Despite a drop in profits due, a significant part of which was due to a huge amount of money it paid to laid off employees, Amazon handily beat expectations for the 4th fiscal quarter of 2022, posting $149 Billion in revenue, the company announced Thursday.
Analysts had predicted earnings of around $145 billion.
And while Amazon didn’t get too specific about its entertainment division’s earnings in the quarterly report, it indicated one of the highlights of Q4 was “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” The show, a prequel series explaining how the whole One Ring to Rule Them All thing came about, brought in more than 100 million viewers during its first season. It was Amazon’s most-watched original series in every region and, so Amazon says, brought in more new Prime Video subscribers than any previous show.
Overall, the company’s earnings in Q4 rose by 9% over the same period in 2021. But profits were $278 million, quite a drop from the $14.3 billion the year before. The company attributes that drop to a combination of factors, including higher costs amid the spike in prices last year that were inaccurately described as inflationary.
The biggest dent in Amazon’s Q4 profits came thanks to a $2.3 billion drop in the value of its investment in electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. Behind that was the $640 million it spent on severance payments for the 18,000 people it laid off in January amid fears of a recession that didn’t actually pan out. Additional losses stemmed from various expenses.
As for its entertainment business, Amazon also had good luck with “Thursday Night Football,” which began streaming live on Prime Video last fall. Streamed games had the youngest median age of any football broadcast in a decade, according to Nielsen, and also rose in the 18-34 demo by 11%.
