Company Town

Earnings: Time Warner Inc., meeting analyst expectations, said its loss narrowed in the third quarter to $35 million, compared to a loss from operations of $111 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 23% to $1.88 billion. The media and entertainment company, which owns such businesses as the Warner Bros. studio and the HBO cable channel, said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--considered a key barometer for the debt-laden firm--rose 2.9% in the quarter, to $747 million from $726 million in the year-earlier period. Filmed entertainment’s earnings before taxes fell 7.4% to $189 million in the quarter from a year earlier, when the division’s numbers were boosted significantly by the success of “The Bodyguard” on video. For the nine months, Time Warner narrowed its loss to $112 million from $286 million in the year-earlier period.

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Savoy Pictures said it lost $15.1 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30 and $28.9 million for the first nine months of the year. The independent movie company said the quarterly results included an expected loss from its new film, “Exit to Eden,” which was panned by critics and opened to a soft $3.1 million at the box office last weekend.