Lionsgate Films is a Canadian production and distributor company, a subsidiary of Lionsgate Entertainment. Currently the the largest and most successful of the independent film distributor-studio in North America. Foreign and independent films are the companies main focus, it is perhaps best know and made its name for distributing films too controversial for the mainstream studios. Such examples being the Fahrenheit 9/11 and American Psycho. Although sometimes, films which are distributed by Lions Gate theatrically will have their DVDs distributed by other studios.

Lionsgate business strategy has changed greatly under different managers.  Lionsgate was founded by late director Robert Altman in 1976, who named it after a Vancouver landmark, the Lions' Gate Bridge. The company now, as then, is based in Vancouver  British Columbia, Canada. Altman sold the company in 1981 to Jonathan Taplin. The companies next step forward was  started in 1997 by Frank Guistra, a Vancouver investment banker hoping to capitalize on the growing film industry in his home town.  The company expanded by buying  a number of small production facilities and distributors. Its first success was American Psycho, which began a trend of producing and distributing films far too controversial for the major American studios. Other successes followed;  Affliction, Gods and Monsters, Dogma, and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which to date has been the studio's highest grossing film.

In 2000 Frank Guistra left the company and was taken over by Jon Feltheimer and Micheal Burns. Their focus was on the video market with this in mind they began buying up small struggling companies who carried large libraries. This included Trimark Pictures Inc. and Artisan Entertainment along with the other companies they purchased it gave Lionsgate the second largest DVD library of a any company. It carries over 8000 films including Total Recall, Reservoir Dogs, On Golden Pond, Young Guns, Dirty Dancing, Rambo and It's A Wonderful Life, in some cases these came by output deals with Studio Canal, ITC/Carlton, and Republic Pictures. Lionsgate also distributes Will and Grace and other NBC programs, Mattel's Barbie-branded videos and Clifford the Big Red Dog videos from the Scholastic Corporation.

Very rarely does Lionsgate teams up with a major studio to co-produce films. In 2004 they teamed up with Miramax Films to make the sequel Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, also with Paramount Pictures for 2002's Narc and 2004's The Prince & Me. They were also a silent partner in 20th Century Fox's 2004 sci-fi film The Day After Tomorrow. In 2004 for the first time in their history they teamed up with independent rival United Artists in producing Hotel Rwanda.

Lionsgate operate there own record label. Carrying the soundtracks to many of films they have distributed;  Saw I to III, Along with Happily Never After, Bug, Daddy's little girl and pride.

The company has a television arm which makes such programs as Dead Zone and Five Days to Midnight.

In 2005, Lionsgate acquired UK-based distributor Redbus Films, renaming the company Lionsgate UK. Then In 2006, they acquired land in Rio Rancho, New Mexico for construction of a new studio facility.
 

Lionsgate studio properties in Canada are also rented to other film studios including for the filming of the Warner Bros. film, Catwoman

With its continued success with Crash (the company's first best film Oscar) The Lord of War, Saw II, which won its first weekend at the box office.  se  Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion, which was the first film of 2006 to be the #1 Movie in America for two weeks in a row. Such successes prove to underline Lionsgate great power as a independent  studio, slowly growing to be proven worthy as a great competitor with the mainstream distributors.
 

Lionsgate Films from 1995 to 2008

Saw (short film)
The Cooler
Ju-on: The Grudge
House of 1000 Corpses
High Tension (aka: Switchblade Romance)
Open Water
 

 
3:10 to Yuma
All Together, The
As you like it
Away From Her
Bratz
Bug
College
Condemned
Crank
Daddy's Little Girls
Delta Farce
Employee of the Month
fido
Fierce People
Foodfight!
Good Luck Chuck
Happily N'ever After               
Hostel Part 2
Lives Of Others, The
Paradise Lost (formerly Turistas)
Pride
Rogue
Saw IV
Skinwalkers
Trade
War
War On Democracy, The