The fifth new TV and film studio to open in the past year in Georgia is Lionsgate Studio on 40 acres in fast-growing Douglasville.
Great Point Studios, headquartered in Yonkers, New York, spent the past year building out the property, which was previously hilly forest. Lionsgate, one of the largest film and TV production companies in Hollywood, signed a long-term lease as the primary tenant. They have control over the first five stages, which Lionsgate will begin using later this month.
Three more stages will be completed by March. Lionsgate will have first dibs on those stages but Great Point Studios could lease that space out to other tenants if Lionsgate doesn’t need them.
Great Point is a media-focused investment fund specializing in film and television infrastructure and has worked with Lionsgate on studio space in New York and New Jersey. It has spent $160 million to build out this studio.
The studios can be called either Great Point or Lionsgate, said property manager Thos Halmi. He’s the son of Great Point Studios chief executive officer Robert Halmi Jr., who founded Hallmark Channel in 1995. Both names are painted in huge letters on the sides of two of the purpose-built studios.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Halmi said they have not yet decided whether to open three more stages at a later point or keep that space as a back lot. On the property, there is a permanent commissary, ample space to build out sets and on-site lighting and rigging rentals.
Lionsgate — founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1997 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California — supported all of Tyler Perry’s theatrically released “Madea” films and shot three of its four “Hunger Games” films in metro Atlanta. Other films the studio has distributed and/or produced in Atlanta include 2012′s “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” 2017′s “All Eyez On Me” and 2018′s “Uncle Drew.”
This will give the movie studio a primary home. The company also owns pay cable network and streaming service Starz, which it plans to spin off into a separate company. Starz shoots current drama “P-Valley” in metro Atlanta and previously produced comedy “Survivor’s Remorse” locally.
The studio is next to The Trails, a 59-acre mixed-use development in Douglas County with plans for housing, a hotel and retail space.
“Things are getting better out here,” Halmi said. “Douglasville is a boom town right now.”
The studio is also not far from the 1,200 acres Tyler Perry purchased a decade ago for his own residence. “From the third floor [of the production building,] you can see his roof,” Halmi said. “A lot of our construction guys work on his property.”
Four other studios that opened the past year are Athena Studios in Athens, Electric Owl Studios in Atlanta, Assembly Studios in Doraville and Bluestar Studios in Forest Park.
This is not the only long-term deal between a production company and a studio in town. NBCUniversal, which owns NBC, Bravo, USA Network and the Peacock streaming service, oversees Assembly Studios for not only its own TV shows and movies but also leases space to other production companies.
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