Lionsgate Nov. 3 disclosed that its motion pictures business, which includes home entertainment, posted second-quarter (ended Sept. 30) operating income of $55.5 million on revenue of $224 million. That was down 45% from operating income of $101.8 million on revenue of $331 million in the previous-year period.
Motion picture revenue consists of the development and production of feature films, acquisition of North American and worldwide distribution rights, North American theatrical, home entertainment and television distribution of feature films produced and acquired, and worldwide licensing of distribution rights to feature films produced and acquired.
Segment revenue decreased to $224 million compared with $330.9 million in the prior-year quarter. Revenue and segment profit declines reflected a tough comparison with the second quarter of fiscal 2022, which benefited from strong carryover revenue from fiscal 2021 titles.
Lionsgate’s top-grossing theatrical releases in 2022 include The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Moonfall, American Underdog and Prey for the Devil.
Revenue from Lionsgate’s 17,000-title film and television library was $747 million for the trailing 12 months. The company reported library revenue from digital and physical distribution of $210 million in the quarter.
DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD June 21 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Based on the Scholastic children’s graphic novels, the film follows five infamous friends — Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula. After years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught. Mr. Wolf brokers a deal to keep them out of prison and the Bad Guys set out to fool the world into believing they’ve gone good. The voice cast includes Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Marc Maron (“Glow”), Craig Robinson (“Hot Tub Time Machine” franchise), Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), and Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) as the bad guys, alongside co-stars Zazie Beetz (Joker), Lily Singh (Bad Moms), Emmy winner Alex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and Richard Ayoade (Paddington 2).
The comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent arrives on 4K Ultra HD combo pack (plus Blu-ray and digital), Blu-ray combo pack (plus DVD and digital), DVD and on demand June 21 from Lionsgate. Starring as himself is Nicolas Cage (Best Actor, Leaving Las Vegas, 1995; “National Treasure” franchise, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Rock). Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, the fictionalized version of Cage accepts a million-dollar offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan (Pedro Pascal). Things take an unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) and he must use his legendary acting skills, channeling his most iconic and beloved characters to become a real-life action hero. Also starring are Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio and Neil Patrick Harris.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases the HBO Max miniseries Aquaman: King of Atlantis as a full-length animated movie on DVD and for digital purchase June 21. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the mini-series premiered Oct. 14, executive produced by James Wan, director of the live-action Aquaman movie, through his Atomic Monster production. The playful reimagining of the iconic DC Super Hero and tells an original tale about Aquaman’s first adventures as King of Atlantis. On his first day as the new king, Aquaman has a lot of catching up to do. Luckily, he has his two royal advisors to back him up: the scholar Vulko, and Mera, the water controlling warrior princess. Between dealing with unscrupulous surface dwellers, elder evils from beyond time and his own half-brother who wants to overthrow him, Aquaman must rise to the challenge and prove to his subjects — and to himself — that he’s worthy of the throne. Cooper Andrews (“The Walking Dead,” Shazam!) leads the cast as Aquaman, joined by Gillian Jacobs (“Community”) as Mera, Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911!”) as Vulko, Dana Snyder (“Aqua Teen Hunger Force”) as Ocean Master, Andrew Morgado Mortikov, Kevin Michael Richardson as the Royal Announcer, Flula Borg (The Suicide Squad) as Mantis, and Kimberly Brooks (“DC Super Hero Girls”) as Hammer. Also providing voices are Chris Jai Alex, Trevor Devall, Armen Taylor, Kaitlyn Robrock, Regi Davis, Ludi Lin, Robbie Daymond, Erica Lindbeck, Laila Berzins and Erica Ash.
The sci-fi drama After Yang arrives on Blu-ray (plus digital) and DVD June 21 from Lionsgate. Based on the short story Saying Goodbye to Yang, the film follows a disconnected family after their A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down. In the film, when his young daughter’s beloved companion — an android named Yang — malfunctions, Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way to repair him. In the process, Jake discovers the life that has been passing in front of him, reconnecting with his wife (Jodie Turner-Smith) and daughter across a distance he didn’t know was there. In addition to Farrell (Voyagers, In Bruges, S.W.A.T.) and Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim, Jett, Nightflyers), the film stars Justin H. Min (TV’s “The Umbrella Academy,” TV’s “New Amsterdam,” TV’s “Pure Genius”), Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja (TV’s “Coop and Cami Ask the World,” TV’s “Raven’s Home,” TV’s “iCarly”) and Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart, Columbus, The Edge of Seventeen).
The Chinese martial arts drama Ip Man: The Awakening will be released on on DVD and Blu-ray Disc and digital June 21 from Well Go USA Entertainment. In the film, while visiting Hong Kong, a young Master Ip intervenes in a kidnapping attempt, unintentionally igniting a turf war with a ruthless human trafficking ring. In retaliation, the gang kidnaps one of Ip Man’s close friends, leaving him with no choice but to challenge the group’s notoriously brutal boxing champion head-on. Includes a new English dub.
The musical Cinderella, starring Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel and Billy Porter, will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital June 21 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The feature previously streamed on Prime Video. The musical incorporates pop songs from contemporary global artists and original songs by Cabello and Menzel. A new take on the traditional story, Cinderella features a heroine (Cabello) who is an ambitious young woman with dreams bigger than the world will allow. With the help of her Fab G (Porter), she is able to persevere and make her dreams come true.
The feature documentary The Beatles and India, from Silva Screen Productions and Renoir Pictures, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray June 21 from MVD Entertainment Group. The documentary examines how Indian music and culture shaped the music of the band and explores how The Beatles served as ambassadors of the pioneering World music sound and cultural movement. In 1968, The Beatles had achieved mass fame and fortune yet were searching for deeper meaning in their lives. Under the spiritual guidance of Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, The Beatles took a trip to Rishikesh, India, to study Transcendental Meditation. Drawing together an expansive archive of footage including contemporaneous locale shooting in India, recordings, photographs and first-hand interviews, The Beatles and India documents this East-meets-West touchstone in pop-culture history. Inspired by Ajoy Bose’s book Across The Universe — The Beatles In India, the documentary was produced by British Indian music entrepreneur Reynold D’Silva and directed by Bose (his directorial debut) and cultural researcher Pete Compton. The Beatles and India has been awarded Best Film Audience Choice and Best Music at the 2021 U.K. Asian Film Festival “Tongues on Fire.” The film has also been nominated for Best Documentary at the 2022 New York Indian Film Festival.
Kino Lorber June 21 releases Kaddish, a 1984 documentary by Steve Brand about a young Jew coming to terms with his father’s traumatic history, on DVD under the Kino Classics banner. Kaddish is the story of the stormy yet loving relationship between writer and Jewish activist Yossi Klein and his father Zoltan, who had survived the Holocaust’s devastation of Hungarian Jewry by hiding in a hole in the ground for six months while his parents — Yossi’s grandparents — died at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Once Yossi and his sister, Karen, were born, Zoltan was determined that they be emotionally prepared to survive another holocaust. His story of hiding in the forest and the murder of his parents became his children’s bedtime stories. Their mother, Breindy, compensated by reading Dr. Seuss books. Kaddish culminates at the first International Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem, which Yossi attends “wearing two yarmulkes” — as a writer and as the child of a survivor. But he attends alone, and, he soon realizes, bereft. 
Fire in the Sky makes its North American Blu-ray Disc debut on June 21, courtesy of Scream Factory, indie film distributor Shout! Factory’s horror imprint. The 1993 film will be presented in a new 4K scan from the original camera negative. Bonus features include a new interview with director Robert Lieberman, as well as previously available interviews with actors D.B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick and composer Mark Isham. In 1975, logger Travis Walton (Sweeney) and his co-workers encountered a UFO. His pals were able to flee — but Walton was not so lucky. Whisked aboard the strange craft, he was subjected to a painful, unearthly medical study. Fire in the Sky details Walton’s ordeal … as well as the contempt and ridicule he and his friends endured as they tried to convince others of this otherworldly experience.
The 1956 classic Giant will be released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and digital June 21 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean (in his final role), the film is a sweeping saga of jealousy, racism and the clash of cultures set in the vast Texas oilfields. Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict (Hudson) and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink (Dean) both woo Leslie Lynnton (Taylor) a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict’s disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.
GKIDS and Shout! Factory June 21 release Panda! Go Panda!, a 1972 Japanese animated children’s film directed by Isao Takahata and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Timed to its 50th anniversary, the film will be available in a Blu-ray Disc with DVD combo pack and will include the 1973 release Rainy Day Circus, where the story continues. Panda! Go Panda! follows the story of a cheerful young girl named Mimiko, who is left on her own while her grandmother is away. When little Panny Panda and his father Papanda stumble into her home, Mimiko welcomes them in as her new family. Adventures ensue, as Mimiko discovers the challenges of taking care of her new friends.
Cinedigm’s The Film Detective, the classic film restoration and streaming company, will release the 1950s sci-fi classic The Brain From Planet Arous (1957) on special-edition Blu-ray and DVD June 21. A great example of cut-rate sci-fi from the 1950s, this independently produced feature stars ‘B’-movie favorite John Agar (The Mole People, Revenge of the Creature) and Joyce Meadows (The Christine Jorgensen Story, The Girl in Lovers Lane) and was directed by Nathan Juran, a master of the genre who helmed such classics as The Deadly Mantis (1957), Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1958) and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). In the film, when Gor, an evil brain from planet Arous, inhabits the body of scientist Steve March (Agar), his intention is nothing less than world domination. Lucky for Earth, another intergalactic brain, Val, offers to assist March’s wife Sally (Meadows) in stopping the madness. The special-edition Blu-ray and DVD release features a 4K transfer, including two versions of the film, presented in its original 1.85:1 theatrically released ratio and in 1.33:1 full-frame format. Included in the bonus features is exclusive commentary with The Brain From Planet Arous star Meadows.