Warner Bros. Discovery logged its biggest quarterly subscriber gain since Max’s launch, signing up 7.2 million new streaming customers in Q3 and growing its total direct-to-consumer (DTC) base to 110.5 million worldwide.
Releasing its latest financial report this morning, the media giant’s Q3 DTC revenue (US$2.6 billion) was up by almost 9% compared to the same quarter last year. Max’s ongoing international expansion—including a European rollout in key territories like France, Poland and Belgium in June/July—played a role in this “healthy” revenue growth and “meaningful progress toward achieving our 2025 DTC segment financial objectives,” said president and CEO David Zaslav.
Despite the boost, WBD’s overall revenue take in Q3 fell by 3% to US$9.62 billion, and earnings (adjusted EBITDA) dipped by 18% to US$2.4 billion. Net income is sitting at US$135 million, which includes US$1.6 billion in “pre-tax acquisition-related amortization of intangibles, content fair value step-up and restructuring expenses,” the report noted.
WBD’s studio segment experienced a 17% revenue shortfall against Q3 2023—largely driven by a 40% decline in theatrical revenues. But the drop isn’t really surprising, given that Barbie‘s billion-dollar run contributed to a particularly strong Q3 last year. Among the highlights of this year’s more muted third quarter was PG-13 fantasy/horror sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (pictured), which has grossed nearly US$450 million so far against a US$100-million price tag since its September 6 release.
Although WBD’s Q3 TV revenue was up by 30%, its gaming business continued to struggle this quarter, with a 31% drop in revenue driven by the underperformance of MultiVersus, which launched wide this summer.
The Paris Olympics helped the networks segment generate 3% more revenue than this time last year. The summer games racked up more than 215 million cumulative views across all of WBD’s platforms, representing a 23% increase over the Tokyo 2020 games.