What financial reports reveal about movie studios
Companies with movie studios have begun releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. Here's a look at reports for selected movie industry companies.
— Oct. 26: Comcast Corp., which owns Universal Pictures, says revenue from its filmed entertainment business grew 24 percent to $1.4 billion, driven by the strong box office performance of "Ted" and "The Bourne Legacy."
— Nov. 1: DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. says net income grew 24 percent thanks to the box office success of "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted."
Sony Corp. says its Sony Pictures Entertainment unit got a boost from the strong performance of "The Amazing Spider-Man," offset by the less successful "Total Recall."
— Tuesday: 20th Century Fox owner News Corp. says its filmed entertainment business saw operating income grow 15 percent, thanks to the box-office performance of "Ice Age: Continental Drift." In the year-ago period, News Corp. had "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" in theaters and "Rio" and "X-Men: First Class" on home video. The recent quarter also benefited from increased digital revenue related to the timing of content available on Netflix.
— Wednesday: Time Warner Inc. says the Warner Bros. studio had a strong quarter with the release in theaters of the latest Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." But that wasn't enough to match the comparison period in 2011, which benefited from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and license fees for "The Big Bang Theory" and "Friends" in reruns. The recent quarter saw an increase in video-on-demand revenue.
— Thursday: The Walt Disney Co. says movie studio revenue fell as "Brave" failed to perform as well as "Cars 2" a year ago.
Coming up:
— Nov. 15: Viacom Inc. (Paramount)
