Lionsgate intends to use its current collection of intellectual property for an AI short-form series and has acquired an equity position in the generative AI video startup Runway for the same. The acceptance of AI in Hollywood keeps on seeing new heights with the endorsements of elites in the business. The previous month, it was the legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese who partnered up with an AI startup to push the boundaries of cinema, and now Lionsgate has joined the list.

Lionsgate’s partnership with Runway AI will mark a new chapter in the journey of AI-generated content going mainstream.

On Thursday, Lionsgate and Runway, a generative AI research business, announced an expanded agreement that includes Lionsgate acquiring shares in the tech company and initiating a collaborative development program to create and generate new intellectual property.

The businesses will use their current Lionsgate intellectual property to produce AI-generated short episodic series as part of the well-thought-out expansion. The AI shows will be the first of the company's full lineup of co-developed initiatives that combine content and artificial intelligence.

Although John Wick and The Hunger Games are among the most well-known IPs in the Lionsgate catalog, there are thousands of movies that might be mined. They did not disclose which franchises would be used for these AI series. According to a press statement from the studio, the desired collaboration with Runway is a component of Lionsgate's comprehensive AI strategy, which is led by Chief AI Officer Kathleen Grace and the AI Steering Committee.

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Interestingly, this is not the first time that the companies have come together; their partnership goes back a couple of years.

The two businesses first partnered in September 2024, with Lionsgate using Runway's technology for storyboarding, pre-visualization, certain post-production work, and possibly recycling content across genres and rating scales. However, as TheWrap exclusively revealed last year, the collaboration encountered certain difficulties when it came to producing AI movies.

But the statement on Thursday represents a significant extension of the agreement, possibly enabling characters from some of Lionsgate's properties (the studio declined to specify which ones) to appear in an AI project. We'll see what Lionsgate and Runway have created now that these IP-driven short series have been announced. This seems like another victory for tech in the AI in films debate.

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What do you think can be the long-term implications of this partnership? Share your thoughts.