The flop of the film White House Down has added to earnings woes at Sony in the latest quarter, dragging the entertainment and electronics giant to a 19.3bn yen (£122m) loss.
The action movie's lacklustre box office performance, especially compared with last year's releases of 21 Jump Street and The Amazing Spider Man, contributed to a 17.8bn yen operating loss for Sony's pictures division, according to figures released on Thursday.
The company slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 30bn yen from 50bn yen, reflecting deep-seated problems in its electronics business – televisions in particular – and the disappointing performance at Sony Pictures.
White House Down starred Jamie Foxx as president of the United States and Channing Tatum as a police officer who becomes the president's impromptu bodyguard while touring the executive residence with his daughter just as a band of rogue former soldiers and government employees attack.
The film appeared to suffer by comparisons with Olympus Has Fallen, a slightly earlier release with a similar plot, featuring a former North Korean terrorist who takes the president hostage.
Sony's sales for the July to September quarter rose 10.6% from a year earlier to 1.78tn yen, thanks mainly to the favourable impact of the yen's decline against the US dollar.
Adjusted for the 20% drop in the value of the yen, revenue fell 9%. The company's sales of digital cameras and video cameras fell while its television, music and smartphone businesses improved.
Sales of its Xperia Z smartphone helped and are expected to remain strong, a spokesman for the company said.
But although sales of televisions and personal computers improved slightly from earlier in the year, they were lower than the same quarter of 2012.
"The electronics business is declining beyond expectations" due to shrinking sales of televisions and other audio-visual equipment, along with slowing growth in major emerging markets such as China, the spokesman said.
"Sony expects its business environment to continue to be severe in the second half of the fiscal year," he added. Sony said it is striving to improve profitability at its troubled television division by focusing on sales of higher cost products, including its LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs.
The company, which has suffered declining fortunes for several years, is also gearing up for the introduction of its PlayStation 4 game machine. But it faces fierce competition from Apple's iPad and iPhone as well as from its powerful South Korean rival Samsung.
Sony made record losses for the fiscal year ending March 2012, reporting the worst result in the company's six-decade history. Still, its loss for April to September narrowed to 15.8bn yen from 40bn yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.
Its rival Panasonic, meanwhile, said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3bn yen from a 698.6bn yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen.
While its domestic sales fell 4%, sales overseas climbed 11%. Total revenue of 1.88tn yen was up 3% from a year earlier after taking a hit from the sale of Sanyo businesses carried out in the current fiscal year.
Panasonic raised its sales forecast to 7.4tn yen and doubled its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 100bn yen.
theguardian.com
The action movie's lacklustre box office performance, especially compared with last year's releases of 21 Jump Street and The Amazing Spider Man, contributed to a 17.8bn yen operating loss for Sony's pictures division, according to figures released on Thursday.
The company slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 30bn yen from 50bn yen, reflecting deep-seated problems in its electronics business – televisions in particular – and the disappointing performance at Sony Pictures.
White House Down starred Jamie Foxx as president of the United States and Channing Tatum as a police officer who becomes the president's impromptu bodyguard while touring the executive residence with his daughter just as a band of rogue former soldiers and government employees attack.
The film appeared to suffer by comparisons with Olympus Has Fallen, a slightly earlier release with a similar plot, featuring a former North Korean terrorist who takes the president hostage.
Sony's sales for the July to September quarter rose 10.6% from a year earlier to 1.78tn yen, thanks mainly to the favourable impact of the yen's decline against the US dollar.
Adjusted for the 20% drop in the value of the yen, revenue fell 9%. The company's sales of digital cameras and video cameras fell while its television, music and smartphone businesses improved.
Sales of its Xperia Z smartphone helped and are expected to remain strong, a spokesman for the company said.
But although sales of televisions and personal computers improved slightly from earlier in the year, they were lower than the same quarter of 2012.
"The electronics business is declining beyond expectations" due to shrinking sales of televisions and other audio-visual equipment, along with slowing growth in major emerging markets such as China, the spokesman said.
"Sony expects its business environment to continue to be severe in the second half of the fiscal year," he added. Sony said it is striving to improve profitability at its troubled television division by focusing on sales of higher cost products, including its LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs.
The company, which has suffered declining fortunes for several years, is also gearing up for the introduction of its PlayStation 4 game machine. But it faces fierce competition from Apple's iPad and iPhone as well as from its powerful South Korean rival Samsung.
Sony made record losses for the fiscal year ending March 2012, reporting the worst result in the company's six-decade history. Still, its loss for April to September narrowed to 15.8bn yen from 40bn yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.
Its rival Panasonic, meanwhile, said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3bn yen from a 698.6bn yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen.
While its domestic sales fell 4%, sales overseas climbed 11%. Total revenue of 1.88tn yen was up 3% from a year earlier after taking a hit from the sale of Sanyo businesses carried out in the current fiscal year.
Panasonic raised its sales forecast to 7.4tn yen and doubled its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 100bn yen.
theguardian.com
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