Layoffs are underway at Lionsgate today. About 20 of of the company’s 1,600 employees, or 1%, are affected. Most of them are said to be in corporate divisions, with a few staffers in TV distribution and the motion picture group also getting pink-slipped. Those who are leaving include a handful of mid- to senior-level executives, with no department heads believed to have been impacted.
The staff reduction comes on the heels of a round of layoffs in January, which impacted about 25 Lionsgate employees, mostly in the Motion Picture Group.
“We are constantly looking at ways to better align our company with our industry’s evolving landscape and therefore the needs of the audience and our customers.” Motion Picture Group head Joe Drake wrote in a memo the day of the January layoffs.
Streamlining operations and making them more efficient has been a top mandate for most traditional media companies, many of which have been implementing layoffs/buyouts as a way of cutting costs as they face fierce competition from digital upstarts that have been growing their market share.
Lionsgate’s 2019 film slate includes Hellboy, which is coming out in April, John Wick 3 in May, the Seth Rogen-Charlize Theron comedy Long Shot in May, Roland Emmerich’s Midway in November, and Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig’s Knives Out in the Thanksgiving corridor.
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