Lionsgate and SP Media form joint venture to expand new businesses

Lionsgate and Steven Paul’s SP Media have launched a joint venture that promises fresh indie projects and a diversification boost, backed by a capital infusion and a nod from the former president’s tax-incentive lobbying.

In a move that feels part business deal, part reality-TV romance, Lionsgate and Steven Paul’s SP Media announced a joint venture on Monday, promising to sprinkle new capital on indie film production and a suite of mysterious "new initiatives" that no one has yet learned to pronounce.

The deal, described in press releases as a "significant" investment, will let Lionsgate keep expanding its portfolio of 3 Arts-related ventures and other unnamed enterprises, because nothing says diversification like adding another acronymous subsidiary to the mix.

Meanwhile, the ever-politically-savvy Steven Paul, who once lobbied former President Donald Trump for a federal tax incentive for Hollywood, appears to have swapped lobbyist cap for venture-capital cape, waving a checkbook like a magic wand.

Industry insiders, who are notoriously tight-lipped unless there’s a cocktail involved, whispered that the joint venture could serve as a hedge against the endless rumor mill about Lionsgate possibly being put up for sale. If you thought studio-sale chatter was a plot twist, think again – it’s now the background music to a partnership that sounds like a sequel to a corporate rom-com.

The partnership’s public-facing mission statement mentions “new businesses” and “indie film production,” which, in Hollywood speak, usually translates to “we’ll fund the next thing that looks good on a festival poster and hope it makes a profit before the next fiscal quarter.”