“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” boosted Sony Pictures’ profits to $366 million, in the second quarter, Japan-based parent Sony Corp. reported early Wednesday.
Sony Pictures’ second-quarter profit improved from $211 million reported during the same period a year ago. Revenue for the Sony film arm came in at $1.3 billion, up from $980 million last year. Sony credited the increase, in part, to the box office success of both Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” ($356 million worldwide) and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ($1.1 billion worldwide).
Revenue for the film division was up roughly 12% or more than $267 million.
The company said that revenue and operating income for its gaming and network services division declined significantly in the quarter due to a decrease in software and hardware sales, as well as a negative impact from foreign exchange.
Sales of Sony’s popular Playstation 4 console have been stagnant as consumers anxiously await the next update of the console, which is expected some time before the end of 2020.
Sony’s music division in the second quarter saw an increase in sales and operating income thanks in part to high music publishing revenue, benefiting from some consolidation, and higher sales in recorded music, which was pushed primarily streaming revenues increases.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Sony announce that it would shut down its pay TV service Playstation Vue on Jan. 30, 2020.
Sony said it had “ambitious goals” for how it could change the TV viewing experience when Vue first launched, but it was unable to keep up with rising content costs and stiff competition in the streaming space.
“Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected,” the company said. “Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business.”