LOS ANGELES, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (Lionsgate) Thursday reported a charge of 50.5 million U.S. dollars in the fourth fiscal quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic disruptions.
The Hollywood studio said in a statement that the charge in the quarter, ending on March 31, included certain motion picture and television impairments and development charges associated with changes in performance expectations and the feasibility of project completions, along with costs associated with pausing film and television production.
The company reported fourth quarter revenue of 944 million dollars, operating loss of 12 million dollars and net loss of 45 million dollars, or loss of 20 cents per share.
Lionsgate said that the studio's media network revenue at 358 million dollars was essentially unchanged from the prior year quarter, while segment profit of 26 million dollars was impacted by the continued investment in the international expansion of StarzPlay, a streaming service launched by the U.S. TV producer Starz.
Motion picture segment revenue increased by 10 percent to 393 million dollars, compared with the prior year quarter due to the strong home entertainment performance of crime drama "Knives Out" and other titles. The segment profit was 101 million dollars, according to Lionsgate.
The studio also said that its television production segment revenue was 258 million dollars and segment profit was 22 million dollars driven in part by strong library sales.
"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to prevent its spread, and the resulting unprecedented economic uncertainty, are affecting our business in a number of ways," Lionsgate said.
"To date, we have experienced early termination of the theatrical run of one of our films domestically and one of our films in the UK, delayed theatrical distribution of several films domestically and internationally, and delayed production of film and television content resulting in changes in future release dates for some titles and series. Our partners have also closed several location-based entertainment attractions based on our film and television properties," the studio added.
Lionsgate noted that the studio may not be able to accurately predict when theaters would reopen, or when the production would resume.
"The full extent of the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on our business, operations and financial results will depend on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict," said the studio. Enditem
