Image Entertainment Inc. sent a letter to its investors Monday urging shareholders to re-elect its entire board and reject the nominees of Lion’s Gate Entertainment Corp. saying the film company’s hostile bid is hurting Image’s performance.

Santa Monica-based Lion’s Gate, the second largest shareholder of Image, has launched an all-out assault the past few months to get Lion’s Gate-friendly board members elected to the distributor’ board, which meets next week.

Image Chairman and Chief Executive Martin Greenwald said in the letter that “Lion’s Gate and its nominees are competitors of Image with serious conflicts of interest. Our on-going analysis of strategic alternatives will seek to maximize value for all of our stockholders, not to placate a single dissident.”

He also added that the “cost and expense of Lion’s Gate’s repeated attacks” have made the company “unprofitable.”

Shares in Chatsworth-based Image closed up 7 cents to $3.55 in early trading on Monday while shares of Lion’s Gate were down 30 cents to $9.71.