Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer Sees Compensation Fall 54% to $6.6 Million

Dave McNary

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Lionsgate chief executive officer Jon Feltheimer received $6.6 million in compensation for the fiscal year ended March 31, down 54% from the $14.4 million from the previous year.

The figure was disclosed Friday as part of the company’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its annual meeting on Sept. 10 in Vancouver.

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Feltheimer’s package includes $1.5 million salary, $3.09 million in bonuses, $1.86 million in option awards and $165,547 in other compensation — including $38,809 in club membership dues and $114,582 in incremental costs for the personal use of the company-leased aircraft.

The previous year’s compensation included $7 million in the non-equity incentive plan compensation. Feltheimer received $35.3 million two years ago with much of that coming from the front-loading of his stock options, worth $16.3 million, that were part of 2016’s five-year extension of Feltheimer’s contract through May 22, 2023.

The proxy also disclosed that vice chairman Michael Burns made $5.18 million during the fiscal year, declining about 42% from the $8.97 million in the previous year and about 81% from two years ago, which included $12.2 million in option awards. Two weeks after the Feltheimer extension, the company gave Burns a five-year contract renewal that extended his deal into 2022.

Feltheimer, 67, and Burns, 60, have run Lionsgate for the past 18 years, far longer than any other duo at an entertainment company. They issued a bright outlook in their letter to shareholders Friday.

“We’re pleased to report that Fiscal 2019 was a year in which we refilled our film and television content pipelines with exciting new properties, grew our existing franchises and created new ones, and continued the robust growth of our domestic streaming business at Starz while expanding our Starzplay premium branded platform around the world,” they said.

“It was also a year in which we cut costs and reduced overhead company-wide, streamlining and modernizing our business in order to continue to compete effectively in a changing world,” they added. “As a result, we believe that all of the building blocks are in place for strong and profitable growth in fiscal 20 and growing recognition of the value we’re creating for our shareholders as we move forward.”

Feltheimer and Burns said Starz would be able to attract 15 to 25 million new international subscribers by 2025. They also noted that “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum” had grossed more than $300 million at the worldwide box office, doubling the performance of the last installment, describing that as “an almost unprecedented feat among movie franchises.”

Lionsgate has already dated the fourth “John Wick” for May, 2021, and expanded the “John Wick” universe to include an upcoming television spinoff for Starz titled “The Continental,” a first-of-its-kind game integration with “Fortnite” and the virtual reality game “John Wick Chronicles.”

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