5 Bad Moves Lions Gate Entertainment Is Making

“Step Up All In” is premiering this weekend, aren’t you excited? Who doesn’t love a good dance flick? Well, Lions Gate Entertainment (Lionsgate) is making it kind of hard for us to be “Dancin’ in the Streets” on this one because of its terrible practice of taking millions in tax credits and then shipping musicians’ jobs overseas. Let’s tell Lionsgate, we want to “Dance to the Music” and not undermine good jobs for musicians. Here are the top five “bad moves” Lionsgate is busting:

1. Raking in Tax Credits, Then Sending Musicians’ Jobs Overseas

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Taking close to $100 million annually in U.S. tax credits for the past three years, then using that cash to offshore musicians' jobs is way out of step, like trying to dance with two left feet.

2. Paying Its CEO Jon Feltheimer $66.3 Million in Compensation

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If Lionsgate is trying to save a buck, why not trim some of the fat off of CEO Jon Feltheimer’s generous compensation? Naaa, undermining good jobs for musicians seems like the better move.

3. Playing Hard to Get

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Lionsgate executives are refusing to meet with musicians, even after they delivered more than 13,000 petitions from musicians, moviegoers and others calling on Lionsgate to stop sending musicians’ jobs overseas, to uphold accepted industry standards and guarantee proper wages and working conditions for musicians on all of its productions. Lionsgate needs to come to the dance.

4. Dancing Around Musicians Here to Exploit Musicians in Other Countries

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Just like shoe companies that moved their production to China or clothing manufacturers opening factories in Bangladesh in the global race to lower labor costs and exploit low-wage economies, Lionsgate has moved good musicians’ jobs overseas. For example, the score of “Draft Day” was recorded in a studio in Macedonia. The owner of that studio recently told Marketplace that he can’t compete with the quality of studios in Los Angeles. He said he opened his studio so low-budget productions would have the opportunity to record with live musicians, not for major studios like Lionsgate to outsource jobs. “When you go for the wrong reason, like 'Oh, it’s cheap,' it’s not very nice for anybody because it takes the job here, which is a problem.”

5. Being All-Around Awful to Musicians

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Lionsgate is harming our communities by destroying the livelihoods of musicians who contribute to the economic and educational well-being of our neighborhoods, teach and mentor our children, perform in local venues and institutions and bring life to the arts. Like the dancers in its movies, Lionsgate needs to “Step Up” and do the right thing.

Take a minute to tell Lions Gate Entertainment to keep musicians' jobs in the United States and stop the offshoring.