WWE Announces 3rd Quarter Results: All Things Down

Licensing revenues were $10.8 million as compared to $7.9 million in the prior year quarter, predominantly due to higher toy sales. Revenues related to toys increased by approximately $2.4 million, reflecting improved performance and the strength our new partnership with Mattel. Revenues from video games decreased by approximately $0.5 million as the prior year quarter benefited from the release of an additional video game title, Legends of WrestleMania. Unit shipments of our SmackDown vs. Raw video game increased slightly as compared to the prior year quarter.

Magazine publishing net revenues were $2.6 million as compared to $3.4 million in the prior year quarter, reflecting lower newsstand sales in the current quarter.

Digital Media
Revenues from our Digital Media related businesses were $6.8 million as compared to $7.4 million in the prior year, representing an 8% decrease.

WWE.com revenues were $4.0 million as compared to $4.5 million in the prior year quarter, primarily reflecting a decline in online advertising and mobile content revenues.

WWEShop revenues were $2.8 million as compared to $2.9 million in the prior year quarter. The number of orders increased by 7% to approximately 59,000 while the average revenue per order declined to $46.04 as compared to $50.46 in the prior year quarter.

WWE Studios
During the current quarter, we recorded revenue of $7.6 million related to all seven of our released films as compared to $3.0 million in the prior year quarter. The current quarter results included $3.8 million of revenue associated with our latest film, Legendary. For our first six film projects, we participate in revenues generated by the distribution of these films after the print, advertising and distribution costs incurred by our partners have been recouped and the results have been reported to us. In September we released our latest film, Legendary, under our revised film strategy. This strategy entails self-distribution and marketing of films. Under this new model, we reflect a film's gross receipts and its associated distribution and advertising costs in our results. In addition, the change in distribution results in earlier recognition of revenue and expenses relative to initial release of the film as compared to our previous model. As a result of the timing of Legendary's distribution and advertising expenses, we have recorded a $0.6 million loss for Studios in the current quarter.

Profit Contribution (Net revenues less cost of revenues)
Profit contribution decreased to $47.8 million in the current quarter as compared to $51.2 million in the prior year quarter, reflecting lower revenue across our business segments and a loss in our WWE Studios segment, which more than offset a $2.6 million net increase in production tax credits, recorded in cost of revenues. Gross profit contribution margin decreased to approximately 44% as compared to 46% in the prior year quarter, primarily driven by the performance of our film business, which reflected the recognition of marketing costs under our new self-distribution model. Excluding the impact of production tax credits, Adjusted Profit contribution declined to $43.8 million in the current quarter as compared to $49.8 million in the prior year quarter and Adjusted profit margins declined to 40% as compared to 45% in the prior year quarter.

Selling, general and administrative expenses
SG&A expenses were $24.3 million for the current quarter as compared to $33.1 million in the prior year quarter, led by decreases in staff-related expenses, predominantly accrued management incentive compensation, and to a lesser extent lower legal and professional fees and reserves for bad debt. Excluding the impact of production tax credits, Adjusted SG&A expenses declined to $26.4 million in the current quarter as compared to $34.2 million in the prior year quarter.