Lionsgate Home Entertainment is a Canadian–American home video distribution company formed on 21 October 1989. They distributed Thomas & Friends DVDs on behalf of HiT Entertainment in the United States from 2008 until 2014 and in Canada in 2008. They took over 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Anchor Bay Entertainment's former roles and re-released many of their titles. Their role was replaced by Universal Studios Home Entertainment in 2014.
In Canada, subsidiaries of Lionsgate distributed Thomas & Friends DVDs. Lion Cub Films in 2009 and 2010, Maple Pictures in 2010 and 2011, Alliance Films from 2011 to 2013 and Entertainment One in 2013 and 2014.
Lionsgate also released some DVDs of Britt Allcroft's Magic Adventures of Mumfie, along with DVDs of other TV shows like Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Releases
DVD releases
- The Great Discovery
- Railway Friends
- High Speed Adventures
- Team Up With Thomas
- Percy and the Bandstand
- Hero of the Rails
- Holiday Express
- Splish, Splash, Splosh!
- Thomas and the Runaway Kite
- The Greatest Stories
- Creaky Cranky
- Misty Island Rescue
- Merry Winter Wish
- The Lion of Sodor
- Wobbly Wheels and Whistles
- Pop Goes Thomas
- The Birthday Express
- Thomas in Charge!
- Day of the Diesels
- Merry Christmas, Thomas!
- Rescue on the Rails
- Curious Cargo
- Up, Up and Away!
- Engine Friends
- Schoolhouse Delivery
- Blue Mountain Mystery
- A Very Thomas Christmas
- Sticky Situations
- Muddy Matters
- Go Go Thomas!
- Railway Mischief
- Animals Aboard!
- King of the Railway
- Santa's Little Engine
- The Thomas Way
- Spills and Thrills
- Trouble on the Tracks
Blu-Ray Releases
Box Sets
- Whistle Express Collection!
- Fun Pack
- Ultimate Thomas Collection
- On-the-Go Pack
- Sodor Friends Holiday Collection
- Best Tales on the Tracks
- Steam Team Collection
- Adventure Pack
- Holiday Favorites
- Adventure On the Tracks
- The Movie Pack
- Celebrate with Thomas
- Let's Explore with Thomas
- Full Steam Ahead
- 3-Movie Pack
- The Double Features
- Play Date Pack
Trivia
- Most of Lionsgate's DVDs were presented in the 4:3 fullscreen aspect ratio, even though the series had transitioned to the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio in Series 6. From 2009 to 2013, only the specials Hero of the Rails, Misty Island Rescue, Day of the Diesels, Blue Mountain Mystery and King of the Railway were released on DVD by Lionsgate in the US in their original 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. However, during this time, many of Lionsgate's titles were released digitally in their original 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio via Netflix, Vudu, iTunes or Amazon Prime Video. The first episodic DVD release released in its original 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio was Spills and Thrills in March 2014 and all following releases were also released in the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.
- Lionsgate would end up owning Anchor Bay Entertainment, Thomas & Friends' previous distributor, in 2016 via the Starz merger. Ironically, at that point, Lionsgate lost the distribution rights to Thomas & Friends to Universal Studios in 2014, two years prior to the merger.