Movie theater companies like AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) and Cinemark Holdings (NYSE:CNK) are likely benefitting from the record-setting summer box office results of Sony Group‘s (NYSE:SONY) "Spider-Man: Brand New Day."
The film recently surpassed "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" to become the highest-grossing domestic film of all time with $936.77 million at the box office, Variety reported.
Globally, the film ranks third with $2.45 billion, trailing "Avatar" and "Avengers: Endgame" at $2.9 billion and $2.7 billion respectively. "Endgame" ranks third domestically ($858.4 million).
Sony, Disney Share Spidey
Sony splits the big-screen ownership of Spider-Man with Disney thanks to a strategic gamble it made in 1998. This means Sony won’t enjoy all of the box office money or merchandise and licensing revenue.
“Brand New Day” is the first live-action Spider-Man film since 2021, making the comparables tough from a financial perspective.
The Sony Pictures segment is one of the company’s lowest in terms of sales, often outpaced by Game & Network, Music, Entertainment & Technology, and Imaging & Sensing. The upcoming second-quarter results, expected in November, will include the box office run of the record-breaking Spider-Man film.
In the first quarter, the Pictures segment saw year-over-year sales decline.
As the smallest segment, the question is whether the big year-over-year increase in the Pictures segment in the second quarter could boost the stock.
M&A Speculation
Sony stock is up 2.1% since July 30, the day before "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" debuted in theaters. The stock trails the S&P 500’s 2.6% return over the same period.
The rapid consolidation across the studio sector — most recently Paramount Skydance’s (NASDAQ:PSKY) $8.45 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) — often fuels speculation that Sony would sell or spin off its Pictures business. So far, Sony has resisted.
The latest record-breaking film could show that Sony’s unit is undervalued and can’t move the parent company’s overall needle, even with huge box-office results.
Time will tell whether Spider-Man’s new record will boost Sony stock after earnings and into the future.
What’s Next
Next up is "Avengers: Doomsday" from The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), set for release in theaters on Dec. 18. The new Avengers film has already secured over $50 million in advance ticket sales, which is below the $150 million "Brand New Day" had, but there are still several months to go.
"Avengers: Endgame" also gets a re-release in theaters on Sept. 25, which could put the film’s domestic gross closer to the newest Spider-Man film and build hype for the latest Avengers film.
Photo by RYO Alexandre via Shutterstock