EXCLUSIVE: When Lionsgate‘s President of International Helen Lee-Kim extended her longterm contract with the company in late 2023, Motion Picture Group chair Joe Drake described her as a “superstar.”
A quick straw poll of leading market buyers reveals that the sales vet remains held in the highest regard. “Her door is always open, we all like her and respect her, she knows how to handle people: she’s a great asset for Lionsgate,” one veteran distributor told us.
Lee-Kim is a 22-year vet of the sales scene, so she has seen plenty. But she admits this is a tough time.
“Times are as complicated as they’ve been, and they’re getting more and more complex,” she admits. Audience habits have shifted, multiple international markets are challenged and the business faces major consolidation and a new AI frontier. (“AI is in every conversation that we’re having here,” says the exec. “Not specific to the movie making process necessarily, but it is a daily conversation point”).
But Lee-Kim, known for her energy and upbeat demeanor, sees positives. “The good news is, people are going to the movie theater at this moment in time. I’ve seen it on our movies. When I’ve been to the movies myself, the theater is bubbling. Between Michael, The Housemaid, our upcoming Hunger Games movie, and more, there’s plenty to pull people to the theaters.”
On the eve of the market, Deadline revealed that WME Independent is backing out of international sales with Alex Walton departing to set up a new venture. Does Lee-Kim see that as a result of challenging times?
“It’s not surprising or shocking,” she says. “There’s always shuffling. Alex is a pro. He’s very well respected and I’m happy for whatever he’ll be doing in his next chapter.”
When it comes to the international sales business, Lionsgate sits in an almost unique position given its robust domestic operation.
“I don’t take that lightly ever,” says Lee-Kim. “That domestic piece is more and more valuable. It’s invaluable. When you look at it, who else is delivering consistently? I’m not saying that people don’t have hits, but who else is consistently delivering these bigger, franchise, event movies that can gross $300M plus? The Housemaid has done $400M global with $270M of that coming from international.” The market certainly needs Lionsgate.
Lee-Kim and her international team are in Cannes to pre-sell the reboot of The Blair Witch project and the sequel to The Housemaid, which we hear from sources comes with a hefty budget in the $70-80M range, double that of the first film.
The Blair Witch reboot is lining up to shoot this fall and while plot details are officially under wraps we hear it will deal with a family that goes on a camping trip but goes missing one by one after they hear strange noises in the forest. As for The Housemaid sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret, Lee-Kim wouldn’t be drawn on budget but acknowledges that it’s a much bigger canvas. The book takes place in a New York penthouse, an upstate residence and incorporates aspects of the Big Apple.
“It’s an expansion of the world from the first film. The second book is even twistier and it’ll be a more unexpected movie. It’ll be structured a little differently. We’re aiming to be filming by year’s end. The whole creative team is back, as are Sydney [Sweeney] and Michele Morrone who has a bigger role in the second film. Kirsten [Dunst] is aboard, and then we have two other fun male roles that we’re casting now.”
Lionsgate has a host of anticipated projects in development and production. We run through some of the other titles.
The Dirty Dancing sequel is one of the IPs Lee-Kim is most anticipating. Earlier this year, the studio brought on Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson to help move it along and it has been through some script changes. “They’re in development and we’re waiting for a script,” says Lee-Kim. Another anticipated revival is American Psycho. “We’ll hopefully have a script for that later in the year,” is the update. Luca Guadagnino is aboard to direct the Scott Z. Burns update but cast has yet to be set.
What has she seen of Mel Gibson’s big-budget Resurrection Of The Christ movies? “I have seen some things. Mel is finishing up this massive production. The faith-based audience is going to find this hugely appealing, but it’ll have really broad audience appeal too,” is her prediction.
Meanwhile, recently wrapped John Rambo is looking “huge and genuinely amazing,” she enthuses, while James Wan is said to be “in the trenches mapping out the future of the Saw universe.” She hasn’t seen a script for the latter yet. She won’t be drawn into Michael sequel chat but acknowledges that “those talks are happening now and we’re excited to see what happens”. John Wick spinoff Caine is filming, and as we revealed yesterday, has added cast.
Towards the end of our chat, I bring up Lionsgate selling movies to Russia, but the studio doesn’t want to discuss that. The major studios continue not to sell their projects to the territory since the country invaded Ukraine, but Lionsgate does sell to the territory and has had significant success there this year. Universal handled the international release of Michael, for example, but it was Lionsgate who cut the local deal with Volga Film.
Lee-Kim is happier to discuss the studio’s ability to pivot to foreign-language titles and to build relationships with foreign filmmakers.
“We are expected to keep those entrepreneurial muscles flexed,” she says. “That allows us to find movies like Sisu by Jalmari Helander who has then gone on to shoot the hell out of Rambo for us. We got to know director and fight choreographer Kenji Tanigaki from John Wick 4 and that led us to pick up his movie The Furious. So, that’s a point of difference for us.”
“We’re still having fun,” she ends. “The business is tough, but we’re still finding the fun.”