It’s been a great 12 months for Lionsgate. “The Hunger Games” franchise has been successfully revived and the studio has a new partner in “The Housemaid” author Freida McFadden. And to top it all off, the studio released “Michael,” which is now the highest-grossing biopic of all time and the first to cross $1 billion worldwide.
For the chairman of the motion picture group Adam Fogelson, that success came after a turbulent shooting process that included extensive reshoots to remove scenes involving one of Michael Jackson’s child sexual abuse lawsuits, which the pop star settled in exchange for this estate promising that she would never take part in a picture of the alleged events. The film was heavily scrutinized before its release, but Liongate president Adam Fogelson says its eventual success reminded him of something important he learned long ago as a film director.
“There’s always going to be voices screaming at you that you’re making a terrible mistake in almost anything worth doing that you choose to do,” Fogelson told moderator Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s TheGrill business conference on Wednesday. “You have to ask yourself: Not only do I believe this is worthwhile from a business perspective, but am I willing to stand in front of all the difficult conversations that are going to happen?
Fogelson was joined at TheGrill by AMC Theater CEO Adam Aron and Regal Cinemas CEO Eduardo Acuna for a panel discussing the box office rebound in 2026, which is on pace for a $10.5 billion-plus annual domestic total. Aron said he didn’t doubt for a second that this comeback would come, believing that once the quantity and quality of movies in theaters increased — which was the case with summer movies from “Obsession” to “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” — moviegoers would return.
“Movies have been central to American culture for over a century. And yes, COVID was a lousy thing, and in many ways devastating. But I didn’t think it was going to change the fact that people have always loved going to movie theaters,” Aron said. “Our job – the three of us, both representing studios and joint tours – is to make sure that a hundred years from now, people still love going to the movies.”
Acuna said he wasn’t as free of a doubt as Aron, but he says he’s encouraged by the strong younger moviegoers for movies like “Backrooms,” noting that Gen Z’s interest in spending time watching Twitch and YouTube was overestimated to the detriment of the theater.
“The best thing I’ve read recently is that we as a human race have reached the peak of our digital consumption. We just ran out of hours. You sleep, you go to school and you’re on your phone all day. And these young people…
The panel was also asked about their thoughts on the Paramount-Warner merger, which Aron has repeatedly supported. Acuna said that despite his skepticism about the merger, he is “cautiously optimistic” that Paramount can pull its weight in terms of theatrical production and revenue support.
“Consolidation is not always a good thing, and it had to be investigated, and it was. And I think the (California) Attorney General did a great job on that. Cinema United did a great job of opposing it first. “So I’m glad that instead of paying tick fees or spending on a very expensive lawsuit, that we can go back to making movies and help the industry.”
Fogelson said another reason for hope for theaters comes from outside Hollywood’s main studio system, reflecting the rise of studios like A24 as well as the success of highly independent films such as Markiplier’s self-released horror film “Iron Lung.”
“I can tell you that almost every movie that Warner Bros. or Paramount – aside from their big IP – that they’ve made in the last few years, we and other studios bid on those projects, and I think those projects would find a home elsewhere if they weren’t being made,” he said. “So I’m very comfortable that even with this merger, the flow of production, the quality of production and the box office that comes from it will be more than enough to keep this business healthy going forward.”
