Lionsgate Dealmakers Michael Burns, Brian Goldsmith Extend Contracts
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns has extended his employment agreement with the Hollywood studio for another year through Oct. 2024, while fellow dealmaker COO Brian Goldsmith has entered into a new multi-year contractual deal.
On Friday, in a securities filing, Lionsgate said the board of directors agreed on Feb. 28 that the studio will exercise an option to extend Burn’s contract, with all other terms of the original Dec. 2020 agreement remaining unchanged.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
'Party Down' Season 3 Review: Starz's Cater-Waiter Comedy Returns in Fine, Warmly Nostalgic Form
Starz Unveils Bundling With MGM+ on Prime Video in U.S. Market
Burns and Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer – whose own employment deal in a similar fashion was recently extended through August 2025 – represent the longest-running management team in Hollywood, having been with the studio for 24 years.
At the same time, Burns and Feltheimer have been busy with plans to split off the studio’s pay TV and streaming business from its studio operations to make both more attractive as takeover targets, with a completion of that strategic alternatives process set for September 2023.
And on March 2, the studio signed a new employment agreement with Goldsmith, with a term that began on Oct. 1, 2022 and will run through to Sept. 30, 2025. Goldsmith like Burns has been key to recent merger and acquisitions moves at the Hollywood studio. He joined Lionsgate via the 2007 acquisition of Mandate Pictures, where he served as COO and CFO.
Last year, Lionsgate extended the long-term deal for Joe Drake to stay at the studio as chair of its Motion Picture Group. And that followed Lionsgate handing Kevin Beggs a new contract to remain at the top of Lionsgate TV Group and the studio reupping its employment agreement with president of worldwide television distribution Jim Packer.
