Dolphin Entertainment - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Dolphin Entertainment First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments following the presentation. Please note, this call is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Mr. James Carbonara, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

James Carbonara (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Dolphin Entertainment's first quarter 2024 earnings call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during the course of this conference call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could differ materially from actual events. Please refer to the cautionary text regarding forward-looking statements contained in the earnings release published earlier today, as well as the most recent SEC filings and reports.

During the call today, management will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted operating income or loss. The company believes these will provide helpful information for investors. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are provided in the earnings release.

Now, I would like to turn the call over to Bill O'Dowd, Chief Executive Officer of Dolphin Entertainment. Bill?

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Thanks, James, and welcome everyone. I'll start by reviewing some of the key financial and operating highlights from our record-setting first quarter of 2024, and then Mirta will provide a more detailed financial overview before we open it up for Q&A. Starting with the headlines, well, you may have seen in our earnings release of a few minutes ago, total revenue for Q1 was $15.2 million, increasing 54% compared to Q1 last year, and which was also a significant increase of 27% over our previous quarterly revenue record of $12 million, established one quarter earlier in Q4 of 2023. On the bottom line, we delivered positive adjusted operating income of $1 million. For those unfamiliar, adjusted operating income strips out non-cash and non-recurring items and is the primary metric we use to evaluate our performance.

Reporting positive adjusted operating income is tremendously gratifying and validates the success of our strategy, especially compared to the $1.9 million adjusted operating loss in Q1 of 2023. Our positive adjusted operating income of $1 million also represents another significant sequential increase of 236% over the positive operating income of $0.3 million we reported for Q4 of 2023. By concentrating on organic expansion among our top-tier marketing entities and launching complementary ventures at a steady pace, we believe we are strategically positioned for sustained growth in both revenue generation and adjusted operating income, the crucial financial metric against which we gauge our performance, as I said earlier.

We believe that this accelerating growth we've reported today highlights the powerful combo of our industry-leading marketing and publicity services firms firing on all cylinders, coupled with tangible payoff as we begin to commercialize our premium content ventures, with Blue Angels simply being the first venture to monetize and have an exponential impact on our financial results. Now that our full group of marketing companies has been assembled with the acquisition of Special Projects last October, and we are developing venture opportunities in earnest, we expect the amplifying impact will grow significantly as the Dolphin Ventures portfolio expands. We believe this strategy will unlock compounding returns and continuous value creation by sustainably getting paid for services while accumulating equity stakes, many times without any capital required from Dolphin. But before getting into ventures, we'll start with some subsidiary highlights.

At 42West, the movie promotion teams helped secure four Oscar wins for clients, including Best Animated Film for The Boy and the Heron and Best Visual Effects for Godzilla Minus One. They drove massive buzz and box office returns throughout the valuable award season corridor. Meanwhile, Shore Fire Media continued its Grammy dominance, representing clients who won a collective nine Grammys and over 24 total nominations, spanning genres like pop, R&B, jazz, and more. Both firms played pivotal roles supporting marquee clients at leading film festivals like South by Southwest and event shows like the Golden Globes. The Door also supported clients at South by Southwest, including Giada De Laurentiis, the Emmy Award-winning television personality, New York Times best-selling cookbook author, restaurateur, and entrepreneur, and promotion of her Italian lifestyle brand, Giadzy. The Digital Department, our specialized influencer marketing division, made two strategic moves to expand their capabilities.

First, they inked a deal with GlowLab and Founder Susan Yara to create a new skincare and dermatology influencer practice. Secondly, they partnered with legendary youth talent agency, Osbrink, to establish a young adult division focused on Gen Z and Gen Alpha influencers across TikTok and YouTube. Finally, Special Projects continued its strong momentum, collaborating with luxury brands like Chanel, Gucci, and Valentino on product launches and Fashion Week activations. Also, they had another extremely busy Oscar season, running five significant events during Oscars week, including separate events for such blue-chip clients as Apple, Versace, and W Magazine.

Shifting gears, I'll now provide updates on some of our ventures. As a reminder for those new to the Dolphin story, ventures will provide us ownership stakes and assets, wherein our form of marketing can provide the greatest influence on the likelihood of success, namely content creation, consumer products, and live experiences. Notably, it's worth repeating that we anticipate Dolphin securing ownership stakes in many of these endeavors without the necessity of a cash outlet. Okay, it's a big week at Dolphin on multiple ventures fronts. Let's start with our flagship Blue Angels documentary. We are incredibly excited for the film's upcoming theatrical debut in IMAX theaters this weekend. The marketing campaign is in full swing, with the exclusive trailer premiere on the Today Show, generating massive buzz and whetting audience appetite. Blue Angels has already delivered a substantial financial contribution in Q1.

During the quarter, we monetized a significant portion of the streaming distribution rights, generating $3.4 million in revenue. The film will become available for streaming on Amazon Prime starting May 23rd, perfectly timed to capitalize on the Memorial Day viewing period, which, by the way, is the same weekend that Top Gun: Maverick was released two years ago, starring our client, Tom Cruise. There's another tie between the two films. Glen Powell, who's about as hot as any actor in Hollywood right now, ain't that the truth? Played Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick, and is also a producer with us on Blue Angels, which certainly helps with the promotion. Oh, and by the way, Blue Angels is the perfect example of a venture driving business back to our supergroup, since 42West is handling the PR for the movie.

Importantly, in addition to the traditional theatrical window, Blue Angels represents an annuity revenue stream from its extended run in institutional IMAX theaters at museums, science centers, and other educational venues around the globe. This institutional theater distribution channel provides a lucrative multi-year box office tail. So that's coming this Friday. What's that? This Friday is too far away for some of you on this call. You can't wait three days for a catalyst at Dolphin? What are you, James Carbonara, the week of his birthday? Okay, okay, okay. Well, today, like, right now, fast enough for you? 'Cause consumers can now place preorders for Staple Gin on the official website, and shipments are available starting, you guessed it, right now, today, to 43 states.

In addition to the online launch, Staple Gin is making its way across the state of New York, being introduced in retail stores, bars, and restaurants. As a matter of fact, Charlie Dougiello, who's leading the charge for Dolphin in this venture, just spotted Staple Gin at Union Square Wines & Spirits not even two hours ago. And again, for those new to the Dolphin story, Staple Gin is a new spirit developed by the team at The Door and our client, Rachael Ray, and crafted in New York's Catskills region by Do Good Spirits. Dolphin is a partner with Rachael Ray and Do Good Spirits, whereby Dolphin is the official creative marketing partner. And let me just say, Rachael has really knocked this one out of the park.

Staple Gin has already gained recognition, being ranked as the highest-rated American gin in VinePair's 30 Best Gins for 2024 guide, with an impressive rating of 94 points. Please remember, folks, this gin was rated before going to market, and it received the highest score given by an industry heavyweight publication. That is an incredible result. Oh, and that's all with its retail price point suggested as only $39.99. Needless to say, this gin has caught the attention of gin enthusiasts and has been praised for its clarity of aromas and flavors. The partnership between Dolphin and Staple Gin signifies a strong alliance between the entertainment marketing industry and the world of spirits. We believe that our collaboration will elevate the brand and bring Staple Gin to a wider audience through innovative and creative marketing strategies.

The enthusiasm for monetization in the liquor space has been palpable, driven by the remarkable success stories of celebrity-backed spirit brands like Ryan Reynolds' Aviation Gin and George Clooney's tequila, Casamigos. These high-profile exits have demonstrated the immense potential for substantial returns on investment and have fueled excitement and interest in the industry. Investors and entrepreneurs are eager to capitalize on the growing demand for unique and premium spirits, making the liquor space an enticing landscape for lucrative exits. We believe this is an exciting new area of growth for Dolphin, and we are well-positioned to create significant value for our shareholders through our marketing expertise and innovative deal structure. We have incredibly high hopes for Staple Gin, as you can imagine. Fingers crossed that we've got a hit on our hands.

Finally, in talking about our ventures, I would like to say a few brief words about Mastercard Midnight Theatre. As you heard me say on our Q4 earnings call just a few weeks ago, we have narrowed down all of our choices for a new operating partner for the restaurant theater to a favorite group. We are in the final stages of working on that deal and anticipate we can make an announcement within the month of May. That will be an equally exciting piece of news for us. How's that for the anticipation of three major ventures milestones all in one month? To recap, Q1 2024 achieved record-setting financial results while making meaningful strides in monetizing our equity ventures. Moreover, those results are just beginning. Going forward, as we secure equity ownership in an increasing number of new ventures, we believe the growth potential becomes exponential.

As we seek to enter multiple venture opportunities in the next two-three years. This unique model allows us to rapidly scale a portfolio of equity-owned opportunities with minimal cash investments required. Which is to say, that while we believe that today's results validate our strategy, we are really just getting started. Envision the amplifying impact on our top and bottom lines as our ventures portfolio expands to include 12 or more ownership stakes using this low-cost approach. Simply put, and in one sentence, we believe that our ability to sustainably replicate this strategy unlocks a future of compounding returns and value creation.

With that said, let me turn it over to Mirta to review the quarter's financial details. Mirta?

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

Thank you, Bill, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start by echoing Bill's comments. We are extremely pleased with our record first quarter financial performance. I'll now dive into Q1 2024 financial results in more detail. Total revenue of $15.2 million represents a 54% increase from $9.9 million of revenue in Q1 2023. During the first quarter of 2024, we generated $3.4 million of revenue from the Blue Angels.

Operating expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2024, were $15.1 million, including approximately $600,000 of depreciation and amortization, and $1.8 million of amortization of capitalized production costs related to The Blue Angels, compared to $12.5 million of operating expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2023, including approximately $500,000 of depreciation and amortization. Net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, was approximately $300,000 and includes approximately $600,000 of depreciation and amortization, and $1.8 million of amortization of capitalized production costs related to The Blue Angels, and $500,000 of interest expense.

This compares to the net loss of $3 million for the same period in 2023, which includes approximately $500,000 of depreciation and amortization, $400,000 of interest expense, and $100,000 of equity losses in unconsolidated affiliates. Loss per share was $0.02 per share, based on 18,477,825 weighted average shares outstanding for basic loss per share, and 18,605,702 weighted average shares for fully diluted loss per share for the three months ended March 31, 2024. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, loss per share was $0.23, based on 12,640,285 weighted average shares outstanding for both basic and fully diluted loss per share.

Cash and cash equivalents were $7.5 million as of March 31, 2024, compared to $7.6 million as of December 31, 2023. That concludes my financial remarks. I will now ask the operator to open the phone line for questions.

Operator, would you please poll for questions?

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We ask that while posing your question, you please pick up your handset, if on speakerphone, to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have a question, please press star one. Thank you. We have a question from Allen Klee with Maxim Group. Your line is live.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Yes. Hi, congratulations on a very strong quarter that handily beat my estimates. Couple of questions. On starting with Blue Angels, you said that it added $3.4 million of revenues. I missed what you said about what the production costs were, but could you give but just based on the contractual amount that you're expected to get, is what's the incremental amount that you can get and the cost that you would expect in the next quarter or two?

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Sure, and thank you, Allen. Thank you for the kind words at the start of this. Yeah, we're, we're very proud of this quarter. It feels great, right? In terms of Blue Angels, I think the next couple of quarters, we may not add revenue or much revenue and much expenses, but where we're really kick in, is when we can put the film in theaters, in IMAX institutional theaters, which we can contractually do six months after it premieres on Amazon Prime. Then we'll get more revenue and allocate more of the production costs against that revenue in a bigger way. Obviously, we still have revenue from—there will be revenue generated, from theaters this weekend and next week.

But, we see the big value in the additional revenue for years to come, hopefully two decades to come, from having this movie play in the IMAX theaters around the globe, in science museums and aviation museums and the Smithsonian and other institutional theaters like that. And we'll continue to recognize that revenue each quarter as that money comes in.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Are you able to say how many institutional theaters you're hoping or you have, you are contracted with IMAX for?

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Sure. Yeah, we think there'll be this, this film will play in 150-200 of those theaters. And, hopefully in perpetuity. It's well, of course, we're prejudiced, Alan, but this is a major motion picture documentary, right? It, it's going in big IMAX on, you know, going into Memorial Day. It looks great. I've seen it, of course, a few times now, and it's just a stunning documentary. So if it's already best in class, we feel, for a theatrical experience, you can imagine how it compares to the average science documentary in a museum. It's, it's night and day, and it's, and it's very contemporary. It's very now. So, shot with IMAX cameras, you know, of, of today and not cameras of 20 years ago, so, that weren't IMAX cameras.

So we think it's gonna have a very, very, very long tail, is my point.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

That's great. So if I take your revenue, which is $15.2 million, and if I take out--

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Blue Angels?

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Blue Angels, yeah. You were still, it was still, like, $11.8 million, which was above my--

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Yeah, versus $9.9 million the year before.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Right, $9.4 million.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Yeah, we almost.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Where else would you highlight was outperformance? And maybe following up--

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Oh, you're saying versus your estimate, right. Right.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Just a quarter where--oh, go ahead, sorry.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

No, my apologies. I didn't mean to be speaking over you. Yeah, I thought, yeah, year-over-year, we'd still be up over 20%, or about 20%, I should say. So, yeah. We just—it's all starting to come together, my friend, right? We got a full group. They're cross-selling. I will point out in Q1, I'd give a special shout-out to Amanda Lundberg and 42West. The movie division of that company, you know, had a very strong first quarter with all the Oscar awards and campaigns they were running. You know, that can be a lucrative business. We're proud to have Martin Scorsese, our client's film, Killers of the Flower Moon, which sadly did not win the Oscar, but it was nominated in a lot of categories.

And then the team at Fandoms & Franchises and the movie division team there, again, did a great job with The Boy and the Heron, which won Best Animated Film. You heard that in my prepared remarks. That was an upset over the Spider-Man animation movie. And then, Godzilla Minus One. I mean, I think I pointed that out on the 10-K call. I mean, that was just an unbelievable campaign they ran, which won for Best Visual Effects, considering that the entire budget of that movie was $15 million in Japanese, a movie, and it won the Best VFX Oscar over competition, where the VFX budget alone was more than the entire movie for Godzilla Minus One. So they just had a tremendous quarter. But, you know, great work's done across all these firms.

You know, they're market leaders for a reason. You also heard me highlight Special Projects. I mean, they're running events at New York Fashion Week, five-six events in a week with blue-chip clients. They're doing the same thing, Oscars week. You know, when you got clients like Apple and Versace and, you know, W Magazine, and other times of the year, they got the Motion Picture Academy and Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast. I mean, these are very much blue-chip clients, and you're bringing the biggest celebrities in the world to these events. So, they had a very strong first quarter, especially during those two weeks.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Thank you. So The Digital Department, which is social influencing, is, I think 4Q is the strongest, but then maybe it usually drops off in 1Q. But, but you've added these two new verticals, skincare and young adults, and I'm wondering how- maybe how that--you know, how you think about those, those two new areas of how meaningful they could potentially be.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Sure, yeah. I mean, we chose those two, and we've got a third one coming, Alan. I know you, you believe we would, right? But, because they, they can have big impact, right? I'll give Susan Yara and Olivia, who, who runs that division for us now, huge, you know, a lot of credit because, that was an existing business, so they kind of plug and played into our platform, and immediately, day one, created revenue and profit. And it really was, you know, kind of brand adjacent. You know, we're very strong in female Instagram, a full roster of influencers there. You know, skincare tends to skew female, both in the influencers themselves and the, and the followers.

You know, Instagram-heavy content, along with some YouTube and some TikTok, but they could just go right in and play well because they were an existing group of 15 influencers already that were being managed, and we just brought in the manager and the influencers. So they had an immediate impact, and in time, they will, that group is nearing the biggest vertical we have anyway, but it, there's very large room for expansion because, you know, we're talking about we could probably double the size of the skincare group by itself, but then you can get into the other verticals of beauty, right? So a big, you know, $100 billion+ beauty market out there. Now, that includes cosmetics? That includes haircare, which might be the biggest category of all, Allen.

Why did I just blank on the other one? It'll come back to me in a second. So each of those verticals is as big as skincare. You know, this, this is. This has a lot of room to run, and bringing in a premier group like that establishes us as a major player right away. Then in the young adult business, you know, why we partnered with Osbrink is because it probably shaved half the time off what it would take us to build it by ourselves. I mean, Osbrink's just the biggest group in young talent. While we're building the relationship with brands that wanna work with young talent, we have a great roster of young talent to work with.

So, you know, Glow Lab came in with their own brands. They're already doing business with them and their, and their dermatologists. We're building that in the young adult space. But when we do, then I think probably everyone on the call has heard of influencers that are teenagers that have been wildly successful, from Kylie Jenner being the youngest billionaire listed on Forbes because of her cosmetics line. You know, and Kylie Jenner is an influencer, right? She's not an actress, she's not a singer, she's an influencer. And, you know, down to college athletes or, you know, stars from the, the Disney Channel. So that, that segment has tremendous potential as we build our relationship with brands.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

That's great. Could you, for Staple Gin, can you talk a little. You said you've partnered with The Door, and there's another partner. Just kind of what's going on on the marketing side and how you feel about that?

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Sure. Yeah, and what happened there, you know, Charlie Dougiello and the team at The Door, they really developed this product with Rachael. I think I may have shared, in previous quarters, and if I haven't, please forgive me, but, I've learned a lot in this process. And I learned that gin is made from a recipe, for example. And, what better liquor to start, a consumer products category for us than, than one in which we have, we think, the most popular chef in America, Rachael Ray. She's beloved by tens of millions of Americans, right? It's been on daytime talk shows and, you know, 30-minute meals for going on 20 years, I guess. And, just signed a huge deal with A&E Networks for hundreds of hours of programming a year.

So if you talk about somebody that's authentic to writing a recipe, Rachael Ray is it. So she wrote the recipe for Staple Gin, and then is writing recipes to cook with the Staple Gin, right? But God bless her, she kinda crushed it, you know, coming out of the gate because, you know, those rankings from VinePair, again, Charlie was very bold to submit it. You're submitting a gin that isn't in the market, and for it to get the highest score, and in fairness, there were a couple other gins that tied it for the highest score, but that's just incredible. It's a tribute to Rachael really took her time and worked to get the flavor exactly as she wanted it.

In a really cool twist, you know, many people know Rachael lives in upstate New York. She also has a home she spends virtually as much time in in Italy, and the ingredients for Staple Gin come from those two regions. So when the team was looking for the right distillery, they picked Do Good, which is a distillery in upstate New York, where Rachael lives when she's in America. And you know, that local distillery you know took the recipe and ran with it. And you know, here we are. Now you can go buy yourself a bottle, Allen, up there in Manhattan.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

That's great. How do you feel about the ability of manufacturing and distribution? And where will it be in retail in New York?

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Sure, yeah. Well, we'll have a--you know, now, and I think a lot of investors are particularly excited about this because quite frankly, you know, we-- this isn't speculative. You know, this isn't an industry where, like, "Oh, if you do well, can you exit?" Like, these are products that are built to exit, right? So and we could-- there are dozens of examples in the last 10 years of successful exits. So, and The Door, quite frankly, has promoted, you know, their fair share of those, products that were conceived while they were the marketing partner and sold while they were the marketing partner. So, you know, it's a process that our team is familiar with.

With that said, we'll have a regular cadence of announcements because, you know, probably the next thing that you'll hear from us on this is the announcement of the national distribution partner. I think people that follow Rachael and follow the liquor industry probably have a very strong guess as to who that partner is, based on previous relationships, but still, it's-- that'll be a nice big announcement for us. We think in the near term, next few weeks, that'll be a partner that can put the gin on a national scale right away. In New York, that partner-- same partner is putting it out and, you know, that's what-- that's the work that's happening now, putting it out in what will become hundreds of doors in the state of New York.

As I was saying, Charlie was just out in Union Square, visited three stores, he told me earlier today, and two of them were already carrying Staple Gin, which is great. Now, it usually comes in cycles, right? Like some stores, you get the order to place the bottle on their shelves, but they don't swap out their shelves for four weeks or six weeks. So it's kind of a rolling start, if you will. But so we'll be announcing our distributor, we'll be announcing the number of doors probably in New York, or certainly the, you know, the widespread nature in New York. And then with success, we'll be opening up other markets around the country.

When people start seeing that, that's your clue that we're getting to scale where, you know, interested parties wanna buy the brand, because it's already got traction in the marketplace. These exits are not small, as you heard. You know, Ryan Reynolds sold his gin for $610 million, I believe, and we all know what Clooney did with Casamigos and his billion-dollar check. The Rock is gonna beat them both, by all accounts, with his tequila. There are a lot of other examples that are, you know, between $100 million-$500 million. You know, we're excited for this, and it could be, it's the start of a whole portfolio of these types of liquor brands for us, we think so. We're excited.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

That's great. If I look at the different companies that you own and the divisions, I think I heard you say that your movies and acting was strong and you were strong within Blue Angels. Is there, as we think just seasonally, is there any reason to think that any of the segments might show some seasonality in the next two quarters compared to this quarter? Or do you think it is kind of like steady type of growth?

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Well, you know, it, the first half of the year is always never typically as strong as the second half of the year for us, across most of our companies. That's just a fact we'll live with for the next 20 years, probably, of our core business. Now, as we start doing these ventures, it's gonna smooth that out a little bit, right? As we, you know, imagine if we have half a dozen of these ventures, sure, you can have great exits like we just had a tremendous success out of the gate with Blue Angels. You know, we've already made a handsome profit, and the film isn't even in theater yet. So, that's a good result.

But as we get steady income developing from the different ventures, and again, worth pointing out, as I think I said twice in my prepared remarks, many of those, we don't have to put up a penny. We just, we received ownership stake for our group marketing, and typically also receive some form of cash or retainer every month in addition to that. But as we have those ventures coming in and, it'll smooth out our revenue a little bit, but that's gonna take a couple of years. We typically see second half of the year stronger. And in influencer marketing, that's always gonna be the case.

I don't know that we'll ever--you know, just because it's not that the rest of the year is weak, particularly Q1 a little bit, but it's the fact that Q4 is so strong because every brand wants to use influencers to drive holiday sales. So we will see some seasonality, you know, to that effect, but, you know, on an annual basis, which is also how we like to look at it, you know, we, we feel very good about this year, both from a revenue standpoint and adjusted operating income, which is how we measure ourselves, as you heard me say, on that basis as well. And with Q1 off to such a strong start, it's hard to imagine, you know, we won't have a good year.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Thank you. I have a financial question. If I look at what you did for operating expenses in 1Q, are there any areas that are overall, you think we should think about that might go up or down as we go through the year?

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

Well, in the direct cost--sorry.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Right. No, same thing.

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

Yeah, I would say the direct costs, yeah, because those correlate specific, you know, with the revenues of the film. So, for instance, in this quarter, we've got $3.4 million of revenue for Blue Angels, and we have $1.8 million of the amortization of the deferred production cost. So that number is going to vary depending on the revenues that we recognize.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

How that amortization of deferred, of the deferred costs, that happens over what time period?

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

Over the time period that we expect the revenues to be recorded. So it's based on a ratio of the revenue that you are reporting in this period over what you estimate the total revenues for the project are going to be. So whenever we report revenues, we apply that formula to what's left of the deferred production cost, and that's what gets expensed.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Does this get added back to just the operating income?

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

No, we did not add that back.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

But it's a non-cash cost or it's a cost to.

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

It's a cost that we--

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

I guess, yeah.

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

Correct. We've reported in the past that we, that we had invested over $2 million in the project. So that's already been paid for, and it's capitalized in our balance sheet under capitalized production costs.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay, so you had invested over $2 million, and you recognized $1.48 million of the amortization this quarter, and the rest of it will be over whatever the life is of the assumed life of the project?

Mirta Negrini (CFO)

Correct. Whenever we report revenues.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay, got it. Okay, just, so just let me wrap up on a couple other things I'm thinking about. Just in terms of how you're thinking about maybe, do you think this year you might potentially identify, you know, the next Blue Angels type of partnership with IMAX? And then, Special Projects, how do you think about, like, how that business is going to go forward? And just how you feel generically about additional ventures that you could make investments in, in 2024.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Sure. Well, taking the middle question, yeah, we love Special Projects. It's a beautiful little company. I say little because it's 11 people between New York and L.A., but they do the biggest events in our industry, right? They're the best at what they do in our entire industry. And I've said it before, but Nicole Vecchiarelli and Andrea Oliveri are the model of executives that we hope to have within Dolphin. They're smart, they're strategic, they're good people, just a lot of good things to say. So they also are gonna have an increased role within Dolphin because, you know, you heard me say that when we think about ventures, we think content like Blue Angels, we think consumer products like Staple Gin, and the third category is we think live events, live experiences.

While all of our marketing companies, all of our PR firms, the Digital Department, all have experience with live events, either promoting them or throwing them, like the Digital Department does, this is what Special Projects does day in, day out. So, you know, the strategic acquisition of Special Projects back in October was because they complement our core offering, our 1.0, by cross-selling very nicely with our existing clients, but also because they can help us ideate, develop, and produce events that either we own or co-own. So I'm on the record as saying we expect to be able to announce our first one before the end of the year or very early in the new year, but I feel pretty good about before the end of the year.

Special Projects will be right there as the reason why that happened. So, that's Special Projects and why that was a strategic acquisition, of course. In terms of the next Blue Angels, well, you know, if I'm being honest, I wish I could announce it today. That would have been the right time to do it. The week you have this one going in theaters, you want the next one out, next one announced, and it would have been great. You know, this is Cannes Film Festival week. You know, we've had some pretty good years there the last couple of years. We have, you know, our client, Francis Ford Coppola, has got the Thursday night film in two nights over there.

And, you know, one of our other clients, Studio Ghibli, is getting a career achievement award for an animation studio. People, that's tremendous, right? With that said, it would have been a great announcement week. We're just not prepared to do it yet. The one we most want, we can't talk about yet. And we have a default. Like, if it just doesn't work out, we're thinking of filming James Carbonara in a go-kart, and we figure that might look good up on an IMAX screen. And in all seriousness, we obviously, too, are building a production pipeline so we can have not just the next one, but hopefully the one right after it as well.

But we're very, very confident in the business plan because what Blue Angels showed us is if we can put a spectacle documentary in theaters, it has tremendous value for the streaming platforms. It wasn't just like Amazon was the only one that wanted it. It's fair to say that four streaming services were very aggressive. So, and that's something that just doesn't exist in the market. There just aren't other people putting documentaries in theaters, let alone IMAX theaters. So we feel very good about what we got. We just want that next one to be able to talk about as much as you do.

In terms of your third question of the three, you know, other ventures, well, you know, Charlie Dougiello doesn't slow down The Door. We do have. We're evaluating opportunities. We have opportunities to evaluate, is how I should have said it, in the liquor space. I think it's we feel very confident we can meet our stated goal of having one new venture in the liquor space every year, but there are going to be some years, and maybe even this year, where we can do two. That's exciting. We're working hard to make sure we have a skin care product that we can put in market in 2025. So we have one of those a year, or as close to it as we can, going forward, starting next year.

And then, you know, we will announce that next live event or first, first live event, excuse me, this year. I really believe that. That'll be something like liquor, where we'll have one a year, but or some years two. It's not like you do a live event, and then it's over. We're trying to design live events where they become an annual tradition for each of those events. So once you get to, by the time you're doing your fourth or fifth live event in success, you've got the next year, you're starting with five events, if that makes sense, and you're adding a sixth in a different category. So live events will be the last thing added to our portfolio of ventures, but they'll be equally important, in my mind, to the content strategy and the consumer product strategy.

Allen Klee (Managing Directora and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay, great. Well, thank you so much.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

No, thank you, Allen. You always ask the most insightful questions and allow me to expand on our strategy, so thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As we have no further questions on the lines at this time, I will hand it back to Mr. O'Dowd for any closing comments he may have.

Bill O'Dowd (Founder and CEO)

Well, thank you, everybody that's listening. Obviously, you know, we're very proud of this quarter. It is the first quarter of the year, and it's the first quarter where we've had our whole group together. This is our first full quarter. We obviously had a blowout quarter. You know, it's not gonna happen very often, where you set a revenue record by 25% over the previous record. So, we know that. We will have a glass of Staple Gin in celebration and go right back to work, right? We're excited. As I said on the last couple of calls, we see ourselves at the starting line, and we're not even there yet. Honestly, we're building to get to the starting line in live events, and it's only gonna get better from here in consumer products and content.

So we know what we've got with our company, and we're very, very proud of our company. We're excited for our company, and this quarter proved it, of what we can do when we have the whole group together, and we start monetizing some of these ventures. So for a company of our size, we think we're as exciting an opportunity as there is in the market. So thank you all for the time, and appreciate it, and look forward to speaking again with Q2 in August. Thank you, everybody.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's event. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day, and we thank you for your participation.