Lionsgate partners with YouTube studio RocketJump

Lionsgate has Katniss, Tris and Bella, and now it has another young-adult hero -- YouTube star Freddie Wong.

Lionsgate, the company best known for “The Hunger Games,” “Twilight” and “Divergent,” has made a multi-year deal with Wong’s YouTube network RocketJump Studios to develop film, television and digital content, the companies said Monday.

The deal gives Lionsgate access to RocketJump’s coming video slate, talent and fans, and RocketJump will take advantage of Lionsgate’s development and marketing abilities and add more long-form video to its growing roster of weekly shorts, podcasts and tutorials, the companies said.

“This partnership unites two entrepreneurial companies with similar cultures and a shared commitment to build new models for creating and delivering content to the next generation of audiences,” Lionsgate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer said in a statement.

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RocketJump, founded four years ago, is known for Web series such as “Video Game High School.” The company’s videos have amassed nearly a billion viewers and 6.8 million subscribers.

This comes amid a flurry of deals between Hollywood companies and digital content creators to cater to millennial consumers who increasing watch video content online.

Last month, the Walt Disney Co. announced a deal to acquire Maker Studios for up to $950 million. Relatively Media has sent a letter to Maker shareholders with an offer valued at up to $1.1 billion.

This is not Lionsgate’s first foray into digital video content. The company’s digital portfolio includes a stake in online platform Defy Media and the YouTube fitness channel BeFit. It’s also the company behind the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” and the new Hulu show “Deadbeat.”

“It’s rare to find a corporate partner who encourages true creativity,” Wong said. “But our meetings with Lionsgate’s creative team convinced us that this is the right move for RocketJump and our millions of fans.”

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