Lantern Entertainment

History[edit]

On July 16, 2018, the Dallas-based equity firm Lantern Capital Partners bought the assets of The Weinstein Company (TWC) for $289 million. Lantern Entertainment was formed and assumed the rights to TWC's 277-film library.^[4][3][5] In November 2018, Lantern acquired full control of three Quentin Tarantino films (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight), originally released by The Weinstein Company, for $5.5 million.^[6]


In February 2019, Lantern was reported to be reaching a settlement with The Walt Disney Company, regarding several films that Lantern did not acquire (including Scream 4 and The Matador).


On March 13, 2019, Lantern and Gary Barber relaunched Spyglass Media Group, which will host the former TWC library. Italian film distributor Eagle Pictures, cinema chain Cineworld (which owned and operated Regal Cinemas) and later WarnerMedia/AT&T's Warner Bros. were brought in as minority holders.^[7] Lantern made a majority investment including its film library to Spyglass.


In July 2019, Spyglass settled two major claims, including $11 million for Viacom regarding the TV series Scream (whose last season was delayed until July 2019, three years after the second season finale) and the film Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (which Lantern did not acquire). In March 2020, a federal judge ruled that Spyglass was not responsible for any of TWC's outgoing royalties, and it discontinued making movies and TV shows from now on and it was transferred into Spyglass Media Group and Lionsgate.