Comcast Q3: Record-Breaking ‘The Odyssey’, Profitable Peacock Fuel NBCU Spinoff Momentum

Odysseus and his intrepid crew sailed through Comcast’s latest quarter as Universal surpassed $5 billion at the global box office, led by the The Odyssey, now Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time.

The Christopher Nolan smash based on Homer’s epic has grossed nearly $1.9 billion worldwide since its July opening and set all sort of records for the director and the studio with $625 million domestically and $1.16 million of international box office. Studios EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) jumped 19%.

Peacock delivered its second consecutive profitable quarter with $261 million of adjusted EBITDA on $1.8 billion in revenue, driven by strong growth in distribution. Subscribers of 48 million held steady from Q2, which was buoyed by the FIFA World Cup, and despite subscription rate hikes.

Comcast reported consolidated proforma revenue of about $29.3 billion for the quarter ended in September and adjusted ebidta, also proforma, of $9.1 billion, both about flat from the year earlier. The proforma numbers reflect the spinoff of Versant early this year, housing the former NBCU cable networks (except Bravo) and some digital assets.

In another major restructuring, Comcast plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into a standalone company, separate from Comcast’s core Connectivity & Platforms business.

The NBCUniversal side will be run by Comcast’s current co-CEO Mike Cavanagh. Comcast’s former CFO Michael Angelakis will become CEO of Comcast after the separation and is working as a strategic advisor until then. Wall Street has been enthusiastic about the separation, which is designed to unlock the value of each group of assets and is likely to generate M&A interest.

Execs said today they are “making meaningful progress on the separation of NBCUniversal and Sky, which remains on track to create two independent companies with the financial strength and flexibility to pursue their respective growth strategies.”

Separately last summer, Sky inked a £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) deal to acquire ITV‘s television network operations, a major shakeup in the UK media landscape.

Parks continues see softness with higher travel prices and weaker consumer sentiment. The ongoing U.S.-Iran war has squeezed oil markets and inflating the price of gasoline and jet fuel, making travel more expensive and increasing other costs for consumers and businesses. Higher interest rates are also squeezing budgets.

At Connectivity, residential broadband net losses continue amid aggressive fiber and fixed wireless access competition. Investors are laser focused on whether the company can stabilize performance there without pressuring profitability given the fierce competition.

Total domestic broadband residential customer net losses were 144,000; total domestic wireless line net additions were 368,000 and total domestic video customer net losses were 274,000.

The stock took a hit last month when Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong called certain promotional price points then in the broadband market “irrational” (presumably referring primarily to AT&T’s, although a competitor wasn’t explicitly named),” says MoffettNathanson in a September report titled ‘U.S. Broadband Pricing: Back From The Brink? — positing the idea that prices have started rising.

Wireless and Business Services, led by Enterprise, are stronger.

Execs said today that near-term connectivity results “reflect the investments we’re making to navigate an increasingly dynamic environment. We’re encouraged by improving customer satisfaction, strong conversion of free wireless lines to paid relationships, growing adoption of premium wireless plans across our 10.6 million total wireless lines and healthy growth in Business Services, led by Enterprise.”

The executive team with hold a call with analysts at 8:30 to discuss the numbers.