Vivendi Entertainment Sales Off 24%

Vivendi Universal’s U.S. entertainment division saw a 24% drop in revenue in its third quarter mostly because of fewer theatrical releases and reduced attendance at its Universal Studios theme parks.

Vivendi Universal Entertainment posted quarterly revenue of $1.28 billion, down from $1.68 billion during the same period a year ago.

Vivendi blamed the falloff mostly on fewer summer movie releases, which included “The Bourne Identity,” “Blue Crush” and “About a Boy.”

Last year, Universal dominated the box office with such hits as “The Fast and the Furious” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”

“They just don’t have the same slate they did a year ago,” said Paul Kim, an analyst with Kaufman Bros.

Universal, however, should get a big lift this quarter from the movie “8 Mile,” starring rapper Eminem, which was the top movie this weekend with more than $50 million in North America ticket sales.

Vivendi’s theme parks also have been suffering from an industrywide slump exacerbated by last year’s terrorist attacks.

Sales at Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company with artists such as Bon Jovi and Eminem, fell 9% to $1.31 billion in the quarter, down from $1.44 billion a year ago, as the music industry faces a sales slowdown because of rampant piracy on the Internet.

For the nine months Vivendi Universal’s revenue rose 9% to $44.1 billion, up from $40.6 billion for the same period a year ago. The number includes Vivendi’s water utility business, French mobile phone business, as well as sales from the entertainment assets acquired in May from USA Networks.

The Paris-based entertainment conglomerate will report its third-quarter earnings separately this month.

Chief Executive Jean-Rene Fourtou is trying to restore investor confidence in Vivendi after his predecessor, Jean-Marie Messier, left the company with $19 billion in media debt from several acquisitions, including Universal Studios, as he transformed Vivendi from a water utility into a global media giant.

However, Vivendi Universal is facing criminal probes in France and the U.S. as authorities investigate whether the company under Messier misled investors about its near-bankruptcy filing this summer.

Last week Vivendi Universal’s lawyers held preliminary meetings with attorneys from the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. attorney’s office in New York about handing over company documents, including financial releases in the last two years.

On Friday, three French judges in a similar criminal case heard evidence from a shareholders group accusing Vivendi of filing multiple versions of its annual report to conceal its financial condition from shareholders and market regulators.

Messier has denied any wrongdoing and is promoting his tell-all memoir, “My True Diary,” due to be published in France this week.

In the book Messier admits making too many acquisitions, but he also blames his ouster on a group of influential French businessmen, including board member Claude Bebear.

Vivendi’s shares closed at $13.52, down 44 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.

*

Times staff writer Sebastian Rotella and researcher Achrene Sicakyuz contributed to this report.