Although Wizard Entertainment was able to cut its operating losses to under $1 million in 2018, a big improvement from an operating loss of $5.3 million in 2017, the company still lost $2.6 million in 2018 after adding in the impact of $1.7 million in interest costs.  The $2.6 million 2018 loss for the company was an improvement of over $3.1 million from the $5.7 million loss in 2017. 

Wizard had a negative net worth of over $4.9 million at the end of 2018, with the most expensive part of its capital structure a $2.5 million related party convertible note, which we noted in Q3 had an extremely high effective interest rate (see “Balance Sheet Weakens, Losses Mount at Wizard”).  That’s just one way to measure the company’s cost of capital; another is the share price, which has dropped by around half since a year ago.  Equity financing got twice as expensive in the last year, by that measure.

Sales were down 7% to $13.9 million, from $15 million in 2017, with one fewer show in 2018 (13 vs. 14). Revenues per show were nearly identical vs. the previous year.

The company revealed that it plans 13 live events in 2019, the same as in 2018.  There will be some churn in locations, as some of the shows will be in in unannounced new markets.