Shares of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF) gained more than 6% last Friday with the optimism of “Blair Witch” becoming a blockbuster movie following suit of recent horror movies like “The Conjuring 2,” “Lights Out” and “Don’t Breathe.” However, the movie’s disappointing opening weekend performance at the box-office sent the shares down by 4.5% on Sep 19, 2016. Notably, yesterday’s decline marked the company’s biggest intraday loss since Jul 1, 2016.
“Blair Witch” is a direct sequel to “The Blair Witch Project” which was released in 1999 and is considered to be one of the most successful horror movies of all time. “The Blair Witch Project” which was made at a budget of $60,000 only, collected nearly $250 million worldwide.
On the other hand, “Blair Witch” managed to garner only $9.65 million over the opening weekend, missing the BoxOffice.com expectations of $20.5 million. Now it is to be seen how the movie performs in the coming days. Analysts pointed that if the movie continues with its dismal run it might hurt the company’s second-quarter fiscal 2017 results.
Lions Gate’s “Gods of Egypt”, which was released this February, was the first major flop of 2016. The movie made on a budget of $140 million managed to collect only $147 million globally. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Better-ranked stocks worth considering include Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ:LBRDA) , Cable ONE, Inc. (NYSE:CABO) and Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG) . Liberty Broadband sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) while Media General and Cable ONE carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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