Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) stalk her first vampire meal.
TORONTO – Lionsgate on Monday saw its shares hit a new all-time high as it showed the latest fruits of its Twilight franchise.
Stock in Lionsgate closed Monday on the New York Stock Exchange at a new all-time high as it rose 4 percent in heavy trading to $19.89, just off its high for the day and well up from a 52-week low of $11.09.
The stock performance came just ahead of the Vancouver-based mini-studio swinging to a third-quarter profit of $37.8 million, compared to a year-earlier loss of $1.4 million.
Revenue for the three months to December 31 came to $743.6 million, compared with $323 million in 2011, when the mini-studio had no wide theatrical releases.
During the latest frame, revenue rose 130 percent due to the theatrical box office performance of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and other releases.
The latest results come a year after Lionsgate acquired privately-held Summit Entertainment, using Twilight cash-flow to fund the $412 million leveraged buyout.
The takeover brought the Twilight and Hunger Games movie franchises under one corporate brand.
Overall Q3 motion-picture revenue rose 189 percent to $673.5 million.
Within the motion-picture segment, theatrical revenue was $192.9 million, against $8.4 million in 2012, on the strength of the box office from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Sinister, The Impossible and other titles.
Ahead of the March 2 DVD release of The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2, home-entertainment revenue was up 43 percent to $233 million.
Looking ahead to an analyst call Tuesday morning, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer on Monday said in a statement: “The quarter reflected not only the impact of our young adult franchises but strong contributions from the rest of our theatrical releases and our home entertainment and international operations.”
