LOS ANGELES_Rob Friedman, the co-chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group for the last four years, is stepping down from his post, Santa Monica-based Lionsgate said Friday.
Friedman, however, will remain in the fold, serving as a special adviser to Lionsgate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer. The company's movie unit will be run by Patrick Wachsberger, who'd been co-chair with Friedman, and other executives already in place.
The move comes during a tough stretch for the company's film studio, which has released a string of expensive box-office disappointments. Among the duds was February's "Gods of Egypt," which cost $140 million to produce and several millions of dollars more to market but grossed about $147 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Lionsgate is best known for "The Twilight Saga" and "The Hunger Games" movie series, but has struggled to find a new franchise on par with those massive successes. One effort, the "Divergent" series of sci-fi films, has achieved only moderate success. The third picture in the franchise, "Allegiant," was released in March and performed poorly, grossing $179 million worldwide against a budget of about $110 million. Since then, Lionsgate has looked to turn the next movie in the series into a television property.
Feltheimer praised Friedman in a statement, saying he'd "played an integral role in leading the successful growth and diversification" of the film unit during his tenure.
This weekend, the company is releasing "Blair Witch," a sequel to the similarly named 1999 horror classic.
Shares of Lionsgate have fallen about 33 percent this year. The stock rose more than 6 percent on Friday to close at $21.59.
Friedman joined Lionsgate in 2012, when the company acquired "Twilight" producer Summit Entertainment for $412.5 million in cash and stock. Friedman and Wachsberger had been the co-chairs of Summit and continued in similar roles at Lionsgate.
Friedman said in a statement that it had been a privilege to serve as co-chair of Lionsgate's film group alongside "a team of world-class executives."
