Santa Monica, California

IN JULY, Lionsgate was stuck under a storm cloud. Several of the company's movies had been critical and commercial debacles, including The Divergent Series: Allegiant and Gods of Egypt, which also embroiled Lionsgate in a humiliating whitewashing casting controversy.

Even worse, Lionsgate's takeover of the Starz cable operation in June had been a bust on Wall Street: Not only did the US$4.4 billion deal fail to raise Lionsgate's stock price, shares went lower.