Prime Video has announced that it will be the new home for streaming Lionsgate movies in the US starting in 2026, and will also get a bunch of the studio’s 2025 films. The movies will appear on Starz first, immediately after release, with Prime Video getting them exclusively in an “early window” just after that, according to Deadline.
Lionsgate makes the John Wick, The Hunger Games and The Strangers franchises, and is also where Guy Ritchie and Paul Feig are currently making their movies, among others.
The 2026 deal will include the next Hunger Games movie, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and Now You See Me 3 based on the planned release dates. It may well also include the planned releases of Orphan 3, John Wick Chapter 5, a Highlander remake from John Wick director Chad Stahelski with Henry Cavill, and the new American Psycho adaptation coming from Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino.
I say “may well” because they don’t have release dates yet, and Prime Video and Lionsgate haven’t said how long this deal will last.
The deal will also include the option bring some of Lionsgate’s 2025 movie slate exclusively to Prime Video, and the list of films available for this includes the John Wick spin-off Ballerina, Saw XI, The Strangers Chapter 2 (and Chapter 3), a new crime thriller starring Sydney Sweeney called Americana, and Guy Ritchie’s next movie In The Grey. However, it’s not confirmed which of these movies would be included.
Prime Video will also license some of Lionsgate’s TV back catalog, which includes the likes of Weeds and Nurse Jackie.
A deal made just for me
As a lover of thriller movies – especially time-filler mid-tier thrillers, of the kind that would absolutely have once starred Ashley Judd – this is going to make Prime Video pretty indispensable to me among the best streaming services.
Lionsgate is one of the last bastions of solid thriller movies, and its list of upcoming movies is packed with them, from some interesting new directors to known safe hands such as John Wick director Stahelski.
You’ve got horror thrillers, action thrillers, crime thrillers – these are the things I put on in the evenings when my brain is exhausted and I don’t want to mull my options too hard. “Oh, the new Guy Ritchie movie is out? Great, I can’t wait to see Henry Cavill (I assume) punch someone and say a charming line.” (I’ve now checked, and Henry Cavill is, in fact, in it).
This deal basically establishes Prime Video as my go-to service on those days, and the news comes just as I’ve been starting to get annoyed with the service’s reminders at the start of every movie that it added ads in for my paid service that didn’t used to have ads.
But the ads have proven to be relatively unintrusive, and with the guarantee of a steady throw of thrillers, this definitely keeps me on board.
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