Sony's profits fall as company warns about impact of US movie strikes

Sony's April-June profit fell 17% year over year as concerns grew about revenue damage from a movie industry strike.

The fiscal first quarter profit for Tokyo-based Sony Corp. was 217 billion yen ($1.5 billion), down from 261 billion yen a year earlier.

Sales for the third quarter increased 33% to 2.96 trillion yen ($21 billion), driven by growth in the gaming and network services, music industry, financial services, and imaging solutions sectors.

According to Sony, a favorable exchange rate helped boost its financial performance. A weaker yen is good for Japanese exporters like Sony, which trade at about 143 yen to the dollar at the moment.

The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strikes were predicted to have a negative impact on Sony's movie segment revenue.

According to Sony, both the delivery of TV shows and the dates for movie releases have been pushed back.

In the three months that ended in June, according to Sony, 3.3 million PlayStation 5 gaming consoles were shipped. The number of active users on Sony's online gaming network is estimated to be 108 million, an increase of 5 million users from the previous year.

Miley Cyrus' “Endless Summer Vacation,” Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House,” and SZA’s “SOS” albums were among Sony's most successful recent music releases.

From an earlier prediction of an 840 billion yen ($5.8) profit, Sony increased its full-year profit forecast to 860 billion yen ($6 billion). That is less than the 1 trillion yen profit it made the year before.