Lionsgate Entertainment share price falls in after-hours trading as its third quarter earnings miss expectations
Shares in Lionsgate Entertainment, the production company behind The Hunger Games, fell in post-market trading today after its revenue disappointed in the third quarter.
The company reported earnings fell to $0.27 per share in the third quarter ended December 31st, missing analysts' estimates for $0.47 per share, and down from $0.66 during the same period last year.
Revenue fell 10.7 per cent year-on-year to $670.5m (£460m) during this period, compared with $751m in the third quarter of 2014.
Although The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2 made more than $650m at the box office, making it one of last year's highest-grossing, its box office performance declined from Mockingjay 1. Lionsgate added that the second installment's profitability was also hurt by higher production costs.
"While the performance of our theatrical film slate resulted in softer than anticipated results, our other businesses performed strongly in the quarter," Jon Feltheimer, chief executive officer at Lionsgate, said.
"With our television business continuing its robust topline and margin growth, a deeper and more diversified film slate with lower costs and contributions anticipated from recently launched businesses, we have a clear path to resume our strong and sustainable financial trajectory in fiscal 2017."