Company: Lionsgate
Title: Prexy
How he’s leading: Under Beek’s guidance, Lionsgate’s market share in home entertainment has grown from just under 4% following the company’s merger with Artisan Entertainment to about 5.8% in 2006. While the share is still small, it’s larger than that of DreamWorks or MGM.
The increase in share is directly related to the company’s theatrical release strategy, focusing on genres that can be opened with efficiently targeted advertising: horror, teen comedy, urban and action. (Lionsgate’s three No. 1 box office bows this year have been “Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Saw III” and “Hostel.”)
“We don’t open four-quadrant pictures for the most part,” Beeks explains. But “our conversion rate (theatrical to DVD) is the highest in the industry,” he says, due to genres that “convert disproportionately well.”
Beeks is also a savvy marketer of Lionsgate’s 10,000-title library, which includes distribution rights to most of the venerable Republic Pictures catalog.
The library helps drive Lionsgate’s endeavors in new technologies: It was the first studio after developer Sony to support Blu-ray (fourth-quarter Blu-ray releases include horror pic “The Descent”).
Lionsgate also was one of the first studios to offer films on CinemaNow’s download-to-burn service, in which Lionsgate also owns a stake.
It’s partnered with more than two dozen companies for digital delivery, which Beeks predicts will account for 10% to 15% of home entertainment revenue by 2010.
POV: Through digital distribution, Beeks says, “You can get to a world in which you can generate revenue on almost every single title.”
Homevid Leader Report:
