When you think Lions Gate Entertainment
That's why Lions Gate's latest move might seem odd at first glance. The Lion wants to grab its fair share of what's known as the faith-based market. The studio has purchased the rights to DVD documentaries based on nonfiction works by Lee Strobel; the initial Christian documentary, The Case for Christ, will be available later in the year. In addition, Lions Gate brokered a distribution partnership with Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian materials, allowing the studio a strategic outlet for its faith-based products.
The religious market is being looked at by content-based companies as a way to augment growth. Media biggies like Disney
Tapping this particular demographic should lead to good business opportunities for Lions Gate. It's essentially a more targeted strategy than the comparable protocol of attracting the general family audience. Developing a relationship with families who are also active in their churches should enhance the studio's mainstream-movie side.
Foolish colleague Rick Munarriz composed an interesting commentary on the growth potential of religious-based entertainment a while ago. You can bet that content creators such as Viacom
Enter the Lions den:
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Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney. As of this writing, he was ranked 14,759 out of 26,968 investors in the CAPS system. Don't know what CAPS is? Check it out. The Fool has a disclosure policy.