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Wizard World has just filed its annual report for 2012  and the convention business was up a good bit in 2012.

Year Ended
December 31, 2012 December 31, 2011
Convention revenue $ 6,743,502 $ 3,782,124
Gross profit (loss) $ 2,419,235 $ 950,913
Operating expenses $ (2,221,426 ) $ (4,108,215 )
Income (loss) from operations $ 197,809 $ (3,157,302 )
Other income (expenses) $ (1,216,730 ) $ (1,148,064 )
Net loss $ (1,018,921 ) $ (2,009,238 )
Income (loss) per common share – basic and diluted $ (0.09 ) $ (0.08 )

The report attributes the increased profits to “running better advertised and marketed events” as well as increasing ticket prices and “overall size and scope of each event.” Others savings for the year were due to “reducing stock based compensation to consultants, reducing web development fees and reducing professional service fees.”

The entire report is pretty lengthy and contains a lot of detail on executive compensation and stock options. Wizard World went public as a penny stock in 2011, turning its magazine business into a website, and emphasizing its convention business. According to filings, shows in Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Columbus and Austin made money, meaning Toronto ran at a deficit, but the Toronto shows have been put on the shelf anyway, especially after Hobby Star—promoter of the huge FanExpo events—sued over the name Toronto Comicon. 

Filings say the revamped website is still unprofitable—no surprise given the generally busy market and falling online revenues.

All in all, it’s a pretty good showing, for the Wizard World brand, which has certainly made big strides in the past year or so to present well-attended, bustling pop culture events. 

6 COMMENTS

  1. well the conventions ‘raised’ over 6 millios. but they only ‘made’ 2.5 or 4.5 million depending on how we’re supposed to read their income statement.

  2. Uh, Wizard lost 9 cents a share in 2012 and lost 8 cents a share in 2011. i.e. they are losing more money. What they are doing is losing money on every widget and trying to make up in volume (the old joke)

    I assume the per share difference is due to some sort of share contraction (i.e there are fewer shares)

  3. The CEO of a company generating $6m in revenue earned $510k. That seems ridiculous high to me for a company with a $1m loss.

    Seems still to be operated as a way of generating income for the CEO rather than a true public company.

  4. also from CEO’s statement to shareholders, the $1M loss was from finances and the operating profit was about $200K. as such, “auditors concluded that there is no longer substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”

    perhaps they have truly turned a corner. and for a shade over 2 bits a share, pretty much anyone can be a part owner!

    http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130423-914263.html

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