Lionsgate Exec Says AI Will Cut Tens of Millions in Annual Labor Costs

Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns said Thursday that AI will save the studio “tens and tens of millions of dollars a year” across film and TV production and FAST channel curation. Burns spoke at the Gabelli Sports & Media Symposium in New York. He described recent internal demonstrations that included specific movie shots, preview screenings and budget modeling.

Lionsgate’s film and TV studio business generated more than $3 billion in the most recent fiscal year, according to SEC filings. Burns said the technology is advancing rapidly. “It’s like Moore’s law on crack,” he said.

He added that ownership of existing intellectual property creates multiple monetization paths. “If you own the existing IP, you get a lot of different ways to monetize it. So, I think it’s exciting,” Burns said.

The Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA reached new contract agreements with the AMPTP in recent months, following 2023 strikes that were driven in part by concerns over AI. Burns said he expects stakeholder negotiations to produce workable protections for performers’ likenesses.

“Actors’ likenesses, you know, with cooperation, I think that there’s a participation with them … everybody can monetize it together,” he said.

Hasbro this week announced an AI studio that will license properties such as Transformers to third parties for a fee. Lionsgate split from Starz last year. Burns and CEO Jon Feltheimer have led the company since 2000.

Burns said the current mergers-and-acquisitions environment favors deals, though partners still face difficulty aligning valuations. “Everybody has the same issue, which is you want to show growth and you only have two ways to show growth, which is organically, which is really hard to do, or inorganically, which is by doing deals,” he said.