MUMBAI: Sony Pictures has posted a profit of $51 million in the quarter ended 31 December, 2014, which is the same period that was affected by the email hacking attack. This more than the $20 million profit figure that the company had anticipated in February this year. The profit was down 75 per cent from the year-ago period in yen.

Sony Pictures’ revenue stood at $1.71 billion for the fiscal third quarter, up from the company’s estimate of $1.63 billion. When compared to the same quarter in 2013, the company’s revenue was down 20 per cent on a dollar basis, but only 7.7 percent in yen. The significant decrease in revenue on a US dollar basis was primarily due to a decrease in sales for motion pictures and TV productions. The decrease in motion pictures sales was due to significantly lower home entertainment and theatrical revenues. 

The decrease in TV production sales was attributed to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year benefitting from higher home entertainment and subscription video on demand (SVoD) revenues from the US television series Breaking Bad.

It may be recalled that Sony had delayed its third quarter earnings owing to the hacking of its servers last year.

Additionally, the mother company - Sony Corp’s official Q3 operating profit stood at $1.5 billion, which was up 2.2 per cent from the estimate it reported last month.