Sony announced today its financial results for Q3 2017, reporting a $93 million (10.5 billion yen) profit for its film division, Sony Pictures.
Sony attributed its success for the quarter, which spanned from October through December 2017, to
"the strong worldwide theatrical performance of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." The reboot/sequel, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, has
been a pleasant surprise for the studio, grossing more than $824 million at the worldwide box office. However, most of that will be recorded in the following quarter since it was released globally in January; for Q3, Sony logged $329 million of
Jumanji's box office haul.
Blade Runner 2049, which Sony distributed outside of North America, also accounted for $163 million.
Another contributing factor to Sony Pictures' impressive quarter was the response to Season 2 of
The Crown, which helped drive "
an increase in sales for Television Productions mainly due to higher subscription video-on-demand revenues." Other notable mentions include higher advertising and subscription revenues in India due to the acquisition of TEN Sports Network and improved ratings, as well as higher revenues due to the acquisition of Funimation.
It's quite the turnaround for Sony which had taken a $962 million (￥112.1 billion) impairment charge for its film division for the same fiscal third quarter in 2016, leading to a massive $920 million (￥106.8 billion) loss and sparking speculation that the company was preparing to exit the movie business. Revenue at the film division rose to $2.37 billion (￥260 billion) for the latest quarter, compared to $1.94 billion (￥225 billion) in the year-ago quarter.
The forecast for full-year profits for Sony Pictures remained unchanged at ￥39 billion, or $355 million currently, as the positive impact of
Jumanji's impressive performance is expected to offset the negative impact of lower home entertainment revenue, including DVD and Blu-ray sales.