It’s been a mixed opening to 2025 for Hollywood stocks, but many outperformed a sharper decline in the broader stock market.
Signs of improving streaming profits at sector giants and hope for more consolidation or deals refocusing companies have been a boon for investor sentiment, while continuing challenges for the traditional cable networks and uncertainty over the regulatory outlook during the second term of President Donald Trump and recession fears have put media stocks under pressure.
“The ‘Trump put’ lost a lot of value in March,” Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino wrote in a March 31 report. He concluded: “In media & entertainment, Roku and Sphere Entertainment face the highest risk, while Netflix and Liberty Media’s Formula One Group look most stable. In telecom & cable, Comcast faces the most risk, while telcos are the most defensive.”
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Streaming giant Netflix, which had experienced a 90 percent jump to $891.32 in 2024, has edged up a much more modest 4.6 percent to close Monday at $932.53. Following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, Wall Street analysts predicted more upside ahead.
Many entertainment conglomerate stocks reversed their 2024 trajectory in the first quarter of 2025. After a 27 percent drop in 2024, the stock of Paramount Global, set to be acquired by David Ellison’s Skydance Media by mid-year, climbed 14.3 percent percent to $11.96 through March 31.
In contrast, NBCUniversal owner Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, became the first entertainment titan to unveil the spinoff of most of its cable networks into a separate entity in late November. The media giant ended the first quarter down 1.4 percent at $36.90.
Similarly, Disney, rejuvenated since the return of Bob Iger to the CEO role and up 23 percent last year, saw its stock drop 11 percent to $98.70 through the first three months of 2025, while Warner Bros. Discovery shares edged up .6 percent to $10.73 on March 31. WBD followed Comcast’s cable networks spin-off with a similar move in December.
Fox Corp., led by CEO Lachlan Murdoch since his father Rupert Murdoch moved to the role of chairman emeritus, posted a 60 percent stock jump in 2024 and continued its upwards momentum so far in 2025. The shares closed up 15.5 percent year-to-date at $56.60.
In comparison, the broad-based S&P 500 stock index decreased 4.6 percent to close at $5,611.85 at the close of the first quarter of 2025, its worst performance in three years.
Lionsgate, one of the biggest Hollywood gainers of 2023, lost ground to the tune of 26 percent in 2024. But that studio turned its fortunes around so far in 2025 ahead of the planned separation of the company’s studios business from Starz that will produce two separately traded public companies, Starz Entertainment Corp. and Lionsgate Studios. Over the first three months of this year, Lionsgate’s stock rose 1.8 percent to close Monday at $7.92.
Among smaller entertainment companies, AMC Networks, which had finished 2024 down 48 percent, continued its slide in the first quarter, closing down 31 percent at $6.88. UFC and WWE owner TKO Group, after jumping 74 percent last year, saw its stock continue to gain year-to-date, closing up 7 percent at $152.81.
Cinema operator stocks posted a mixed opening quarter of 2025. AMC Theatres-parent AMC Entertainment Holdings shares declined 28.6 percent to $2.87, while Cinemark’s stock fell 19.6 percent to $24.89. By contrast, Imax Corp. shares kept gaining, edging up 5 percent as of Monday’s market close to $26.35.
Meanwhile, Roku shares ended the first quarter of 2025 down 5.4 percent at $70.44, while Sphere Entertainment’s stock tumbled 21 percent percent at $32.72.
Among music and audio entertainment stocks, Warner Music Group shares climbed 1 percent to $31.35, and the Amsterdam-listed stock of Universal Music Group gained 2.8 percent to €25.43. In comparison, iHeartMedia shares closed Monday at $1.65, down 16.62 percent, and satellite radio giant SiriusXM’s stock price ended at $22.55, down 1 percent for the first quarter of the year.
