WWE Q2 2016 – Full Revenue & Profit Break Down – TV, Network, Admin Expenses eating into profits, comparison to WM31

By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Full Second Quarter 2016 Revenue / Profit Break Down

WWE’s WrestleMania 32 event helped produce $199.0 total revenue in the Second Quarter 2016, but it also ate away at profits because of how expensive the event was to produce.

The result was Operating Income of $1.6 million and business profit of $7.5 million (margin of only 4.0 percent).

In last year’s WrestleMania quarter (Q1-2015), WWE reported $15.2 million in Operating Income and $21.0 million in business profit (12 percent margin).

WWE made a lot of money ($199.0 million vs. $176.2 million), but the cost to make that money increased to $132.0 from $109.7.

The difference in revenue was nearly identical – $67.0 in the WM32 quarter versus $66.5 million in the WM31 quarter.

So, where did the money go after the net revenue? WWE reported $59.4 million in operational/admin expenses, up from $45.4 million in the WM31 quarter. That difference of $14.0 million ate into WWE’s profits for the quarter.

Individual Business Segments

– WWE Network Revenue was $51.8 million, but WWE reported a loss of $5.7 million.

This was due to how WWE allocated costs between Network and TV Production. WWE noted: “For the second quarter 2016, the implementation of this allocation methodology reduced Network segment (profit) by $5.3 million and increased Television segment (profit) by a corresponding $5.3 million.”

– TV Rights Revenue was $56.1 million, with a profit of $27.2 million.

– Live Event Revenue was $51.9 million, matching WWE Network due to WM32 ticket sales, and profit was $23.4 million.

– After the Big Three items of Network, TV, and Live Events, the rest of the business segments produced only 20 percent of business. Profit margins were slim.

– Corporate Expenses that ate into profit were $48.2 million, up from $37.7 million in last year’s WrestleMania quarter.

– The result of $199.0 million in revenue was total business profit of $7.5 million (4 percent margin).

In Q1-2015, revenue was $176.2 million and total business profit was $21.0 million (12 percent margin).