Lionsgate and 3 Arts Launch Horror Banner Render Road
Lionsgate and its subsidiary 3 Arts Entertainment are launching Render Road, a new production banner built around horror. A banner is a label under which a company develops and makes films and television, and it can hold many projects at once. Deadline reported the partnership on 6 November 2026.
Luke Maxwell and Will Rowbotham will lead Render Road for 3 Arts. Both will stay on as managers at 3 Arts while they run the new label. Render Road will develop, produce and finance projects for digital platforms as well as traditional films and television series.
The banner will also be open to all talent, not only the people 3 Arts represents. That is a wider door than many production labels keep open. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer referred to the forthcoming 3 Arts horror initiative as coming "soon" on the company's second-quarter earnings call.
Lionsgate already owns a long list of scary franchises. Its horror properties include Saw, Blair Witch and House of 1000 Corpses.
The timing sits alongside a strong run for the genre. Kane Parsons' horror film Backrooms grossed more than $400 million and became the highest-grossing film in A24 history, according to Deadline. It also outgrossed The Mandalorian and Grogu and set A24 opening records in 41 countries. Parsons was 19 years old when he was signed to direct the film, which is based on his web series of the same name and the creepypasta that inspired it. A creepypasta is a short horror story that spreads online, often as a piece of supposed true-life fiction.
Curry Barker's Obsession has grossed $523 million worldwide, Deadline reported. Those two results have drawn attention to how well horror can travel when it finds an online audience.
Several projects already have directors attached. Ian Tuason is directing the next Paranormal Activity film. Dylan Clark is directing a new Blair Witch film for Lionsgate and Blumhouse Atomic, and he is also directing Lionsgate's Portrait of God. That film stars Chase Infiniti and brings Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele together as producers for the first time.
Not every hit comes from a studio. Markiplier's video game adaptation Iron Lung grossed $50 million worldwide. He financed and distributed the film himself, which means he paid for it up front and handled its release without a major studio's backing.
For Render Road, the next question is which projects it will pick up first. The banner's early titles have not been named. What is clear is the mandate: digital and traditional work, run by two managers who keep their day jobs at 3 Arts, with doors open to talent from outside the company.
