Sony’s fiscal year operating profit forecast rose 15 percent. The huge increase from the previous report has only one explanation: Spiderman: No Way Home.
That’s right, the income from the new Spiderman movie triggered the profits of the Japanese company, as indicated this Wednesday, February 2, in Tokyo.
In addition, Sony sold 3.9 million units of its new PlayStation 5 in the third quarter, although it lowered its flagship console’s sales forecast for the full fiscal year to 11.5 million units due to a lack of chips.
They also helped sell the Venom movie and Seinfeld rights.
Boosted by Spider-Man: No Way Home, the sixth-highest-grossing film, operating profit for the imaging and entertainment business segment grew 600 percent to $1.3 billion in the company’s fiscal third quarter. which ended on December 31.
The forecasts now are that this sector generates a profit of 205,000 million yen in the entire fiscal year, since the Marvel movie alone has grossed US$1.7 billion worldwide.
Sony’s Imaging business also performed strongly on the back of revenue from the release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and the transfer of the license of the comedy Seinfeld to streaming platforms.
The sale of GSN Games also reported good dividends.
Beyond Spiderman: Sony’s finances
Overall quarterly operating profit for Sony, a holding company that sells sensor hardware and financial services in addition to entertainment, was 465.1 billion yen, compared with an estimated average profit of 351.5 billion yen. An explosive difference.
Sony now expects to earn 1.2 trillion yen in its fiscal year ending March 31, nearly 15 percent more than the 1.04 trillion previously estimated.
Looking only at the gaming segment, heavily focused on PlayStation profits, it also posted an increase in earnings. In the third quarter alone, it sold 3.9 million PlayStation 5 units.
However, the lack of chips pushed back the sales forecast for the 12 months from 14.8 million to 11.5 million.