Lionsgate Blows Past Forecasts With Record Library Revenue; Books $81 Million Content Writedown  

Lionsgate punched through Wall Street forecasts reporting a jump in revenue to top $1 billion last quarter on a record $845 million in sales from its 17,000 film and television library.

The company swung to a net profit of $16.6 million or 7 cents a share — 26 cents adjusted – for the fiscal third quarter ended in December, from a loss of $45 million the year before. The studio is prepping for a few big film releases this year — John Wick: Chapter 4 and Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and a split of the studio business and Starz.  

Lionsgate shares popped in late trading following the numbers.

During the quarter, “as part of our global assessment and curation of our Media Networks cost structure and content strategy,” the company said, it took an $80.8 million restructuring charge for removing series from Starz. 

“We reported a strong financial quarter with record trailing 12-month library revenues affirming the value of our intellectual properties,” said CEO Jon Feltheimer.  “We enter our fourth quarter with encouraging signs across all of our businesses: a rebounding domestic box office just as we bring our biggest slate in years to theatres; renewals of six key Lionsgate Television series during or immediately after the close of the quarter; and improved Starz economics due to its international reorganization.”

The previous quarter had seen a hefty $1.8 billion in Starz restructuring charges and write-downs.

Subscribers totaled 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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