Major Hollywood Studio Lionsgate Offering US Workers ‘Voluntary Severance’ After AI Deal Announced: Report
Lionsgate Studios is currently restructuring and has announced a program offering voluntary severance and early retirement options to its U.S.-based employees. This initiative, confirmed by CEO Jon Feltheimer in a memo, stems from the challenges posed by a contracting media and entertainment landscape, as well as recent business dealings that include the acquisition of eOne and a significant partnership with AI startup Runway. The voluntary nature of the severance options has drawn skepticism, as future layoffs may occur if not enough employees accept the offers. The industry is also concerned about the potential impact of AI on jobs and content creation, especially in light of Lionsgate’s new agreement allowing Runway extensive rights over its content library. Critics argue that this move reflects a troubling trend of studios seeking to leverage AI while simultaneously risking job losses for human workers. These severance options have reportedly been in development for some time and are not solely a reaction to recent box office failures, raising questions about the studio’s strategies amid ongoing industry shifts.
Regardless of how connected the matters actually are, critics of artificial intelligence are going to have a field day with this one.
According to a Monday report from Deadline, major Hollywood heavyweight Lionsgate Studios is offering its U.S.-based employees “voluntary severance” and early retirement options as the company continues to restructure amid a turbulent industry landscape.
Deadline obtained a memo from Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer, confirming the news.
“We are offering Lionsgate U.S.-based employees a voluntary severance and early retirement program that will allow us to adapt our workforce to the disrupted business environment,” Feltheimer wrote in the memo.
As to just how “voluntary” these severance options are, Deadline noted, “as these things go, layoffs could be a next step depending upon how many staffers take up the packages, which are focused at Lionsgate Studios.”
Deadline attributed a number of reasons for why the Hollywood studio — known for some blockbuster franchises like “John Wick,” “The Hunger Games,” and “Saw” — decided to start down this path.
A “contracting media and entertainment landscape” is one reason given, as is the studio’s business dealings, like when it “absorbed” eOne (now Lionsgate Canada).
Another recent business dealing that Lionsgate was in the headlines for? An unprecedented deal with Runway, a “first-of-its-kind”deal that was reported on by the Wall Street Journal on Sept. 18.
That deal, which gave Runway’s generative AI models nebulous and wide-reaching powers over Lionsgate’s content library, was met with a less-than-enthused response from onlookers.
One common critique is that Hollywood isn’t as worried about AI stealing copyrighted material as it is of having its own AI doing its bidding.
Over a year ago, I told you that I assumed the studios were NOT sending lawyers to the #AI companies over their models injesting their copyrighted films, because they wanted their own custom versions.
Well, here you go. https://t.co/t21mtqEGT8 pic.twitter.com/eucJw709sK— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) September 18, 2024
Others, perhaps presciently, were more worried about whatever jobs that AI would take from workers in the entertainment industry.
Ok people, tell me generative AI won’t take filmmaking jobs again now Lionsgate has a deal with Runway AI. This isn’t going to stop and it is only going to speed up.
— Gavin Michael Booth (@GavinBooth) September 18, 2024
“This isn’t going to stop and it is only going to speed up,” filmmaker Gavin Michael Booth lamented on social media shortly after the WSJ report came out.
Now, it is worth mentioning that Deadline is reporting that these severance options have reportedly “been in the works for some time and are not related to the company’s recent bum box office run — although that likely hasn’t helped.”
That, in turn, does beg the question: If these weren’t spontaneous reactions, were the AI deal and other similar business dealings meant to help mitigate the inevitable transition from “voluntary severance” options to involuntary ones?
The truth of the matter may never come to light, but the timing of these reports naturally lends itself to murmurs and hearsay.
And that’s the last thing an already struggling studio needs.
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