If you went to see a movie this last week, particularly in the Horror genre, there is a good chance you went to see "Saw III". Produced by Lions Gate, it was the weekends #1 hit, grossing an estimated $34.3 million dollars in 3,167 theatres. The third installment in what is becoming a Halloween tradition among scary movie fans gave Lions Gate its' highest-grossing weekend in history and the highest-grossing single day in the companys' history. This makes the Saw franchise one of the most successful horror film series. And Lions Gates' film expertise is not limited to just horror. They also produced last year's winner for an Oscar for best picture, "Crash". In addition, they also own a movie library of over 8,000 titles, the second largest behind Sony Pictures.

Now, you might ask what does a horror film have to do with Saving Money and Making Money? Well, we are not Registered Investment Advisors, but we have learned that one of the best ways to Make Money is to latch onto the coattails of someone else who has demontrated they are pretty good at it. Having said that, Carl Icahn, one of the richest people in the world with a fortune estimated at $8 billion, disclosed this year a 4% stake in the company. Carl Icahn is famous for taking positions in stocks that he feels are undervalued and then he takes on an Activist's role in getting management to "unlock" that value and increase the stock price. One might suppose he sees some value in Lions Gate shares and management has confirmed that Icahn believes the company is undervalued in the marketplace.

And Lions Gate CEO, Jon Feltheimer, seems to be pretty good at making money himself. "Crash", for example, only cost $7 million to produce and has earned more than $100 million at the box office. He has structured the company such that its' overhead is completely covered by sales of library films to cable networks and he intentionally shuns big-budget productions. Recently, he has also made some additional moves to leverage off of the companies infrastructure and expertise as well as position the company going forward for new technologies. The company is actively involved with television production, producing 9 series for this fall's schedule and on October 23rd announced a licensing agreement with The Orchard. The Orchard is the worlds' leading marketer of independent music, and will distribute Lions Gates' soundtracks and scores from their library of hits. Finally, in case internet film distribution takes off, Lions Gate, along with Microsoft, another good money maker, has taken a major stake in CinemaNow, a company providing internet on-demand movies. Interestingly, this stake is carried on the Lions Gate Balance Sheet at zero value.

Maybe Carl Icahn does see some value that others are overlooking. Stay tuned, as work has already started on Saw IV.

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