LionsGateEntertainment posts
FeedPosted Oct 26th 2009 8:30AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), Film, Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
I don't believe it. I never thought it could happen. Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) released Saw VI this past weekend. Surely the latest cinematic celebration of cruelty would be the number-one picture at domestic theaters, right? Saw is a big brand when it comes to torture movies. Jigsaw is a Freddy Krueger (and beyond) for the new generation. The teens would be out in full force to support all the latest traps and sequences of dismemberment and bloodletting for sure.
Well, Saw VI didn't come out on top. Instead, Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paranormal Activity made the most money in the race for domination at the multiplex, scoring approximately $22 million according to early estimates from Box Office Mojo. The new Saw did come in second, though, so that was at least some consolation, correct?
Continue reading Viacom's 'Paranormal Activity' plays Jigsaw's game -- and wins
Posted Oct 19th 2009 8:20AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Viacom (VIA), Film, Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Where the Wild Things Are was number one over the past weekend at domestic theaters as of early estimates from Box Office Mojo. The film grossed well over $30 million. Coming in second was Law Abiding Citizen. If Wild Things wasn't in the market this weekend, that one definitely would have been tops at the multiplex. The revenge fest, from Liberty Capital Group's (NASDAQ: LCAPA) Overture Films, brought in $21 million.
Right on the heels of that project is the very cheaply made Paranormal Activity, courtesy of Viacom (NYSE: VIA). It made about $20 million. So far, Activity has generated over $30 million in total. And they say the little horror extravaganza cost less than $20,000 to produce!
Continue reading Viacom's 'Paranormal Activity' continues to wow Hollywood
Posted Sep 7th 2009 10:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), News Corp'B' (NWS), Film, Marvel Entertainment (MVL), Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) was tops at the multiplex yet again with a scary horror franchise that the teens seem to be enjoying. The Final Destination, according to Boxofficemojo, grossed $12 million at domestic theaters over the three-day weekend, as of early estimates available at the time of this writing. I'm sure Destination will retain its number-one status once Labor Day is figured into the equation.
All About Steve, from News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), was the second-place film. It actually came close to Destination's take, bringing in about $11 million. Inglourious Basterds, distributed by The Weinstein Company, was third, and Gamer, an interesting sci-fi flick courtesy of Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), was fourth. Sony's (NYSE: SNE) District 9, which came in fifth, has now gone beyond $100 million in total take.
Continue reading Time Warner and Death rule box office again
Posted Sep 1st 2009 8:30AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp'B' (NWS), Electronic Arts (ERTS), Media World, Marvel Entertainment (MVL), Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
Monday, August 31, 2009, will go down as one strange trading day. Disney (NYSE: DIS) buys Marvel (NYSE: MVL). BloggingStocks reported the details of the deal here.
As a long-time shareholder of Disney, I have to ask: Does CEO Bob Iger know what the heck he's doing anymore? I thought the news was quite surreal. I suppose we all knew that Marvel would be a takeover target someday but, honestly, I thought some other media conglomerate, like maybe News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), would do a deal before the Mouse would.
Continue reading Does the Disney/Marvel deal mean that CEO Bob Iger is out of ideas?
Posted Aug 11th 2009 8:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Media World, Film, Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF)
Boy, was I wrong. I wasn't bullish on Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) as an earnings trade. Well, the stock closed higher by 8% on Monday, and shares rocketed another 15% in the after-hours session. It was an amazing sight.
The market loved the first-quarter report, obviously. Revenues increased 30%, helped in part by the TV Guide acquisition. Earnings per diluted share were 30 cents. That was ten times higher than the income reported one year ago. According to Reuters, the adjusted profit was 21 cents per share. Doesn't matter, it was still blazingly better than the loss Wall Street was expecting.
Continue reading Lions Gate reports Q1 profit, smashing estimates
Posted Apr 20th 2009 8:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), Film
Well, my friends, last week I discussed the better-than-expected box office results of Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Hannah Montana: The Movie. The project grossed well over $30 million in its opening weekend and ranked in first place. Looks like the half-life was short on this one.
According to Boxofficemojo, the early estimates for this past weekend place Montana in fourth place with roughly $12 million. This represents a huge dive of 60%. The film does not have any legs, let me tell you. Disney shareholders should be disappointed (I'm one, and I'm very disappointed).
Continue reading Hannah Montana film sees big drop in second weekend -- yes, the fad is over
Posted Apr 6th 2009 8:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Viacom (VIA), Film
General Electric (NYSE: GE) shareholders have a little something to celebrate today. Fast & Furious, distributed by GE's Universal asset and starring Vin Diesel, came in first place over the weekend at domestic theaters according to Boxofficemojo.
The racing movie scored about $72 million as of early estimates, more than enough to secure the top spot. I know that such success won't do much for GE in terms of stock movement, but hey, as a GE shareholder myself, it's personally been a tough year with all the financial awfulness at GE Capital, so if one of GE's latest movies is a hit, I'll take it.
Continue reading General Electric speeds up the box office
Posted Mar 27th 2009 11:40AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp'B' (NWS), Film
Don't tell me you haven't noticed the rise in value of shares of World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE). The recent rally in the stock is supremely impressive. The shares closed on Thursday at $12.08. The 52-week low of $8.76 was made back in November of last year. If you look at a one-month chart, you'll see that it's been nothing but straight-up action.
Yes, my friends, the stock is Hulking up! (I love it when Hulk Hogan does that routine.) Of course, by the time this is published, maybe the shares will have experienced a sell-off, but for now, the shares are hot.
Continue reading World Wrestling Entertainment's stock has been hot - is John Cena responsible?
Posted Mar 9th 2009 11:50AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), News Corp'B' (NWS), Film
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) won the box-office battle this past weekend. I have no idea what Watchmen is all about, except that there's a collection of superheroes and some sort of mutant blue dude in it, but I do know that it grossed around $55 million at domestic theaters, according to early estimates at Boxofficemojo.
For a rated-R mainstream pic that is over two and a half hours long, that isn't too bad. If it had been shorter and a little more open to younger demographics with a PG-13 rating, it probably would have taken in even more revenue. Come on, guys, think next time! Go for profit maximization.
Continue reading Time Warner's 'Watchmen' takes over the box office while Jonas Brothers tank
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 11:20AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), Media World, Film
This was a big weekend for me. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience was released in over 1,200 theaters. No, I had no plans to see the movie at my local IMAX (NASDAQ: IMAX) auditorium. The reason I was so excited is because I own shares of Disney (NYSE: DIS). And I was praying that the film would firmly cement the Jonas Brothers in the collective consciousness of tweens across the globe.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. In fact, the Jonas movie failed at the domestic box office. Don't even try to spin it. According to Boxofficemojo, the film came in second place with a little under $13 million (keep in mind I am working off estimates, final figures will be released later). Lions Gate Entertainment's (NYSE: LGF) latest Tyler Perry project, Madea Goes to Jail, was number one again for the second week in a row, grossing about $16 million. This is really, really disappointing.
Continue reading The Jonas Brothers fail at the box office -- will they survive?
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 5:40PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), News Corp'B' (NWS), Film
According to Boxofficemojo, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail came out on top over the weekend at domestic theaters. As of early estimates, the film brought in over $40 million, proving that Tyler Perry's name can still sell tickets. This is great news for Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), which was looking to score a big hit after experiencing some weak performances at the box office.
Tyler Perry beat out News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) successful thriller Taken, which landed in the second spot. Coming in third was Coraline from General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) Focus Features, although those two films could change positions once final numbers are in. Both of them scored around the $11 million mark. Time Warner Inc's (NYSE: TWX) He's Just Not That Into You was fourth and News Corp.'s Slumdog Millionaire, the toast of the Oscars telecast last night, was fifth. Both of those features scored similar amounts, about $8 million each, so we'll see what happens with their respective rankings. Poor Jason Voorhees. Last week, his movie, Friday the 13th, killed at the box office. This week, the slasher dropped 80% in terms of gross and landed in sixth place after debuting in the top slot. Talk about a bloody decline for Time Warner. Horror movies do tend to go down fast after the opening weekend, but I thought this particular feature might exhibit more strength.
Continue reading Tyler Perry's new 'Madea' movie brings in bucks for Lions Gate
Posted Feb 11th 2009 8:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), News Corp'B' (NWS), Electronic Arts (ERTS), Activision Inc (ATVI), Media World
Viacom (NYSE: VIA), a media company that used to exist as one business with CBS (NYSE: CBS) and whose colleagues include Disney (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, will issue Q4 results on Thursday, February 12.
I don't know, I don't feel a lot of confidence about them. According to this source, Viacom may earn somewhere around 79 cents per share in the fourth quarter. That would represent a drop of about 6% when compared to last year's Q4 results (which you can check out via this .pdf link). It wouldn't be so bad if Viacom merely met earnings expectations. After all, the media industry is working through a nasty cycle of contraction. Take a look at Disney's earnings and you'll see what I mean.
Continue reading Earnings preview: Will Viacom rock the analysts?
Posted Feb 10th 2009 9:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Film
Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), whose media colleagues include Disney (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Sony (NYSE: SNE), had one bomb of a quarter. Earnings were terrible. Actually, did I say earnings? No, there were none of those, just a big fat loss! For Q3, the studio saw revenues increase by over 8%. Great, but that does nothing to erase the fact that there was a loss of $0.81 per share. And talk about a miss. According to this source, Wall Street was expecting a loss of $0.20 per share. In last year's Q3 report, Lions Gate saw a profit of $0.06 per share.
So what happened? Well, Lions Gate's movie slate just didn't perform. The television-production operations did very well, increasing revenues by over 80%, but it wasn't enough. Total expenses increased significantly, driven by severe rises in direct operating and distribution/marketing expenses. Plus, there were a lot of unsold DVDs that were returned.
Continue reading Lions Gate's Q3 reflects risky movie business
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