Animation Means Huge Profits

Pixar Animation Studios reported higher third quarter earnings Thursday on home video sales of its five animated films, most notably last year's hit Finding Nemo.

Pixar, the maker of Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story, reported net income of $22.4 million US, or 38 cents per share for the quarter ended Oct. 2, compared with $13.2 million US, or 23 cents per share in the same period last year. The results beat the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, who had expected earnings of 24 cents per share.

Revenue rose to $44.5 million US, compared with $30.2 million US in the same period last year.

Pixar, based in Emeryville, Calif., released its sixth feature film, The Incredibles, earlier this month. The movie earned $70.3 million US in its opening weekend. Results from that film were not included in the third quarter.

"Pixar is now six for six and we are hard at work on Cars, our studio's seventh feature film," Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs said in a statement.

The company said that, based on expected theatrical revenue from The Incredibles, it expects its full year profit to be in a range from $2.10 US per share to $2.20 US per share.

Jobs also took a shot at this weekend's main competition, The Polar Express, a computer animated tale from Warner Bros. Preliminary estimates show the movie earned $2.6 million US on Wednesday, its opening day in theatres, compared to about $4.6 million US for The Incredibles, which is in its second week.

"Fortunately, The Incredibles derailed The Polar Express its first day out of the station," Jobs said in a conference call with analysts.