Losses narrowed and revenues climbed as film hits such as “John Wick: Chapter 4” helped power Lionsgate’s quarterly earnings.
It’s a time of change for the company, which is exploring separating its motion picture and television groups from its Starz streaming and pay TV business, and relaunching them as two publicly traded entities. In the near term, Lionsgate reported revenues of $909 million, a 2% increase from the $893.9 million it logged in the prior-year quarter. Operating losses shrank from $68.2 million in the previous year to $16.8 million in the most recent quarter. Adjusted net loss attributable to Lionsgate shareholders in the quarter was $9.8 million or 4 cents a share. That beat Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts were predicting revenues of $885 million and an adjusted loss per share of 23 cents.
The report comes days after news broke that Lionsgate had acquired Entertainment One’s (eOne) TV and film operations from Hasbro for approximately $500 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. The company’s library includes hits such as “The Woman King” and “Yellowjackets” as well as the “Naked & Afraid” franchise.
“I’m pleased to report a strong financial quarter with another record library performance,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “We continued to execute our strategic agenda culminating in our signing a definitive agreement with Hasbro last week to acquire global entertainment platform eOne. The acquisition checks off all the boxes by adding thousands of titles to our library, growing our portfolio of brands and strengthening our scripted and unscripted television business.”
Lionsgate also said that Starz had made a strategic decision to exit Latin America by the end of 2023, and will instead focus its operations on the U.S., U.K. and Canada, a sign that it is curtailing its global ambitions.
More to come…