Sony Pictures Entertainment’s full-year 2023 operating income fell to $808 million from $894 million, with sales creeping up slightly to $10.315 million from $10.141 million.
SPE comprises motion pictures, television productions and media networks, and the full-year 2023 performance of those three segments were impacted by the dual Hollywood strikes.
In Sony’s fiscal fourth quarter, the motion picture division saw income of $208 million, down from the $281 million operating income in the third quarter. In the latest quarter, the film division released the Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell rom-com Anyone But You that proved to be a big success at the box office and also on social media. However, the quarter also saw the release of the Sony/Marvel title Madame Web, that was panned by critics — the film boasts a dreary 11 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score — that was another box office misfire for the studio’s attempts to expand its Spider-Man universe after the equally panned 2022 release Morbius.
With a production budget of just under $100 million, Madame Web had an underwhelming six-day opening of $25.8 million, and made a total of $100 million at the global box office. In the fourth quarter, Sony films on release included the Biblical epic The Book of Clarence ($6 million of sales at the box office) and franchise movie Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($109 million for the days counted within the fourth quarter).
More to come…