Variety: Warner Bros. Discovery Adds 7 Million Streaming Subs in Q3 to Hit 110 Million as Box Office Dives 40% in ‘Barbie’-Less Summer

Story from Variety:

Warner Bros. Discovery reported its third-quarter 2024 earnings results Thursday. The July 1-Sept. 30 period concluded with Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO, Max and Discovery+ boasting more than 110 million global subscribers, while box office sales fell 40% when compared to last summer’s blockbuster “Barbie.”

Direct-to-consumer sales rose 9% to $2.6 billion. Distribution was up 8%, ad sales 51% and content down 11% during the quarter, which saw Warner Bros. Discovery air the second season of “House of the Dragon,” as well as Olympics programming across international territories and Discovery’s “Shark Week” programming block.

During a call with investors later Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav says the company expects to “meaningfully exceed” its goal of $1 billion in streaming profit in 2025. Global streaming and games chief JB Perrette says Max will kick off some “very soft messaging” about password sharing before the end of the year, which is a “form of a price rise” to Warner Bros. Discovery.

In its studios segment, Warner Bros. Discovery saw a 17% drop in revenue to $2.7 billion. TV revenue was up 30%, while video game sales were down 31% (“SmashBros”-style game “MultiVersus” couldn’t touch last year’s hit “Hogwarts Legacy”) and theatrical dropped the above-mentioned 40% with weaker performance for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Twisters” in comparison to 2023’s “Barbie.”

Warner Bros. Discovery chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said the company took “another 100 million-dollar-plus impairment” charge for games due to “underperforming releases,” which brings the current total write-down in games to more than $300 million.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s networks division increased revenue 3% compared to Q3 2023 to $5 billion. Content revenue was up 87% as ad sales fell 11% and distribution dipped 7%.

Wall Street forecast a loss of earnings per share (EPS) of 9 cents on $9.8 billion in revenue, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG. Warner Bros. Discovery reported diluted EPS of 5 cents, a profit of $135 million, on $9.6 billion in revenue.

The company reported it is carrying a total of $40.7 billion in debt. Free cash flow stood at $632 million for the quarter.

“Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q3 results demonstrate once again that while we continue to confront extraordinary disruption in our environment, the strategy we have undertaken to ready Warner Bros. Discovery for future success is showing important results,” Zaslav said in a letter to shareholders. “Thanks to our rapid international expansion and continued investment in high quality, diverse content, we saw momentum accelerate in our global Direct-to-Consumer business in Q3. In total, Max delivered 7.2 million net subscriber adds, the strongest quarterly gain since the platform’s launch, resulting in healthy subscriber-related revenue growth and meaningful progress toward achieving our 2025 Direct-toConsumer segment financial objectives. Likewise, our recently announced strategic partnership with Charter Communications, for both linear network distribution and bundling of Max, not only reinforced the value of our content portfolio, but represented our willingness to work with our partners to enhance the consumers’ experience as our industry undergoes transformation.”