Sony Pictures sees some positive financial impacts amid COVID-19 pandemic

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Sony Pictures’ full fiscal year 2019 profits hit a huge high over last year’s earnings, revealing some financial positives emerging for its movie and television sectors amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

According to TheWrap, Sony Corp. reported Tuesday that the movie studio’s profits for the fiscal year hit $628 million, a marked improvement over the $489 million it hit the year prior. However, its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings were down to $208 million from last year’s $245 million.

The outlet reports that Sony saw an increase in its film profits thanks to major success stories like the sequel "Bad Boys for Life" grossing $418.3 million. However, those profits were largely offset by an increase in development expenses for higher cost TV programs. 

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Sony Pictures' 'Bad Boys for Life' helped the company hit new profits in the fiscal year 2019. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Surprisingly, despite theater closures and production on various entertainment projects being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sony Pictures, the entertainment wing of Sony Corp., actually saw some positive impacts of the situation for its entertainment profits. TheWrap reports the company saw a roughly $14 million positive financial impact amid the pandemic as an increase in digital sales as well as a decrease in advertising costs offset the impact of being unable to film and release new content. 

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Kenichiro Yoshida, chief executive officer of Sony Corp., speaks during a news conference during the company's Technology Day in Tokyo, Japan. The company recently revealed that it saw some positive financial impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The outlet reports that the motion picture division of the company accounted for roughly $1.4 billion of the overall picture segment’s $3 billion in revenue. TV, meanwhile, added $1.1 billion in revenue and media networks added on another $512 million.

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However, the outlet notes that Sony Pictures is just one segment of the larger Sony brand, which saw a negative impact from the coronavirus of roughly $636 million overall. Mostly the company’s electronic products, financial services and gaming sectors took blows.