Fifty Shades Franchise Helps Lift Universal Studio Results

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 3:31AM EST · Published Feb 12, 6:25AM EST

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Fifty Shades Franchise Helps Lift Universal Studio Results — © Thinkstock

The Universal Studios division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), got another lift from the sexually charged Fifty Shades franchise. The third film in the series, titled “Fifty Shades Free,” posted sales of $136 million over the weekend, when domestic and international ticket sales are combined. According to Box Office Mojo, the films topped a worldwide gross of $1 billion. The group of films is climbing the ladder of the most successful franchises of all time.

The success of the Fifty Shades movies is even more impressive because they are rated R, which sharply cuts potential ticket sales. On the other hand, the popularity of the movies is helped by the best-selling Fifty Shades novel trilogy written by E.L. James. Unfortunately, that film franchise now has probably come to an end, since each of the books has been covered.

Universal needs the boost “Fifty Shades Freed” has given it. The studio ranks fourth in ticket market share among studios this year, with domestic ticket sales of $106 million through February 4. That puts its market share at 10% behind 20th Century Fox at 20.9%, Sony/Columbia at 20.3% and Walt Disney’s Buena Vista studio at 11.7%.

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The ticket sales numbers matter to the parent companies. Studio sales make up a major portion of their earnings. Each of the top studios is owned by a large public media company. Studio sales sometimes mean enough to affect stock prices.

There are rumors that Comcast may try to buy Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA) assets, which include 20th Century Fox. If that happens, it would snatch the assets from Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), which has had the inside track to buy them after cutting a deal with Fox chief Rupert Murdoch. Among the consequences of the sale is which company will have the best chance to rule U.S. box office ticket sales. That makes Universal’s combination with the Fox studio a critical factor in whether Universal’s modest box office share can grow.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.