on DVD under license from Paramount Pictures. Recently, this deal expanded to include some non-marquee films originally released by Paramount themselves.

On February 11, 2011, Lionsgate, in conjunction with StudioCanal, made a deal with Miramax Films to distribute over 550 titles from the Miramax film library worldwide.^[5][6]

TV series

Lionsgate Television

• ALF
• The Dead Zone
• The Dresden Files
• House of Payne
• Mad Men
• Meet the Browns
• Nurse Jackie
• Weeds

ABC Studios

• 8 Simple Rules
• According to Jim
• Boy Meets World
• Detroit 1-8-7
• Hope & Faith
• Less Than Perfect
• My Wife and Kids
• Moonlighting
• Reaper
• Wildfire

E!

• Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane
• Keeping Up with the Kardashians
• Sunset Tan

HIT Entertainment

• Barney & Friends
• Bob the Builder
• Fireman Sam
• Fraggle Rock
• Pingu
• Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends

Universal Television

• Boomtown
• Little House on the Prairie
• Saved by the Bell
• Will & Grace

Other series

• Fifi & the Flowertots
• Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends
• 1-800-Missing
• Roary the Racing Car
• Secret Diary of a Call Girl
• Speed Racer
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Controversy

When Lions Gate Home Entertainment released the first season of ALF on DVD in 2004, the DVDs contained the edited-for-syndication versions of the episodes. These ran almost 22 minutes, whereas the original NBC broadcasts were over 24 minutes without commercials. Lionsgate insisted that they used the syndication versions because the NBC versions were poorer in video quality, but two years earlier, the Video Service Corporation released a Canada only "The ALF Files" on DVD, with a single disc with 3 uncut episodes with no quality issues reported. Shortly after the release of the first season, tvshowsondvd.com posted a news item in response, and Lions Gate requested that they remove the news item so they could give a better explanation. However, the better explanation they promised never came. Even though hundreds of fans complained to Lions Gate about the edited episodes on the first season set, they ignored them and released all the remaining episodes edited as well. [1][2] Additionally, some of the episodes on seasons two and three contained episodes that ran under 20 minutes. [3] [4]

Since then, Warner Home Video has released the first season of ALF in Germany and Japan in the uncut versions. [5]

References

1. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lionsgate-joins-hit-parade-107790
2. ^ http://www.businessofcinema.com/news.php?newsid=8508
3. ^ http://www.businessofcinema.com/news.php?newsid=14009&page=108
4. ^ http://homemediamagazine.com/news/lionsgate-distribute-select-disney-shows-13270
5. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LALCDG3.htm
6. ^ "Lionsgate, Studiocanal and Miramax Enter Into Home Entertainment Distribution Agreements". Yahoo! Finance. February 11, 2011. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Lionsgate-Studiocanal-and-prnews-2517243937.html?x=0. 

External links

• Official website