Spider-Man: Brand New Day Drives Sony Studio Income Up 527%

Sony Pictures Entertainment's operating income surged 527% year over year to $581 million for the quarter ended September 30, driven almost entirely by one film. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," released wide on July 31, has grossed $2.52 billion at the global box office, making it the third-highest-grossing movie in history, behind "Avatar" and "Avengers: Endgame."

The studio's sales rose 37% to $3.23 billion for the quarter. Theatrical revenue reached $1.28 billion — an elevenfold increase from the same period a year earlier. Horror films "Insidious: Out of the Further" and "Resident Evil" contributed alongside the Spider-Man blockbuster. Television production revenue fell the other way, dropping 31% to $483 million.

What did the studio's leadership say about the film's success?

Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Motion Picture Group, framed the film's appeal in human terms at France's Lumière Summit in September, in conversation with Variety's Cynthia Littleton. The movie, starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker and Zendaya as MJ, is "not so much a superhero film, but 'super-person' film," Rothman said. "It's very human. It's very emotional. It's got plenty of whiz-bang, but that's not what the secret is. The secret is it's a relatable story that almost everybody has related to."

How did the rest of Sony's businesses perform?

Sony's overall Q2 fiscal 2026 results showed revenue of 3.429 trillion yen ($21.5 billion), up 10%, and net income of 450 billion yen ($2.8 billion), up 44%. The yen conversion rate used in reporting was $1 to 159.3 yen.

The numbers by segment:

• Games: Revenue rose 9% to 1.208 trillion yen ($7.6 billion), lifted by network services and first- and third-party title sales, despite a drop in PlayStation hardware sales. PS5 unit sales totaled 2.6 million, down from 4.0 million a year earlier. PlayStation monthly active users hit 127 million, up 2 million from the prior quarter.
• Games profit: Game & Network Services operating income jumped 83% to 220 billion yen ($1.4 billion). The year-ago quarter carried 31.5 billion yen in impairment losses on Bungie's intangible and other assets, plus 18.3 billion yen in expenses "resulting from a correction in the amount of certain previously capitalized development costs."
• Music: Sales rose 10% to 598.4 billion yen, driven by live events, merchandising and streaming. Operating income increased 6% to 122.8 billion yen.

What does this mean going forward?

One film rewrote the studio's quarterly arithmetic: theatrical revenue grew elevenfold while every other measure moved by single- or double-digit percentages. With "Brand New Day" still ranked among the three biggest films ever released, Sony's challenge will be sustaining studio momentum once the Spider-Man run leaves the quarterly comparisons — and the 527% income jump — behind.