Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.B)

[llessurK]

Hunger Games - Mockingjay 1 Opens With "Just" $275M Worldwide Weekend Box Office:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2014/11/23/hunger-games-weekend-box-office-mockingjay-1-nabs-275m-worldwide-debut/

'Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1' Is Series Best:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/11/21/review-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1-is-series-best/

Mockingjay is the highest grossing weekend movie of 2014 grossing $275 million worldwide. Certainly not a disappointment by 2014 standards. Also, unlike the previous installments in the series, Mockingjay - Part 1 did not run on the higher premium priced Imax screens so that needs to be factored into the the domestic box office metrics as well.

Personally, I don't believe that the domestic opening weekend box office numbers for Mockingjay - Part 1 must either match or surpass the opening weekend numbers of the previous installments of the film and/or an Alibaba stake in the company is the "only" way the share price will ever reach $40 dollars a share. Share price was well on it's way to hitting that target before this movie was released.

Overall, not a good measurement for longer term valuation of a media stock, imo. No doubt, short term bears will take any metric they can find to support a "disappointing" shortfall case for the company (one review cited it's failure to beat "Iron Man 3", a movie from 2013, to support such as case).

At 17% short interest and 12 days to cover, it's somewhat of a crowded trade, imo:

http://shortsqueeze.com/?symbol=LGF&submit=Short+Quote%99