The movie business is all about timing and production budgets, of course. The investments made today will hopefully yield fruit down the line. Lions Gate has shown itself to be a competent generator and distributor of movie brands. Driving this quarter were titles such as Saw IV, Weeds, Mad Men, Rambo, and Meet the Browns. Lions Gate knows how to make money from a library, and it knows how to strike platform partnerships with Hollywood. The studio is involved with Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) in a VOD/Internet channel dedicated to horror known as FEARNet. Also, Lions Gate has hooked up with Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Paramount, and MGM on a new premium channel. Recently, a distribution agreement was struck with Disney (NYSE: DIS) as a way of expanding Lions Gate's TV-on-DVD depth.

Investors who want to play around with Lions Gate's stock must remember that every quarter won't be like this due to timing of expensed costs. And in terms of cash flow, they must be prepared to see uses of cash depending on investment schedules. According to the AOL Finance snapshot, the stock hasn't done too badly this year. In fact, it's done a lot better than I thought it would, quite frankly. I would not, however, be interested in chasing this stock if it rises on Monday. Without a doubt, this is one that needs a pullback, preferably well below $10 a share. As I said the last time, Lions Gate is certainly a speculative stock in the sense that it really is a play on a belief that the studio will eventually be a takeover target. Otherwise, it's been mostly a trading vehicle. So, like I say, I personally would wait for a good pullback before allocating some of your investment funds to the movie business. Lions Gate is an interesting, fun stock, but it will always be risky.

Disclosure: I own shares of Disney; positions can change at any time.