Operating Income Up at Warner Communications

Warner Communications said its first-quarter income from continuing operations nearly tripled from a year earlier.

Warner said it earned $21.5 million in the latest quarter. A year earlier, income from continuing operations was $7.16 million, but a $23.7-million gain from discontinued lines produced net income of $30.9 million.

First-quarter revenue climbed 19% to $562.9 million from $471.7 million a year ago.

“The strong performance of WCI’s filmed entertainment and recorded music divisions paced the company’s results in the first quarter,” Steven J. Ross, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Notable performers from the company’s Warner Bros. movie studio included “The Killing Fields” and “Police Academy 2,” the company said.

The filmed entertainment division reported a 3% gain in operating income to $40.6 million, while the recorded music unit’s operating income jumped 42% to $30.2 million, Ross said.

Warner’s broadcast and cable-television segment showed a $4.4-million loss in the latest quarter, compared to a $16.3-million loss a year earlier, he said.

Ross also said Warner’s first-quarter sales of Panavision, a maker of movie cameras and equipment, and Franklin Mint, a direct-marketing company, reduced the parent company’s total debt to about $630 million, down $200 million since the end of 1984.

Warner has been selling selected assets to reduce its debt and bolster earnings after it suffered massive losses from its former Atari electronic games and home-computer unit.

Warner sold Atari last summer to Jack Tramiel, the former president of Commodore International Ltd., a leading home-computer maker.