Where Lionsgate’s movies stream after theaters: Starz holds the first pay window, filings show

When a Lionsgate film finishes its run in theaters, its first pay-TV and subscription streaming home in the United States is already settled. In its quarterly report for the three months to September 30, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 5, 2026, Lionsgate Studios Corp. describes “a multiyear pay-one television output arrangement” that gives Starz an exclusive U.S. pay television and subscription video-on-demand license to “Lionsgate- or Summit-branded films theatrically released in the U.S.” The license periods under that arrangement extend through at least 2037, the filing says.

Two companies, four agreements

Lionsgate and Starz were part of one company until May 6, 2025, when Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. split its studio operations, now Lionsgate Studios Corp., from its Starz business, now Starz Entertainment Corp. Both are listed separately. The studio’s filing says the two remain parties to several commercial agreements and lists four of them, set out below. In the September quarter, Lionsgate recognized $84.3 million of revenue from these licensing agreements, up from $33.7 million a year earlier; for the six months it was $126.9 million, against $116.1 million.

Starz’s own quarterly report, filed October 29, describes the relationship from the other side. It says it continues to carry Lionsgate programming under original series license agreements, “multiyear theatrical film output licensing agreements” and library agreements made with what it calls Old Lionsgate, the company before the split. Starz also explains that its programming costs and marketing spending rise and fall with the number of original series and “first-run output theatrical movies” premiering on its service in a given period.

How a film’s money comes in after theaters

Lionsgate’s report sets out the stages in its own revenue categories. Theatrical revenue comes from exhibitors, who pay the studio a share of box office. Home entertainment revenue comes from selling or renting films on disc and through digital platforms, which the filing lists as pay-per-view, video on demand, electronic sell-through and digital rental. Television revenue comes from licensing films to pay, basic cable and free TV, and it includes licenses “in our traditional pay television window” granted to streaming services and other digital platforms. The filing also counts the marketing of premium video-on-demand releases among its distribution costs, but it does not give the timing between those stages. Lionsgate estimates a film’s total revenue over no more than ten years from its first release, and it says revenue from the later markets has historically tracked how the film did in theaters.

Michael shows the pattern in the numbers. Lionsgate says theatrical revenue for the six months rose mainly because of Michael’s release; digital revenue from its own releases rose on titles including Michael, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and The Housemaid; and its film division’s television revenue in the September quarter, up 75.9%, “included significant revenue from Michael.” In its results release the same day, the studio said Motion Picture revenue rose 30% to $359.3 million in the quarter, driven by Michael and its library. By our reading, Michael, which the filing counts among Lionsgate’s own theatrical releases, is the kind of film the Starz arrangement describes, but neither company’s filing names a Starz premiere date for it or for any other film.

What the arrangement does not cover

The output deal as described is limited to Lionsgate- or Summit-branded films released in U.S. theaters, and to the United States. Lionsgate’s filing separately mentions titles that “changed from a planned wide theatrical release to an initial direct-to-streaming release,” as well as multi-platform and direct-to-platform films. By our reading, a film that skips U.S. theaters would fall outside the theatrical arrangement; the filing says only that some films are licensed first to a direct-to-platform customer, which it does not name. Outside the U.S., Lionsgate licenses its films to distributors territory by territory and distributes them itself in the United Kingdom.

Starz’s report also records a separate change that involves another studio. Under an exclusive multiyear output agreement with Universal, entered into on January 1, 2022, Starz gained rights to show live-action films released in U.S. theaters “immediately following their pay-one windows,” the filing says. In April 2026, Starz agreed to terminate “certain live-action films” under that agreement and recorded termination fees under an agreed schedule that takes the films’ theatrical box office into account. It does not name the films, and it says some of them have not yet been released in theaters.

Where Starz can be watched

Starz describes its service as a premium subscription offered directly through the Starz App and through wholesale streaming partners and pay-TV distributors, including cable operators, satellite providers and telecommunications companies. Plans and prices are set on Starz’s own pages, which we did not check for this guide.