Japanese maker Sony’s profit soars on success of ‘Demon Slayer’ animation

TOKYO (AP) – Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony’s profit rose 7% in July-September from a year earlier, it said Tuesday, raising its forecast for the year in part due to the hit film “Demon Slayer’s” strong performance.

Favorable results in Sony Corp.’s streaming services, music business and computer chips division also helped lift its July-September profit to 311 billion yen ($2 billion), up from 291.8 billion yen the previous year.

Quarterly sales of the Tokyo-based manufacturer of PlayStation video game machines rose 5% to 3.1 trillion yen ($20 billion).

Sony is now expecting a 1.05 trillion yen ($6.8 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March.

It earlier forecast a 970 billion yen ($6.3 billion) annual profit. Sony recorded a 1.07 trillion yen profit in the previous fiscal year.

Income growth from Sony’s sensors for mobile phones also helped boost financial results.

Sony acknowledged damage from the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which has erased about 30 billion yen ($195 million) on operating income for the fiscal year.

But that negative was expected to be more than offset by solid revenue from “Demon Slayer,” an action animation movie based on a story from the manga comics series. Sony also expects a strong performance in its music publishing unit.