“300: Rise of an Empire,” released by the Warner Bros. division of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), brought in $45.05 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend. That figure was high enough to help the media company’s bottom line, particularly if the results stay strong.
According to Box Office Mojo, Warner Bros. gave “300: Rise of an Empire unusually strong support, likely anticipating it could be a blockbuster. Box Office Mojo reported:
Warner Bros. rolled out an aggressive marketing effort reminiscent of those for major Summer blockbusters
The potential revenue benefit was helped by results overseas. According to Box Office Mojo:
300: Rise of an Empire dominated the international box office with $87.8 million this weekend. According to Warner Bros., it was up 10 percent from the first movie across the same 58 markets. It reached all major territories except Japan (June) and China (undated). Top markets include Russia ($9.2 million), France ($7.2 million), Korea ($6.5 million), Brazil ($5.8 million) and Mexico ($5.5 million) and India ($3 million).
Warner Bros. revenue was a huge portion of Time Warner’s total last year — $12.3 billion of $29.8 billion. On an operating income basis, the studio unit brought in $1.3 billion of the $6.6 billion companywide total in 2013. Other large media companies, which include Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), have a similarly large dependence on their studio operations.
Warner Bros. has the leading movie in terms of box office receipts this year, so “300: Rise of an Empire” will help it build on that advantage. “The LEGO Movie” is the top-grossing film of the year. It has brought in $225 million in domestic box office receipts so far in 2014.
It is far too early to say whether Warner Bros. can keep its lead in domestic box office receipts. Time Warner management has to hope so. Movies may be considered an ancient form of media. That is, until, the dollar value of these movies gets added to the results of the largest media companies.
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