Sony Pictures saw its fiscal second-quarter operating profit drop to $202 million, a decline of 30 percent from $288 million in the year-ago period. Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30, meanwhile, rose 3 percent to $2.44 billion from $2.37 billion.
In yen terms, film unit profit slid 13 percent to 27.6 billion yen, while revenue surged 29 percent to 76.8 billion yen.
The results were somewhat muddled by the profound swing in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen over the previous year. Japan’s yen has crashed to a 30-year low in recent months as the Bank of Japan continues to hold fast to its ultra-loose monetary policy while the U.S. Federal Reserve moves aggressively to increase rates to tamp down inflation. The results have been glaring: During its second-quarter earnings report in 2021, Sony used an exchange rate of $1 to 114 yen, but on Tuesday, $1 was worth an average of 148 yen. For its second-quarter 2022 report, Sony used an average rate of 138.2 yen, reflecting the movements over the quarter.
Sony Corp. reported July-to-September earnings Thursday at its headquarters in Tokyo. The Japanese company attributed the revenue gains at Sony Pictures to both increased box office sales for theatrical releases and a boost in television licensing sales. Higher revenue from the company’s recently acquired anime streamer Crunchyroll also drove gains. An increase in marketing costs to support current-year theatrical releases were a drag on profit, however, as was a decrease in series deliveries for television productions. The studio’s biggest theatrical film release during the period was Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train, which disappointed somewhat, earning $240 million worldwide.
On the group level, Sony Corp. handedly beat analysts’ estimates for the quarter. The conglomerate reported an operating profit of 344 billion yen for the July-September quarter, against consensus forecasts of roughly 280.7 billion yen. In response, Sony raised its operating profit outlook to 1.16 trillion yen ($7.8 billion), up from its previous forecast of 1.11 trillion yen. The company benefitted from easing supply chain problems which had previously caused shortages of Sony’s flagship PlayStation 5 consoles. The weak yen also boosted sales of Sony’s image sensors during a hot-selling quarter for the iPhone and other devices that use the company’s components.
