Marvel announces first-quarter results

Marvel Entertainment will host a webcast today on its first quarter results, which they announced earlier today:

Marvel Entertainment Inc. said on Thursday its first-quarter profit dropped 37 percent as sales fell, driven down by a decrease in licensing revenue.

However, the comic book publisher managed to top Wall Street's forecast and raised its outlook for the full year.

(snip)

Licensing revenue decreased to $39.6 million, a decline of 44 percent from the year-ago period, mainly due to lower contributions from domestic licensing, Marvel Studios and Marvel's Spider-Man merchandising joint venture with Sony. Toy sales, however, more than doubled to $26.6 million from the previous year.

In addition to "numbers talk," these webcasts sometimes reveal upcoming plans, particularly around movies. No doubt Marvel will highlight the recent announcement on their upcoming movie slate, as well as Civil War. The webcast starts shortly at 9 a.m. ET.