D&D Movie/TV D&D Movie Hit or Flop?

Myrdin Potter said:

Just the accounting explanation in the write-off, which you grabbed the wrong body of work. Goodwill impairment is different than what is basically an inventory write-off.

Hasbro stock was up - the sale of e-one was. Or a complete disaster and the forecasted revenue is poorer than initial expectations but people feared it would be worse. So the bad news was not as bad as feared.

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Ah. Well, I had to go looking for an explanation of "production asset impairment charge", and the results all pointed one way.

I recommend explaining the specialized terminology yourself in the future, just to be clear. I will edit my prior comment.

Ferrousbones said:

Selling eOne might also be a bad sign overall for D&D media, since even if more is produced, the producers may not be very faithful to the source.

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They didn't sell the rights to franchise brands in the eOne sale

bedir than said:

They didn't sell the rights to franchise brands in the eOne sale

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True, but without the studio, there is likely less control.

Ferrousbones said:

True, but without the studio, there is likely less control.

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Transformers made a half dozen movies before Hasbro bought eOne.
Honor Among Thieves started before Hasbro bought eOne.

bedir than said:

Transformers made a half dozen movies before Hasbro bought eOne.
Honor Among Thieves started before Hasbro bought eOne.

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They probably paid someone else which is another expense.

Zardnaar said:

They probably paid someone else which is another expense.

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I don't know what this means.
Hasbro has licensed its franchise brands into movies and shows for some time. That history of licensing meaning more money is why they are selling eOne while retaining the rights to their own franchise brands.
eOne is not involved in the D&D tv show that Paramount bought for example.
The money a studio pays Hasbro to produce a licensed brand (like Netflix for the MtG animated show) is not a cost for Hasbro.

bedir than said:

I don't know what this means.
Hasbro has licensed its franchise brands into movies and shows for some time. That history of licensing meaning more money is why they are selling eOne while retaining the rights to their own franchise brands.
eOne is not involved in the D&D tv show that Paramount bought for example.
The money a studio pays Hasbro to produce a licensed brand (like Netflix for the MtG animated show) is not a cost for Hasbro.

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They make less money than if they had a hit whatever produced themselves.

But they need that hit without the IP EOne is really only the physical assets.

Depends on the license I suppose eg flat rate of flat rate+ share of box office.

Theu might license D&D out for say 10 million. If if blew up for 800 million whoever made it gets around 400 minus 210 million (or whatever) and pay WotC 10 million pocketing 180 million.

If they made it in house it's 190 million vs 10. Assuming they had a hit movie.

If they did that they would have taken a bigger dunking in this particular case.

It means less money in the future though as they won't get the best price for licensing out IP and they can't produce it themselves.

One can get creative in paying the bills eg Paramount and Paramount+ shenanigans but someone somewhere is ponying up the cash.

A weird thing happened on the way to the movies.

Last week I didn't do my regular "how's Honor Among Thieves doing online" update. PC Mag had zero update last week. It's a common vacation time. Things happen.

I had low hopes when browsing their current update, because the shows and movies in the top ten overall were not contemporaries of D&D: Honor Among Thieves and last time we checked in D&D was at 9 among movies.

Well! Surprise, D&D moved up to 7 among streaming movies in the US.



Let's move onto international and the mix of streaming and VoD.

On Netflix Canada the data is dead. Useless. Gone for about a week. This isn't because it's not in the top 10. Sometimes Flix Patrol goes all the way down to 100. There's just no data for last week.

On Amazon (VoD) it is #3 for the current week and was #2 the week prior. It's now been in some country on Amazon for 91 days, and outside of a weird blip of no data in week three it's been very strong.

On iTunes, after 94 days worldwide, it's fallen to 11. The week prior it was 5th.

On Google, after 97 days worldwide, it's fallen to 5th. The week prior it was 3rd.

On Rakuten, after 51 days worldwide, it is at 2 or 3, with the week prior it hitting #1.

Vudu has data integrity issues.

Finally, U.K. readers will find Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on their version of Paramount+ August 18th. The U.K. was the largest international market for the movie and it hasn't been streaming yet, just on VoD.

Movies that studios think aren't doing well get pulled from streaming platforms. It's happened to dozens of movies and series over the last two months. So yes, Hasbro took a 25 million impairment on the movie. But Paramount is still releasing it to new markets.

Also, D&D the franchise, was up 74% last quarter (page 13). Transformers and D&D were the only franchise brands to be up. MtG was slightly down, as they released one less set, but sold more per set.

Man they cloned Tyrone was a pleasant surprise.

bedir than said:

Also, D&D the franchise, was up 74% last quarter (page 13).

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First of all, thanks for linking the report.

I read through the whole of the report, paying special emphasis to Wizards of the Coast, and it looks like even though franchise performance for D&D is up, WOTC net revenue and profit are down.

Page 34 (3-month period): "Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming" - 'external net revenue' down 11%, 'operating profit' down 37%
Page 36 (3-month period): tabletop gaming down 17%, digital and licensed gaming up 33%, but total is still down due to difference between; meanwhile, film and TV is up 3%
Page 37 (6-month period): WOTC & Digital - revenue down 2%, profit down 34%
Page 39 (6-month period): tabletop gaming down 7%, digital & licensed up 20%, but total is still down; meanwhile, film and TV is down 5%

So there appears to be an increase in overall engagement, but without a corresponding increase in sales.
As for film and TV, I am guessing the difference between the 3 & 6 month numbers is due quite heavily to production on HAT; we probably won't know for sure how much impact HAT has had until the next quarterly statement, profit or loss.