‘Battleship’ dud hits Comcast earnings in 2Q

NEW YORK — “Battleship” failed to sink Comcast’s second-quarter earnings as strong results from cable operations overcame returns the box-office flop.

The Philadelphia-based cable company, the country’s largest, is reporting net income of $1.35 billion, or 50 cents per share, for the April-to-June period. That’s up 32 percent from $1.02 billion, or 37 cents per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet have been expecting earnings of 48 cents per share for the latest quarter.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $15.2 billion, matching analyst expectations. Some of the increase was due to Comcast buying out another investor in the Universal Orlando theme parks last July. Excluding that effect, revenue rose 3.5 percent.

In cable, average monthly fees were up 8 percent from last year to $148.57.

Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts publicly acknowledged that “Battleship” was a big, bad, “John Carter”-sized flop.

Speaking at the Sanford Bernstein Strategic decisions conference in New York, Roberts said that the poor performance of the alien invasion film, which he labeled “an unfortunate, large miss,” coupled with the failure of the comedy “The Five-Year Engagement,” will drag down earnings.