Maple Pictures Corporation was a Canadian–American film distribution company founded on April 13, 2005 when Lionsgate demerged to two companies—Lions Gate Entertainment and Maple Pictures (formerly the original incarnation of Lionsgate Films).[1][2][3] Maple Pictures was the official distributor for Lionsgate's films and video library throughout Canada.
Through several ownership changes, Alliance Films acquired Maple from Lionsgate in 2011, which was in turn sold to Entertainment One in 2013, which was itself acquired by Hasbro in 2019. Lionsgate, through its acquisition of eOne, reacquired the trademarks of Maple Pictures from Hasbro in 2023.
Background
The company described itself as a "genre-savvy independent film company making a mark on the industry through its grassroots acquisition, production and distribution of diverse and distinctive filmed entertainment". Maple also had an extensive home video catalogue, which was built up largely by Lions Gate Entertainment's acquisition of several other independent studios. Their logo from 2005 depicted the company's name smothered in concentric circles & rings, whose font was set in Helvetica Bold.
In 2008, Maple Pictures acquired the rights to distribute Miramax films which Alliance Films lost acquisition to earlier in 2007.
On August 10, 2011, Alliance Films bought Maple Pictures from Lions Gate Entertainment (Maple's former owner) for a sum of 38.5 million dollars.[4] On January 9, 2013, Entertainment One acquired Alliance,[5] and then on December 30, 2019, American toy and media company Hasbro (after having tried and failed to acquire Lionsgate) acquired eOne. On August 3, 2023, Lionsgate announced that it would acquire the non-children's assets of eOne from Hasbro, reuniting the library and trademarks for Maple Pictures with Lionsgate after a separation of twelve years. The deal closed on December 27, 2023.[6]
