Last year, the months-long strike by screenwriters and actors in the USA also affected the Potsdam Babelsberg film studio led to interruptions and postponements of productions. As a result, the company made losses running into millions, as can be seen from the recently published Annual report for 2023 emerges.
Sharp drop in orders
Among other things, a planned cinema production by director Wes Anderson ("Grand Budapest Hotel", "Darjeeling Limited") had to be interrupted last summer and postponed until this year, according to the report. What's more: "There was a sharp drop in orders in all of Studio Babelsberg's business areas."
Turnover fell from around 108.7 million euros in 2022 to just under 21.1 million euros last year. At the bottom line, the studio group made a loss of around 3.1 million euros in 2023. In the previous year, Studio Babelsberg had made a profit of around 2.8 million euros.
According to the annual report, the loss would have been significantly higher if the US owner of the film studio, the Cinespace Group, which belongs to the property fund TPG Real Estate Partners, had not offset around 6.5 million euros.
The studio had sent many employees on short-time working due to the poor order situation.
Effects of the strike continue to be felt
The effects of the Hollywood strike are still being felt this year. "Studio Babelsberg AG is directly affected by the cancellation of a series continuation in at least one case in the 2024 financial year," the annual report states: "Nevertheless, we expect a significant increase in revenue in the Group compared to 2023, in particular due to the continuation of productions cancelled in 2023 and postponed to 2024."
Although the company expects another loss, this will be significantly lower than last year, it said.
