Lionsgate signs deal with AI startup Runway to build custom video model

On 18 September 2024, the Hollywood studio Lionsgate announced a partnership with Runway, a New York-based artificial intelligence startup known for its generative video tools. The agreement was among the first publicly announced deals between a major film studio and an AI video company.

Under the arrangement, Runway was to build a custom generative model trained on Lionsgate's catalogue of films and television series. The model was intended for use by the studio's filmmakers and creative teams, with the aim of supporting work such as storyboarding, previsualisation and visual effects, and of cutting some production costs and time.

The deal mattered because studios had until then been cautious about generative AI, partly because of legal disputes over training data and concerns raised by actors, writers and visual effects artists about jobs and copyright. By offering its own library as training material, Lionsgate showed one route studios might take: building models on content they already own. The announcement helped set the tone for later studio and VFX-industry moves on AI.