Satirical newspaper the Onion has signed a three-picture deal with Lionsgate to develop films based on its ideas, The Hollywood Reporter has announced.

Originally set up in 1988 by students at the University of Wisconsin, the Onion has grown in stature to become a multimedia digital brand without losing its impressive comic edge. It closed its print edition in 2013 but a rumoured $200m investment by company Univision in 2015 valued the company at around $500m.

The Onion is following other digital media brands into the film business: most notably BuzzFeed, which is collaborating with Warner Bros and Ellen DeGeneres on Brother Orange, based on a series of articles by BuzzFeed editor Matt Stopera about his lost mobile phone.

There are no details yet as to the content of the Onion movies, but Kyle Ryan, vice president of Onion Studios, put out a suitably witty statement, saying: “We’ve plotted our takeover of the film industry for some time … We’ll make room on our award shelf for some Oscars. To the basement you go, Pulitzers.”

•This article was amended on 10 January, to correct the nationality of Univision.