Despite some hard hits in the TV sector, Lionsgate has announced a Q1 earnings total that beats Wall Street expectations and delivers a more robust balance sheet than we’ve seen for a while. And finally some more news on the fate of Starz. Industry expert entertainment attorney Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., has the news.
Better Performance
Lionsgate saw its revenue climb 2% to beat Wall Street predictions for the quarter. Initial revenue estimates of $885M morphed into an impressive $909M, and the anticipated 23c loss per share instead delivered a small gain of 4c. We also see their library titles generating an impressive $896M for them in the last 12 months.
Not all the news was good. A 12% revenue dip in the studios unit was offset by a 31% gain in profit. Additionally, the motion picture revenue managed a nice 46% jump, mostly off the back of John Wick: Chapter 4 as well as some multi-platform releases. TV production, however, saw a nearly 50% decline ($218.5M from $432.3 in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, media networks stayed pretty flat, with streaming and international revenue offset by failures in the linear domestic market.
The Starz Question
They also announced that, after this quarter’s results, Starz will now remain focused on the Canadian, US, and UK markets. This means an exit from their Latin American services by year end. This represents an abrupt turn-around in the ambitious global expansion plan we once saw for them. Starz should also be formally split from the studio side of Lionsgate in the next few weeks. This is still waiting on a special shareholder meeting, but should be concluded by the end of September.
All in all, it’s not a bad result for a company that has been facing a rocky path to better earnings over the last few years.
Film and Television 