Sphere Entertainment Posts a Lackluster Financial Quarter

Sphere Entertainment posts a lackluster quarter in its latest earnings report, with a loss of $126 million and revenues down 2% from 2023.

Las Vegas’ Sphere isn’t seeing tremendous gains, but CEO James Dolan isn’t too worried about it. The venue’s corporate parent, Sphere Entertainment, posted a second quarter loss of $126 million in its earnings report on March 3. Quarterly revenues were down 2% from the same period in 2023, at $308 million, while revenues were slightly over analyst predictions. The loss per share clocked in at $3.49 — over a dollar more than anticipated.

Over half of its year-over-year revenues — $86.5 million — came from the Sphere Experiences sector, which includes the films “Postcards from Earth” and U2’s concert film of their residency at the venue. But even that segment saw lower per-show revenue year-over-year. The concerts sector raked in $54.5 million, down slightly due to lower show count. This was offset partially by Delta’s corporate takeover event during January’s Consumer Electronics Show.

“We are becoming more efficient, more efficient with content, we’re more efficient with how we operate the business, how we schedule the shows,” said CEO James Dolan during the company’s earnings call. “And so I think that this upcoming year will obviously be our best year yet, but it will reflect a significant change in our efficiency and our results to the bottom line. That’s what we’re expecting.”

Dolan is currently looking to open a new Sphere venue in Abu Dhabi with the backing of the UAE government. He also expressed that a rollout of more, smaller Spheres could be announced before the end of the year.

“We’re currently working on the architecture for a smaller Sphere, which we think will be deployable in more markets. Somewhere in the 5,000 seat range,” he added. “We’re looking to take advantage of the content we’ve created already and the business we’ve created already and bringing it out to other markets.”