4kids Profits Down 60%; Tmnt To Blame?, No really.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=8562

posted on 2006-03-16 00:47:03

Profit Down 60% Compared to 2004
4Kids Entertainment announced their fiscal 2005 year end results today. For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2005, 4Kids Entertainment reported $5.1 million in profit on $86.7 million in sales, compared to $12.7 million in profit on $103.3 million in sales in fiscal 2004.

Most of the shortfall came in the 4th quarter, where revenue was down $7.2 million to $26.9 million and profit down $4.5 million to $.5 million compared to 4th quarter 2004.

4Kids CEO Al Kahn said he was "Extraordinarily disappointed & furious at the results of this year.”

Most of the shortfall was blamed on decreased revenue from Yu-Gi-Oh! and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokemon, and was offset by increased revenue from Winx Club, One Piece and Cabbage Patch Kids. In regards to Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kahn stated that the decrease is sales was largely due a slower than expected transition to Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. While sales of older Yu-Gi-Oh! products have been tapering off, sales of GX products have been doing very well, but the products have been very slow to get to market.

Heading forwards, it was stressed that 4Kids wants to focus on properties it owns, as opposed to properties that it licenses. Fully owned properties and co-owned properties do not expire or have restrictions placed on them by licensors. New properties that 4Kids is committed to include "Viva Pinata," a game and TV series being produced with Microsoft, and Chaotic, a card game from Denmark for which 4Kids has purchased all rights.

4Kids TV ratings are up 16%, however revenue was down $0.6 million to $24.1 million. The decrease was due to a shortfall in advertising revenue. 4Kids expects broadcast profit to improve in 2006 because it expects increased advertising revenue due to the higher ratings, the revenue should increase in the 2006-2007 season. Also, 4Kids has renegotiated its deal with Fox for 2 more years (2006-2007 and 2007-2008) at $20 million per year, compared to $25 million for previous years.

4Kids sold all its shares in the Pokemon Company equally to the remaining shareholders for $1 million.

4Kids closed the year with $113.5 million in cash and investments, and $30.5 million in liabilities but no bank/loan debt.

4Kids Stock closed the day up $0.17 to $17.07 (1.01%) compared the the previous day.

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Crazy. TMNT doing somewhat bad, while Winx Club is helping keep their shirts on. I never thought I'd see the day. This makes me a little worried for the future of TMNT however...

As far as I got it, bad ratings were more or less the only reason for the upcoming "Fast Forward" season.

Yeah, and if that does bad? That very well could be the end... A format change is usually the last thing a company will do before pulling the plug.

Laird has the juice to find a new company/network to host his show. He isn't gona back out on his prize like that. For all we know Cartoon Network could end up with TMNT.

Well, if TMNT's profits are down another company may not want it. It's too early to tell right now though, Fast Forward may do the trick.

This is exactly why I hated the idea of Fast Forward... If it fails, we're screwed.

And I was just getting back into the show big time after all that Space Travel and dimensional crap...

For a long while, I've been wondering how they can air such a [relatively] mature show as TMNT on something labeled "4Kids." I guess the answer is: they can't.

TMNT doesn't have the pretty sparklies. Do we need a freaking card game?

My nephew is in the target audience, and while he likes Ninja Turtles (most kids do), he doesn't watch so much. Kind of like me and Stargate. On the other hand, he still likes YuGiOh (he plays).

As much as their dub work on shows like Pokemon and Shaman King are grossly underlooked (its' pretty much the only things they dont' screw up besides TMNT), 4KIDS once again prove how sad and desperate they are to tinker with a modest success just to fuel consumerism. Their goldmine Yu-Gi-Oh hd finished, and they had milked it to death. The spin-off GX is'nt succesful because of a "slow transistion", their audience just got fed up with f*cking Yu-Gi-Oh. Period.

Oh boy, TMNT on the rocks? To be honest, I don't see a lot of good coming in the future. But who knows, perhaps this "Fast Forward" idea could be successful. I mean, it's not us adults that determine the status of the show, it's the kids. And if it's dumbass shows, like Winx Club, that's getting pushed to the top... then say goodbye to the TMNT. Because I doubt they'd put evolving storylines over sparkling, preppy and vain pixies.

I swear, I'm going to raise my kids to be the exact opposite of these little kids.

I like Winx Club

I mean, yeah I like TMNT more but still...

I am really curious to see what Fast Forward does now. I'm almost afraid that if it fails, the movie could be scrapped... If the movie gets scrapped, our franchise will be dead for god knows how long.

Either way, I'm scared for our boys in green.

By the time they're able to determine how Fast Forward is doing, the movie will be at least 85-90% finished (if the projected release date of March 30, 2007 is anywhere near realistic). That doesn't mean they won't still stop the movie project, or transition to made-for-TV, or send it straight to video; that does mean it's less likely those things will happen. And really, Imagi is such a young company in the film industry that they may be eager to get real movies on their resume. TMNT is a boon for them, in my opinion... and in theirs too, since the pic on their corporate splash page is what?

In terms of the movie's future, what I'd really keep an eye on is Cat Tale, Imagi's other movie project that is set to be released this year, before TMNT. They've got the Big Name of Sean Astin, but although he's a great actor, he's also a film ho whose presence doesn't guarantee that the movie won't suck mud. Hopefully it will be good.

Both Cat Tale and Fast Forward have the potential to affect the marketing budget of the TMNT movie... but who knows how? Failture might even make them decide they need more aggressive marketing for TMNT. Or not. In any case, the most basic thing that the TMNT movie needs is to just get to enough theatres; word of mouth will do a large part of the rest if it's anything worth seeing. Because try finding someone who's never heard of Ninja Turtles.
[/hierophant rant]

I don't understand being scared for the franchise; if it ends tonight it's still been a resounding success. But I do understand wanting more (and more and more and more and more and more ).

We also have the "Lost season" to count as "canon" if we decide to disown Fast Forward also...

I mean, FF can bring in Hokum the Rabbit and itd' draw me in much easier...

I will be interested to see how the differing story lines affect the franchise. I mean, I realize the old show was still on when the original movies came out and all...but this is a continuation of those stories, right? And those movies were more like the new show than the old one... If i was the marketing guy on this one, I'd want the movie and the show to tie in pretty close for the sake of sales of toys and other swag. I just wonder if Fast Forward is such a wise decision.

I love the show...having a show is better than having no show....And I realize the need to bring in the target audience again. You have to admit, we older fans are REALLY spoiled by the mature story lines. I am sure the kids out there are like WTF is all this then? and really, they are the ones with scads of disposable income. Really. How many of us have the disposable income lying around that we would like to have for buying Turtle related stuff? THAT is what keeps the turtle boat afloat...buying all the merchandise. Show ratings...eh...that just affects time slots and advertisers.


I really hope the movie does not involve them flinging the turtles forward in time too.

*iris opens her wallet and watches the ragged little moths fly out of it*

That's an interesting thought. I don't think it's gonna happen though. I think they can do the Fast Forward thing and set the movie in the "present." It would tie in enough if they have the same take on the characters and their history. Didn't "Mikey" say that FF is continuous in that way?