Lionsgate

The most commercially successful independent movie studio to date, this company is well-known for producing the Saw and Hostel series. Also produced movies such as The Forbidden Kingdom, The Spirit, American Psycho, Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Final.

The company had been recently having financial issues due to a number of flops and a few hostile takeover attempts by famed corporate raider Carl Icahn (who has a history of buying floundering businesses and making things worse than before). Icahn dumped his one-third stake in Lionsgate in August, 2011 for $7 a share, a significant haircut after what turned out to be the roaring success of The Hunger Games, which has the makings of a Cash Cow Franchise with as many as three sequels coming in the next five years.