Steven Spielberg could soon be $1B richer

It was a roller-coaster day for Comcast Thursday after the communications giant reported lackluster results buoyed only by the revenue growth from movies and amusement parks.

Comcast stock declined 3.2 percent Thursday after failing to impress investors with its second-quarter results, but its two growth sectors promise to make its lead producer and theme-park consultant Steven Spielberg inconceivably richer.

On the upswing, filmed entertainment and theme parks posted revenue gains of 46.9 percent and 29.2 percent, respectively.

That compared to revenue declines in Comcast’s two largest sectors — cable networks with 3.5 percent and broadcast television with 8.5 percent.

Contributions from Universal Parks and Pictures were so strong that MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett declared in an update on the company historically driven by its cable operations that “the Universal tail is wagging the dog.”

The two Universal sectors are in the midst of “an epic hot streak,” the analyst said of the 48.4 percent increase in operating cash flow, to $1.3 billion, which contributed to Comcast’s total operating cash flow of $3.2 billion.

And, as a tribute to their explosive growth, Moffett proclaimed Parks and Pictures as “Comcast’s story on Wall Street.”

To an undeniable degree, it’s Spielberg’s story, too. Everyone knows of the director-producer’s association with the “Jurassic Park” franchise. He directed the first two, in 1993 and 1997, and executive-produced the second two, in 2001 and 2015.

The current iteration, “Jurassic World,” became the No. 3 top-grossing film of all time this week, with a global box office of $1.5 billion. Small wonder, then, Universal committed itself Thursday to another sequel for release in June 2018.

The movies’ uninterrupted success all but obscured the role of franchise-starter “Jurassic Park” in sustaining MCA, which was then Universal’s cash-strapped parent company.

The studio appeared vulnerable in the years leading up to the original “Jurassic” because Time Warner’s Steve Ross was deep into a charm offensive to poach Spielberg from Universal.

MCA head Sid Sheinberg, Spielberg’s first major champion, didn’t want to lose his prodigy to Ross’ free-spending ways.

So Sheinberg “devised the theme-park deal,” said one of his colleagues at the time.

“Steven was to serve as a creative consultant, but it also kept him from allowing any film he worked on as a director to go anywhere but to Universal.”

Sheinberg’s theme-park consulting deal paid Spielberg 2 percent of all park ticket revenue plus a portion of park concession receipts.

The director also got the opportunity to exit the deal in June 2017 and collect a one-time payment equal to the value of the contracts.

Comcast regulatory filings have acknowledged this payment could already be worth as much as $535 million. And TheStreet.com predicted in an article on Wednesday that Spielberg’s theme-park payday could ultimately be $1 billion.

Some consider the sum outrageous, but not the colleague who watched Sheinberg weave a deal that not only kept Spielberg on the studio lot but used his creativity to mount a theme-park challenge worthy of Disney.

“You have to look at it in totality — Universal might not have any of the parks without Steven, no `Jurassic’ franchise, no `Shindler’s List’ and so on,” he said. “There’s no doubt a bunch of Monday-morning quarterbacks who’ll never understand we couldn’t beat Ross’ full-court press for Steven with just cash.”