Warner Gets Too Real About Advertising Meltdown

Even “Barbie” can only glam up her maker so much these days. 

Warner Bros. Discovery got a boost from the year’s biggest box-office hit during the third quarter. Its studio revenue grew 4% year over year, which is its first such gain in more than a year. But that was offset by continued weakness in advertising, which fell 12% year over year to just under $1.8 billion—a record low for the combined company’s operating reporting results that go back to the beginning of 2021. Warner also lost about 1.4 million domestic subscribers to its streaming services that included the recently rebranded Max; analysts had been expecting a drop of only about 200,000 subscribers.