Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four was meant to be Fox’s summer tent pole and reboot the flagging film franchise. Now, as reported by The Wrap, the film’s studio is blaming the “Four’s” flame out with their less than stellar revenue during their first fiscal quarter of 2015.
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Fox said revenue at its film studio unit tumbled 28 per cent to $US1.79 billion, due to the timing of releases and lower syndication revenue due to the sale of “How I Met Your Mother”.
Fox executives declined to say how much money they lost on that August stinker, which reportedly cost more than $120 million to make and generated an anemic $56 million in domestic box office receipts.
Cable benefited from strong domestic affiliate revenue growth – up 11% – and higher domestic advertising revenues – 4% higher – with lower expenses.
The conglomerate created by mogul Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday reported profits in the past quarter slid 35 percent from a year ago to $675 million, while revenues dipped 6.3 percent to $6.08 billion. Fantastic Four had a budget of $125 million, with previous estimates putting the studio’s loss at $60 million-$100 million.
Fox, which gets more than a third of its revenue from overseas, took a hit of more than $100 million from the effects of the stronger dollar this year, Chief Financial Officer John Nallen said on a conference call.
Murdoch said “good progress is being made at the Fox Network both from our returning series, including the continued success of Empire, as well as a few of our new series”.
The fall also reflects the absence of revenue from Endemol Shine Group, which was sold by Fox, and the impact of a stronger dollar. The Company’s Cable Network Programming section consists of licensing and the production of scheduling distributed chiefly through direct broadcast satellite operators, cable television systems, telecommunication companies and internet video distributors.
In looking at the near-term stock price target provided by analysts, Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. Additionally, there was lower political revenues at the TV stations and lower general entertainment ratings at the Fox Broadcast Network.
TV unit earnings of $196 million rose 13 percent, “driven by lower operating costs led by lower programming expenses at the Fox broadcast network and TV stations partially offset by higher marketing costs at the Fox broadcast network”.
Filmed Entertainment generated quarterly segment OIBDA of $149 million, a $309 million decrease from the $458 million reported in the same period a year-ago.
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FOXA stock closed Tuesday at $31.28, up $0.42 per share, or 1.36 percent.
