On the strength of the home entertainment debut of Home, as well as increases in its consumer products, television and new media segments, DreamWorks Animation revenue for Q3 jumped by 43.3% to US$259 million versus the same period a year ago.
Not including its previously announced US$3.6 million in restructuring costs, DWA reported operating income of US$27 million, net income of US$1.4 million with earnings per share at two cents, beating analysts’ estimates.
Despite not releasing a new movie since the March premiere of hit Home, the company’s feature film segment revenue climbed to US$158 million, up from US$142 million in the same period in 2014 and representing an 11% increase.
After grossing US$386 million at the global box office, Home contributed US$49.7 million to DWA’s film segment in Q3 driven by 4.7 million unit sales across DVD, Blu-ray and the digital market.
The company’s next feature release will be Kung Fu Panda 3 on January 29, 2016.
DWA’s Q3 revenue bump was also assisted by revenue from its television series and specials segment, rising from US$14.3 million in the same period last year to US$50.7 million this quarter. The company’s episodic content licensing arrangements – including its large output deal with Netflix – helped drive the growth.
For consumer products, DWA’s revenue more than doubled to US$27 million from US$12.1 million in Q3 2014.
New media revenue, which includes DWA’s YouTube teen channel AwesomenessTV, also more than doubled, coming in at US$20.7 million versus US$8.5 million a year ago.
The significantly better Q3 results come after the company’s head of global consumer products Jim Fielding took over DreamWorks’ licensing and franchise management businesses in late August.