{"id":120037,"date":"2025-11-03T21:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/120037\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T21:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:10:09","slug":"lionsgate-does-deal-with-millennium-for-rambo-the-expendables-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/120037\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionsgate Does Deal With Millennium for Rambo, The Expendables Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a seismic deal for indie action fans, Lionsgate<\/a> has secured a wide-ranging rights deal with Millennium Media<\/a> for two of Millennium\u2019s most valuable action franchises: Rambo<\/a> and The Expendables<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the agreement announced on Monday, Lionsgate will take global distribution rights to Rambo prequel John Rambo,<\/a> the planned sixth installment in the Rambo franchise, as well as a lead producing role on any future Rambo television titles. The mini-major also secured the rights to develop and produce all future derivative works based on The Expendables franchise, including potential film and television projects, video games and immersive experiences (the mind boggles).<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate is launching international<\/a> sales on John Rambo at the American Film Market in Los Angeles next week. Finnish director Jalmari Helander (Sisu) is set to direct the prequel with Noah Centineo (Black Adam, To All the Boys I\u2019ve Loved Before) in final negotiations to star in the role made famous by Sylvester Stallone in the 1980s. Production is expected to begin in Thailand next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate was the distributor of all of the Expendables films in North America and the U.K., and handled the release of the fourth and fifth Rambo movies in North America, as well as the first three installments in the franchise across Latin America and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis deal expands Lionsgate\u2019s portfolio of genre-defining action franchises and reinforces our commitment to delivering world-class IP across multiple platforms,\u201d said Lionsgate COO Brian Goldsmith in a statement. Jonathan Yunger, president of Millennium Media, called the agreement \u201ca partnership that gives these franchises the scale, creative support, and global reach they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe transaction represents a significant strategic realignment for Millennium Media, which built its reputation \u2014 and much of its revenue base \u2014 on action-driven, mid-budget franchises including The Expendables, Rambo, and Olympus Has Fallen. Founded in 1992 by Avi Lerner as Nu Image, the company is one of the last major independent production outfits still financing and producing large-scale, star-driven genre films outside the studio system.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Millennium has faced mounting competition and consolidation pressures as major studios and streamers have absorbed much of the global action market, and theatrical returns for old-school action movies have become less reliable. Expendables 4, released in 2023, debuted with a franchise low<\/a> of $8.3 million in North America and limped to a global haul of under $40 million. Rambo: Last Blood (2019) is the only Rambo film not to gross more than $100 million worldwide. The decision to transfer creative and distribution control of two of its signature titles to Lionsgate suggests a potential pivot for the independent producer. <\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate has also struggled of late to extend its own action franchises, with Ballerina, a spinoff of the studio\u2019s John Wick juggernaut, starring Ana de Armas, earning a relatively disappointing<\/a> $137 million worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a seismic deal for indie action fans, Lionsgate has secured a wide-ranging rights deal with Millennium Media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[58747,71700,93,61,1042,60,8993,71701,270,24184,71702],"class_list":{"0":"post-120037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-afm","9":"tag-afm-2025","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-lionsgate","15":"tag-millennium-media","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-rambo","18":"tag-the-expendables"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}