Box office smash ‘Barbie’ helped Warner Bros Discovery top core quarterly profit estimates but the effects of two Hollywood strikes and a weak advertising market could hamper earnings into next year, company executives said yesterday.

Although Hollywood’s film and television writers ratified a new three-year contract in September, ending their 148-day work stoppage, members of the SAG-AFTRA actors union have been on strike since July, roiling the industry’s 2024 film slate and depriving media companies of new content to sell.

Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels on a call with investors yesterday after WBD announced Q3 earnings said there’s a “real risk” that the financial hit from the strike will linger into 2024, a Reuters report stated.

“It is becoming increasingly clear now that much like 2023, 2024 will have its share of complexity, particularly as it relates to the possibility of continued sluggish advertising trends,” Wiedenfels said, “We don’t see when this is going to turn.”

Chief Executive David Zaslav said the company saw its lightest original content slate in years and had to delay some releases, leading to a drop in third-quarter streaming subscriber numbers.

Wiedenfels said that for full-year 2023 there will likely be “a few hundred million dollars” of a negative impact on EBITDA due to strike impacts, and “several hundred million dollars” of positive cash flow as a result of not being able to spend on production.

The media company, forged by the union of WarnerMedia and Discovery, posted third-quarter adjusted core earnings of $2.97 billion, above estimates of $2.92 billion, according to LSEG data. Overall revenue of $9.98 billion was in line with estimates.

The company reported free cash flow of $2.06 billion, compared with $1.72 billion in the prior quarter. This surpassed expectations for $1.74 billion, according to Visible Alpha.

The company posted a net loss of $417 million, narrowing from a $2.3 billion net loss from a year-ago period.

Advertising revenue at its networks segment declined 12 percent to $1.71 billion as global conflicts and inflation created an uncertain climate for marketers.

The company’s streaming unit posted an adjusted core profit of $111 million, compared with a loss of $634 million a year ago. Global average revenue per user in the segment rose 6 percent.

Warner Bros Discovery had 95.1 million global direct-to-consumer customers at the end of the quarter, down from 95.8 million in the previous quarter. In May, it launched its Max streaming service, combining HBO Max’s scripted entertainment with Discovery’s reality shows.