Philly cable giant Comcast reported first-quarter earnings this morning, and the results for its NBCUniversal unit were mostly magic—with a little bit of horror thrown in for good measure.
The company’s “filmed entertainment” division, which includes Universal Pictures, saw decreased revenue of 16.3% to $1.6 billion. The lower results were largely due to tough comparisons from the same quarter a year ago, when Jordan Peele’s genre-bending Get Out was wowing audiences. The movie went on to earn more than $255 million worldwide, which is pretty impressive for a February release. On the flip side, NBCU’s theme park revenue jumped by 14.5%, buoyed by the popularity of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction in Hollywood, in addition to good attendance in parks in Orlando and Japan.
All in all, it was a good quarter for NBCU, especially with the Pyeongchang Olympics and Super Bowl LII super-charging its TV business. Here’s how the numbers shook out:
- Total Q1 revenue: $9.5 billion, up 21.3%
- Cable TV revenue: $3.2 billion, up 21%
- Broadcast TV revenue: $3.5 billion, up 58.3%
- Filmed Entertainment revenue: $1.6 billion, down 16.3%
- Theme Parks revenue $1.3 billion, up 14.5%
- NBCUniversal’s adjusted EBITDA: $2.3 billion, up 13.1%
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