‘La La Land’ Helps Lionsgate Hit the Right Notes With Strong Q3 Earnings

A few minutes after markets closed Wednesday, the mini-major studio reported revenue of $752 million and adjusted earnings of 21 cents a share for the three months ended Dec. 31, which Lionsgate classifies as its fiscal third quarter.

Lionsgate’s movie studio placed seventh with just 5.8 percent market share, but it’s had an outsize impact on awards season, particularly its musical love story to Los Angeles, “La La Land.”

The Damien Chazelle-directed film starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone won a record seven Golden Globes (sweeping each category in which it was nominated) and has picked up a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations.

The studio nabbed a robust 26 Oscar nods in total, with “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Hell or High Water,” released in partnership with CBS Films, also receiving multiple nominations.

While much of “La La Land’s” revenue will count toward Lionsgate’s upcoming quarter, as the film went into wide release in late December and benefited from a January awards push, cost-cutting in production and marketing helped the film division increase its profits by 55 percent even though revenue dipped 13 percent from the same period last year.