Max Subscribers Rise to 110 Million, Warner Bros Box Office Falls

Warner Bros. Discovery reported its third-quarter 2024 earnings results Thursday. The July 1-Sept. 30 period concluded with WBD’s HBO, Max and Discovery+ boasting more than 110 million global subscribers, while box office sales fell 40% when compared to last summer’s blockbuster “Barbie.”

Direct-to-consumer sales rose 9% to $2.6 billion. Distribution was up 8%, ad sales 51% and content down 11% during the quarter, which saw Warner Bros. Discovery air the second season of “House of the Dragon,” as well as Olympics programming across international territories and Discovery’s “Shark Week” programming block.

During a call with investors later Thursday, WBD CEO David Zaslav says the company expects to “meaningfully exceed” its goal of $1 billion in streaming profit in 2025. Global streaming and games chief JB Perrette says Max will kick off some “very soft messaging” about password sharing before the end of the year, which is a “form of a price rise” to WBD.

In its studios segment, WBD saw a 17% drop in revenue to $2.7 billion. TV revenue was up 30%, while video game sales were down 31% (“SmashBros”-style game “MultiVersus” couldn’t touch last year’s hit “Hogwarts Legacy”) and theatrical dropped the above-mentioned 40% with weaker performance for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Twisters” in comparison to 2023’s “Barbie.”

WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said the company took “another 100 million-dollar-plus impairment” charge for games due to “underperforming releases,” which brings the current total write-down in games to more than $300 million.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s networks division increased revenue 3% compared to Q3 2023 to $5 billion. Content revenue was up 87% as ad sales fell 11% and distribution dipped 7%.

Wall Street forecast a loss of earnings per share (EPS) of 9 cents on $9.8 billion in revenue, according to analyst consensus…