“Jim has been a driving force in building our film and television library into a billion-dollar-a-year business. Nobody has a better understanding of its inner workings and how to continue growing its value.” 

— Jon Feltheimer, CEO, Lionsgate  

By Addie Morfoot

Over the last 15 years, Jim Packer has turned Lionsgate into a global licensing powerhouse.
Packer and his team are responsible for expanding and monetizing Lionsgate’s vast film and television library, which comprises some 20,000 titles, including the Hunger Games, John Wick, and Twilight franchises. Since 2011, Packer has inked licensing deals with buyers across the media landscape—from broadcast and cable networks to streaming services.
Additionally, Packer has secured distribution rights to leading third-party properties such as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volumes I & II and Jackie Brown, while also helping to create a unit focused on self-distribution, including FAST channels and platforms like YouTube.
As the entertainment industry continues to consolidate, the licensing of movies and TV shows is a vital revenue source for major studios to offset ever-rising production costs. In recent years, revenue generated from Lionsgate’s library has helped shrink the studio’s quarterly losses.
Since 2015, under Packer’s leadership, Lionsgate’s library revenues have increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 7%. The studio’s trailing 12-month film and television library revenue reached a record $1 billion last year.
“Jim has been a driving force in building our film and television library into a billion-dollar-a-year business,” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said. “Nobody has a better understanding of its inner workings and how to continue growing its value.”

Building a Career in Content
Growing up in Los Angeles, Packer was fascinated by the entertainment industry’s collision of commerce and creativity. When he left L.A. to attend the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, he took a film studies class that intrigued him. So much so that in 1985, after graduating and returning to L.A., Packer decided to combine his interest in film with his business acumen.
He set his sights on a marketing career in entertainment and eventually landed an entry-level position at The Walt Disney Co. He went on to spend 15 years in Buena Vista’s domestic television distribution business, overseeing the distribution and syndication of Disney content.
When Packer began at Disney, he viewed entertainment simply as “a fun business to be in.”
“But even early on, I realized entertainment was one of those industries that would always matter,” said Packer. “People will always want to be entertained, and I knew it was a business I wanted to be a part of.”
Before joining Lionsgate in 2011, Packer held a series of executive positions at MGM for over eight years, culminating in his role as co-president of MGM’s worldwide television operation.
Unlike vertically integrated studio competitors, Lionsgate has remained an independent, platform-agnostic seller, licensing its content across the media landscape—from broadcast and cable networks to streaming services. That strategy has made the studio stand out as larger studios funnel more of their most valuable programming toward their own direct-to-consumer platforms.

“He is relentless in monetizing every piece of content across every kind of platform.”

— Michael Burns, Vice Chairman, Lionsgate

The Platform-Agnostic Advantage
“Lionsgate has empowered us to be entrepreneurial with our distribution strategies,” Packer said. “We’ve never been tied to a single platform — instead, we’ve focused on meeting audiences wherever they live. This platform-agnostic approach has allowed us to evolve alongside our partners, maximize the long-term value of our library, and build a business that continues to perform year after year.”
Streaming services’ recent pivot from chasing subscriber growth at all costs to focusing on content profitability has, according to Packer, put a premium on high-quality, proven content which plays directly to Lionsgate’s strengths.”
Proof is a recently inked nonexclusive, multiyear international licensing agreement with Netflix for four shows from the Lionsgate Television-produced Power franchise. Power, Power Book II: Ghost, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Power Book IV: Force will arrive on Netflix internationally in November. Packer said the deal will be “transformative for the show and for the franchise” by significantly expanding its international footprint.
Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns called Packer a “force of nature."
“He is relentless in monetizing every piece of content across every kind of platform,” said Burns. “In the process, he has grown our library into a crown jewel asset supported by one of the most dynamic and innovative licensing organizations in the world.”
Yet keeping up with the speed of change across the industry has had its challenges.
“Industry consolidation and evolving market dynamics have required quick decision-making to navigate risks while maintaining a long-term perspective,” said Packer. “We’ve embraced and anticipated changing trends, which has allowed us to stay ahead and jump quickly on new opportunities.”
One of those anticipated trends was Tubi, which Lionsgate invested in in 2015 because Packer believed the AVOD model had significant potential.
“That allowed me to have a board advisory role and helped position Lionsgate to build the strong AVOD business we have today,” he said.
Packer also bolstered the growth of Lionsgate’s global distribution initiatives by launching a new unit focused on self-distribution, which includes FAST Channels and platforms such as YouTube.
“Back in November 2008, when I was overseeing MGM’s global television and digital operations, we became the first major Hollywood studio to release a movie on YouTube,” said Packer. “I saw the platform’s long-term potential back then, and today we are partnering with YouTube across many of our groups. What began as a mobile-first platform has evolved into a major living room and connected TV destination and I am bullish about their monetization ecosystem. We’ve continued to invest in and supercharge our YouTube channels, and I believe there’s still significant growth ahead.”
In March, Packer made Lionsgate transactional business part of the studio’s global distribution team, allowing the company to “be more synergistic around our creative approach to content distribution.”
“Because transactional and SVOD performance are so closely connected, and because they share many of the same buyers, having both businesses within a single group allows us to be more analytical and strategic in how we determine licensing fees,” Packer said.
It’s yet another example of Packer taking Lionsgate library and making it a global, future-ready distribution organization.