Lionsgate released its first quarterly earnings report since spinning off its studio as a separately traded company, reporting that it cut its quarterly loss in half in its fiscal fourth quarter of 2024 thanks to rising TV production revenue and stronger content library sales.
Some of the top numbers from Thursday’s report:
Cutting the losses: Lionsgate reported $1.11 billion in revenue, up 3% from the year-ago period, meeting projections set by Zacks Investment Research. The company cut its net loss by 59% year-over-year from $96.8 million to $39.5 million in fiscal Q4 2024, equating to a loss of 22 cents per share.
TV revenue surges, Movie dips: With the strikes behind them, Lionsgate’s TV production segment revenue surged 61% year-over-year to $469.3 million. Along with renewed production, Lionsgate also saw a surge in library revenue to $339 million — which the company said was a quarterly record — fueled in part by its recent acquisition of eOne.
This helped offset a 23% drop in motion picture group revenue to $410.6 million amid a sluggish box office at the start of 2024.
Media networks revenue had a smaller decrease of 7% to $361.5 million.
Starz slips: Premium service Starz saw a 2% dip in subscribers from the previous quarter to 19.35 million domestic subscribers across all platforms. Lionsgate attributed the falloff to the ongoing decline of linear TV, with subscribers dropping 5% to 6.76 million. Starz Networks overall revenue was essentially flat at $345.4 million, but segment profits slid 30% to $57.8 million.
Lionsgate’s stock closed 2.7% down for the day at $9.48 per share, but has seen a 5.5% bump in after-hours trading.
The quarterly earnings report comes a week after Lionsgate Studios debuted as a separate publicly traded company from Starz. The new Studios entity combines Lionsgate’s studio business with Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp. (SEAC), a special purpose acquisition company. The parent company Lionsgate Entertainment retains an 87% stake in the studio.
The full separation won’t be completed until Dec. 31, and Lionsgate has announced that a special committee will be formed to handle issues raised by shareholders regarding the split.
“With the launch of Lionsgate Studios as a pure play, publicly-traded company earlier this month, we have an opportunity to shine a light on the value of the content we are creating, owning and delivering while taking an important step forward in preparing for the anticipated full separation of our studio and STARZ businesses by the end of the calendar year,” Lionsgate and Lionsgate Studios CEO Jon Feltheimer said in a statement.
