Sony Pictures Revenue Drops 13% in June Quarter, Music Segment Sales Jump 21%

Sony Pictures Entertainment posted a sales decline for the June quarter, offset by growth at Crunchyroll, while Sony’s music segment saw revenue increase 21%. The PlayStation games unit had flat sales for the period and a 37% increase in operating income drive by U.S. tariff refunds. Revenue for Sony Pictures for the quarter ended June 30 was $1.978 billion, down 13% year over, while operating income rose 21% to $156 million. The company said the sales decline was due to a decrease in series deliveries in television productions — down 32%, to $571 million. SPE also had lower revenue from theatrical releases: $30 million in the most recent quarter from its sole release in the period (TriStar’s comedy “The Breadwinner”) vs. $132 million in the year-earlier period. Higher revenue from anime streaming service Crunchyroll was mainly due to paid subscriber growth; as of the end of March, the service had more than 21 million paid subscribers, and Sony said it continued to add subs in the June quarter. Popular on Variety Overall for the quarter, Sony’s Q1 of fiscal 2026, the company posted revenue of 2.837 trillion yen ($17.8 billion), up 8%, and net income of 342.2 billion yen ($2.15 billion), up 32%. For full-year fiscal 2026, Sony upped its consolidated operating profit forecast by 8%, to 1.72 trillion yen ($10.72 billion), citing ​an expected increase in the PlayStation business. A major gaming title release coming this November is Take-Two Interactive’s “Grand Theft Auto VI,” expected to provide a lift to the PlayStation division. Total PlayStation monthly active users reached 125 million accounts in June, up 2% year-on-year. Total playtime during the quarter decreased 4% year-on-year, but Sony said “user engagement continued to be solid because Q1 FY25 benefited from season updates to major titles and new hit titles.” On the music front, streaming revenue growth rates on a U.S. dollar basis were up 10% year-on-year for recorded music and up 8% for music publishing for the quarter. Regarding the recent Kumamoto earthquake, Sony said it has several semiconductor facilities located in Kumamoto prefecture and neighboring prefectures. “While all these facilities were affected by the earthquake, there were no major casualties,” the company said. Sony’s production sites in Nagasaki, Oita and Kagoshima had no significant damage to buildings or equipment and production has resumed. The company said, “As it is currently difficult to reasonably estimate the financial impact of this earthquake, the impact has not been incorporated into the full-year results forecast we will show today.”