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Sony Pictures Entertainment posted a sales decline for the June 2026 quarter, offset by growth at Crunchyroll, while Sony’s music segment saw revenue increase 21%. The PlayStation games unit had flat sales for the period and a 37% increase in operating income driven by U.S. tariff refunds.
Revenue for Sony Pictures for the quarter ended June 30 was $1.978 billion, down 13% year over, while operating income rose 21% to $156 million. The company said the sales decline was due to a decrease in series deliveries in television productions — revenue was down 32%, to $571 million. SPE also had lower revenue from theatrical releases: $30 million in the most recent quarter from its sole release in the period (TriStar’s comedy “The Breadwinner”) vs. $132 million from four releases in the year-earlier period. Total revenue in the Motion Pictures group was $645 million for the June quarter (-13%).
Sony is looking forward to getting a jolt at the box office from “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” releasing widely this weekend. The higher revenue from anime streaming service Crunchyroll was mainly due to paid subscriber growth. As of the end of March, the service had more than 21 million paid subscribers, and Sony said it continued to gain subs in the June quarter. Popular on Variety
Overall for the quarter, Sony’s Q1 of fiscal year 2026, the company posted revenue of 2.837 trillion yen ($17.8 billion), up 8%, and net income of 342.2 billion yen ($2.15 billion), up 32%. For full-year fiscal 2026, Sony upped its consolidated operating income forecast by 8%, to 1.72 trillion yen ($10.8 billion), citing an expected increase in profitability in the PlayStation business.
A major gaming title release coming this November is Take-Two Interactive’s “Grand Theft Auto VI,” which should provide a lift to the PlayStation division. Sony raised guidance for FY26 total revenue by 2%, to 12.5 trillion yen ($78.5 billion) compared with 12.48 trillion yen in FY25. In the PlayStation division, sales for the June quarter were flat at 937.1 billion yen ($5.88 billion) and operating income rose 37%, to 202.0 billion yen ($1.27 billion), lifted by the impact of U.S.
tariff refunds after the Supreme Court invalidated President Trump’s global tariffs in February 2026. Total PlayStation monthly active users reached 125 million accounts in June, up 2% year over year. Total playtime during the quarter decreased 4% from the year-prior period, but Sony said “user engagement continued to be solid” and noting a tough comparison with Q1 of FY25, which “benefited from season updates to major titles and new hit titles.” It sold 1.5 million PS5 units in the June quarter compared with 2.5 million in the year-earlier period. Sony’s music segment pulled in revenue of 562.0 billion yen ($3.53 billion), an increase of 21%. That was led by the impact of foreign exchange rates; higher revenue from live events and merchandising in recorded music; and a bump in streaming revenue.
For the June quarter, streaming revenue growth rates on a U.S. dollar basis were up 10% year-on-year for recorded music and up 8% for music publishing. Operating income for the music segment rose 14% to 105.9 billion yen ($665 million). The average exchange rate used for Sony’s June quarter figures was 159.3 yen to $1 U.S. dollar.
Regarding the recent Kumamoto earthquake, Sony said it has several semiconductor facilities located in Kumamoto prefecture and neighboring prefectures. “While all these facilities were affected by the earthquake, there were no major casualties,” the company said. Sony’s production sites in Nagasaki, Oita and Kagoshima had no significant damage to buildings or equipment and production has resumed. The company said, “As it is currently difficult to reasonably estimate the financial impact of this earthquake, the impact has not been incorporated into the full-year results forecast we will show today.”