August
8 Publishing, licensing lift Marvel but toys limit profit

Marvel's 2nd quarter results were released Tuesday, showing net income for the quarter up 78 percent from last year. Soft toy sales held back the company, which saw a big boost in licensing revenue, mostly related to "Spider-Man 3." Forbes weighs in with some thoughts on the company's toy business here.

Publishing was a real bright spot for the company. From the PR:

Marvel's Publishing Segment net sales increased $7.8 million or 31% to $32.9 million in Q2 2007 principally due to continued strength in Civil War and the Dark Tower publications in the Direct and Mass Market channels. Operating income in the publishing segment rose to $14.7 million with an operating margin of 45% in Q2 2007, compared to operating income of $10.4 million with an operating margin of 41% in the prior-year period. The improvement in operating margin principally reflects the benefit of operating leverage resulting from sales of high margin trade books.

The company also updated its roster of film, TV and game projects, with no surprise developments. Upcoming licensed film project are Fox's "Wolverine," which Gavin Hood recently signed on to direct; and Lionsgate's "The Punisher 2." With "Iron Man" and "Incredible Hulk" both set for release next summer, the company has writers attached to "Ant-Man," "Captain America," "Nick Fury," "Thor" and "The Avengers." Of those, only "Ant-Man" has a director attached.

On the TV toon side, "Fantastic Four" and the spring-launching "Spectacular Spider-Man" will be joined by in-development toons "Wolverine and the X-Men" and "Iron Man." The upcoming D2DVD animated features set up at Lionsgate will see "Doctor Strange" out next week, followed by "Teen Avengers" and "Hulk Smash" in 2008. "Iron Man" and "Hulk" vidgames are in the works for 2008 from Sega, while development continues on the "Spider-Man" Broadway musical.