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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (42762)	11/1/2005 9:20:16 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69378

Winning streak continues at Lions Gate US$30.5M weekend Paul Brent Financial Post Tuesday, November 01, 2005 More Columns By This Writer :: Toyota veers from middle-of-the-road subscriber only content The movie poster for Saw II, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.'s latest feature film, promises moviegoers: "Oh yes, there will be blood." For investors who can do the math on the first weekend gate of US$30.5-million on a movie that cost about US$5-million to make, the message is "Oh yes, there will be profits." While the U.S. film industry is in a funk as major studios are unable to entice fickle teens into theatres, little Vancouver-based Lions Gate has managed to profitably produce movies by nimbly and quickly moving on projects, executing savvy marketing and utilizing a small, tight-knit management team. Its latest horror flick illustrates Lions Gate's advantages over its bigger rivals. Last year, when its Halloween-timed scarefest, the US$1.3-million Saw, debuted with an US$18-million opening weekend, the company approved the sequel with the intention of releasing it exactly one year later. Released on schedule, the North American weekend take for Saw II was almost double that of the the opening weekend tally of another sequel, The Legend of Zorro. Sony Corp.'s Antonio Banderas-Catherine Zeta-Jones vehicle took seven years to get back on the big screen. "When any film turns into a film franchise, there is a certain amount of luck involved," said David Miller, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris Inc. of Los Angeles. "These guys at Lions Gate are very good at nurturing the story, nurturing the creative process, making sure there is a creative hook to get people into the theatres." Lions Gate is showing no signs of slowing down. It capitalized on the cult hit status of the original Saw by selling more than 4.1 million DVDs of the film, and industry types now expect a third instalment of the franchise next October. There are similar hopes with its February sequel to the African-American comedy Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which also will debut exactly a year later. "That's another franchise for them," said Mr. Miller. With a small cadre of five or six executives making key decisions, an increasingly confident Lions Gate now plans to release a horror thriller and an urban film every quarter, bolstered by documentaries and small-budget dramas. Open Water, a thriller that cost it US$2-million at the Sundance Festival, rang up US$30-million last fall. "Success definitely breeds success," Lions Gate Films president Tom Ortenberg, told the Los Angeles Times. "Doing well with Black Woman helped give us the confidence to move ahead with Akeelah and the Bee, while the experience of putting out Fahrenheit 9/11 helped us do a better job on Crash." For the most part, Lions Gate avoids the mass-market ad push of the big studios and seems to deliberately court controversy with the Motion Picture Association of America, which approves marketing materials. Most recently, the group banned the original Saw II poster, which depicted two severed fingers in a pool of blood. That controversy turned into free Internet buzz for the producers. Shares of the company rose almost 8.4% to $11.27 yesterday in Toronto on the strength of Saw II's debut. Mr. Miller said he will be closely examining mid-week gate receipts to ensure Saw II is not just a Halloween weekend phenomenon and is undeterred by poor reviews of the film. "We could care less what the critics say," he said. "Critics hate horror films." - - - LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT CORP. Ticker: LGF/TSX Close: $11.27, up 87 cents Volume: 19,513 Avg. 6-month vol.: 9,536 Rank in FP 500: 396