Ups and Downs: DreamWorks Animation and CBS report earnings
It was looking like News Corp was getting off its quarter-long roller coaster ride yesterday with a go-ahead vote to buy Dow Jones but elsewhere in media stocks, particularly entertainment, a different roller coaster ride kept going. After the close of market Tuesday, DreamWorks Animation and CBS both released quarterly earnings. It was a good day for animators, not such a good day for TV.
DreamWorks Animation(NYSE: DWA:)
DreamWorks Animation reported towering second quarter revenue with net income of $61.8m (60 cents a share) for the quarter ended June 30th. Even subtracting a one time gain of 11cents a share for a reduction in reserves for home video sales, and another one time gain of 4cents from tax accounting, it was huge return relative to last years income of 13.7m for the same period.
Quarterly revenue in the film industry is highly variable and heavily influenced by the volume and quality of titles released at any given time. DreamWorks strategy is to release one franchise title and one new film every year. Shrek the Third was the franchise film for this year and it released this past quarter. They’ll be living off of it for the rest of the year.
