Marvel Sees Q2 Profits From Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four Licensing

Officials from comic book company Marvel Entertainment have announced details of the company’s second quarter financial results for the period ended June 30th, with both net sales and net income increasing following the release of three major movies. The company saw net sales rise from $84.4 million last year to $101.5 million, while profits increased from $16.3 million to a total of $29.1 million. The increases were attributed to the company’s licensing operations, including toys, comic books and video games – all supported by major movie releases Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The direct contribution of video game licensing to these figures was unspecified, but overall, the company’s licensing segment saw a net sales increase of 45 percent during the quarter, to a total of $49.3 million. Revenues associated with Marvel’s ongoing Spider-Man joint venture with Sony were put at $18.2 million. Marvel licenses its characters to an unusually wide range of publishers, with Take-Two, Konami, Activision and Sega all planning games for the company’s current financial year. Most of these games have been direct movie tie-ins, and have already been released, although Sega has two titles targeted for 2008, one based on Iron Man and the other on The Incredible Hulk. As a result of the generally strong results, Marvel has kept to its existing 2007 financial guidance, with net sales expected to rise from $352 million in 2006 to $375 to $435 million this year. Profits are also expected to rise from $59 in 2006 to $111 to $132 this year. Marvel's chairman, Morton Handel, commented: "Marvel continued to achieve strong operating results across its businesses in Q2 2007, with improved operating profit contributions in all divisions. In 2008, Marvel will release our first two self-produced films. Producing our own films positions Marvel to benefit from each film's profits as well as the related fees from merchandising.”