Lionsgate Beats Past Forecasts With Record Library Revenue; Book $81 million in content written
Lionsgate punched through Wall Street forecasts that sales from its 17,000 film and television library rose to $1 billion last quarter, on top of a record $845 million.
The company posted a net profit of $16.6 million, or 7 cents a share – adjusted 26 cents – in the fiscal third quarter ended in December, from a loss of $45 million a year earlier. The studio is gearing up to release some big films this year — John Wick: Chapter 4 And The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesAnd a split in the studio business and Starz.
Lionsgate shares pop in late trading following the numbers.
During the quarter, “as part of a global evaluation and curation of our media network’s cost structure and content strategy,” the company said, it took an $80.8 million restructuring charge to remove the series from Starz.
“We reported a strong financial quarter with trailing 12-month library revenue confirming the value of our intellectual properties,” said CEO John Feltheimer “We enter our fourth quarter with encouraging signs across our businesses: a rebounding domestic box office OK As we bring our biggest slate to theaters in years; the renewal of six original Lionsgate television series at or immediately after the quarterly close; And Starz’s economy improved because of international restructuring.”
The previous quarter saw a hefty $1.8 billion in Starz restructuring charges and write-downs.
Total subscribers are 35 million – 10.2 million linear and 25.9 million OTT. Domestic streaming subs of 11.6 million were down from 12.3 million in the previous quarter.
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