MUMBAI: Eros International Media‘s (Eros) net profit for the fiscal third quarter has declined 6 per cent to Rs 652 million from Rs 690.9 million in the same quarter last fiscal.
The company‘s total income for the quarter reduced 10 per cent to Rs 3.7 billion from Rs 4.11 billion in the corresponding quarter.
Direct cost for the quarter declined to Rs 2.59 billion from Rs 2.93 billion in the previous fiscal. Other expenses grew 36 per cent to Rs 188.7 from Rs 139 million.
The third quarter was powered by successful releases such as English Vinglish, Maatraan, Son of Sardaar, Thuppaki, Khiladi 786, and Dabangg 2 (overseas).
Son of Sardar received favourable reviews from audiences and reported a net box office collection of Rs 1.08 billion worldwide. Khiladi 786 also scored well at the box office reporting a net collection of Rs 770 million worldwide.
English Vinglish, a women-hero family entertainer, received unanimous thumbs up from critics as well as audiences. This film reported an impressive net box office collection of Rs 675 million worldwide.
Thuppaki raked in a net box office collection of Rs 1.8 billion in the domestic market and has become the fourth film to join the Rs 1 billion club in Tamil films. ‘Maatraan‘, another high profile release, was also well received and reported a net book office collection of Rs 900 million at domestic box office.
During the quarter under review, the company said it had entered into a number of satellite television licensing deals which resulted into valuable contribution to its revenues.
Eros International Media MD Sunil Lulla said, "Firstly it gives me great pleasure to declare an interim dividend at 15 per cent and thank all our shareholders who put their faith in us. Our slate was a well architected combination of modest budget high concept films as well as high profile big star cast films in Hindi and Tamil, which performed very well at the box office resulting in corresponding strong revenues through other channels of distribution like television and digital.
Eros, which partnered HBO to launch HBO Hits and HBO Defined, said that carriage deals for the two premium Hollywood and Bollywood movie channels are being worked out. The carriage deals and specific details of the launch will be announced separately in due course, it said.
"We are extremely excited about our collaboration with HBO who are leaders in premium television arena globally. The collaboration will allow us to unlock the value of our library and new film slate even more and foray into the growing premium television market in India where television viewers will be offered advertising free compelling Bollywood and Hollywood content,” Lulla added.
