Sony Pictures Posts Revenue, Profit Gains

Revenues at Sony Pictures rose by 6 percent to $2.5 billion in Q3 2018, boosted by the success of the feature film Venom.

Operating income rose to $106 million in Q3. The division was driven by increased motion picture revenues as well as higher television licensing revenues for catalog titles, but television production intake fell due to lower licensing revenues for U.S. television series. The division also reported programming write-offs and severance expenses related to the restructure of its media networks business.

“Several of the channels Sony Pictures operates around the world face challenges such as poor growth prospects going forward or a low level of profitability,” said CFO Hiroki Totoki. “Consequently, since taking over as head of the television businesses within the Pictures segment, Mike Hopkins has been conducting a concentrated review of each channel. During the current quarter, we decided to downsize or exit several channels, and this resulted in the recording of cost. We expect the benefit of these actions to manifest itself from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, and beyond.”

Overall revenues at Sony Corporation fell by 10 percent to 2.4 trillion yen ($21.3 billion), but net income was up 45 percent to 429 billion yen ($3.8 billion).