SUMMARY
Considering the quality, quantity, and diversity of films distributed under the Lionsgate banner, GLAAD has given Lionsgate an INSUFFICIENT grade.
There were some standout features from Lionsgate in 2023, after two years in a row of receiving a “failing” grade on this study. GLAAD Media Award-nominated horror comedy The Blackening includes a gay Black man as one of the lead characters; raunchy comedy Joy Ride features a nonbinary Asian American character in its core cast; and horror film Dear David has a gay lead. There is still work to be done across Lionsgate’s slate, as there were multiple titles such as Manodrome and Dead Man’s Hand that fell into negative tropes and stereotypes of the community, and titles such as Jesus Revolution and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songirds and Snakes that omitted LGBTQ people in adaptations. GLAAD urges Lionsgate to embrace LGBTQ characters in source material and disregard offensive portrayals of the community in their films going forward.
HISTORY
Founded by Canadian businessman Frank Guistra in 1997, Lionsgate has produced and distributed major blockbusters such as Twilight, Hunger Games, and the John Which franchises. In 2023, Lionsgate announced its merger with Screaming Eagle Corp. to form a separate publicly traded company, Lionsgate Studios. Lionsgate has a variety of subsidiaries, including Summit Entertainment and Starz Inc. LGBTQ-inclusive films previously released by Lionsgate encompass The Pillow Book (1997), Gods and Monsters (1998), But I’m a Cheerleader! and Urbania (2000), Happy Endings (2005), Precious (2009), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), American Ultra and Freeheld (2015), Un Padre No Tan Padre (2017), and Bombshell (2019).
This horror comedy centers on a group of Black friends who go to a cabin for a reunion, only to be pursued by a mysterious killer through a racist board game. One of the characters in the main group of friends, Dewayne, is gay. When the board game tells them to sacrifice the Blackest member of the group, Dewayne quickly says it can’t be him because he’s gay: “Just like my homophobic family members say ‘Gayness is just whiteness wrapped up in a bunch of dicks,’ and today, I agree.” Dewayne is a major character in the story as a fully rounded out character, which includes, but is not limited to, his sexuality. He also makes it to the end of the film alive, which is exciting to see for a Black gay man. The Blackening sets a precedent of including Black queer characters in films that span multiple genres.
Dear David is a horror film based on BuzzFeed comic Adam Ellis’s real experience being “haunted” online. Ellis is gay in real life, and the character Adam is gay as well, starting off the film with his boyfriend, Kyle. Much of Adam’s plot involves trolls harassing him online for his comics, until one commenter, David, won’t leave him alone. As Adam becomes obsessed with the source of David’s comments, he neglects Kyle, who breaks up with him. David’s comments become a serious haunting and it escalates until Adam is caught in a burning building. Kyle and David’s friend Evelyn end up saving him, and Adam and Kyle reconcile. It is refreshing to see a gay protagonist in a horror film who makes it out alive and has the same type of relationship drama a straight protagonist would have.
This film follows Claudia as she returns home to her Mexican family in East LA with her white boyfriend, Leif, who her father hates. Throughout the film, her parents try to set her up with other men, including family friend Javier. Javier is often seen flirting with women, but when Claudia’s father suggests she get together with Javier, Claudia reveals that Javier is gay. Unfortunately, the audience never sees Javier come out himself or have any relationships with a man; the reveal of his sexuality is more of a plot device than any significant character development.
Joy Ride is a comedy that follows four friends on a trip through China. The friends are Audrey, a lawyer who travels to China for a business trip, her former college roommate Kat, her childhood best friend Lolo, and Lolo’s cousin Deadeye (played by nonbinary actor Sabrina Wu). Though the group uses she/her pronouns for Deadeye for the majority of the film, in the final scene, which takes place a year later, Deadeye’s friends use they/them pronouns for them, implying that Deadeye has come out as nonbinary since the major events of the film. Though it is exciting to see a casual nonbinary character in a raunchy sex comedy, it would have been even better to see Deadeye as nonbinary for the duration of the film.
Manodrome follows Ralphie, a closeted gay man who joins a men’s rights cult. Ralphie is deeply miserable, driving for a rideshare app and dating a woman, Sal, even though it is clear he doesn’t care for her. Sal gets pregnant and Ralphie starts getting more involved in this cult, where the men are outwardly sexist and pledge celibacy. As things progress, Ralphie starts enacting violence on other men, and shows disgust toward gay men. Toward the end of the film, Raplhie stalks a man from the gym and proceeds to have sex with him, then kill him. Then Ralphie kills the leader of the cult, a cop, and attempts to kill himself, but his gun runs out of bullets. This is where the film ends.