Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ:DLPN) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $14.4 million, up 2.5% from the prior-year period, as the company highlighted activity across its marketing and public-relations agencies and outlined several newer growth initiatives.
For the first six months of 2026, revenue rose 3.8% to $27.2 million from $26.3 million a year earlier. Chief Executive Officer Bill O’Dowd said the company’s agencies were active at events including the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Tribeca Film Festival, VidCon Anaheim and San Diego Comic-Con.
Expenses Weigh on Quarterly Results
The company reported an operating loss of $1 million for the quarter ended June 30, compared with an operating loss of about $100,000 in the same period of 2025. Net loss was $1.6 million, compared with a $1.4 million net loss a year earlier.
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Mirta Sanchez Negrini said second-quarter operating expenses were $15.5 million, compared with $14.1 million a year earlier. The expense total included approximately $400,000 in non-recurring retention bonuses for certain employees and approximately $400,000 in legal and professional fees tied to litigation.
“The year-over-year change is driven almost entirely by the retention bonus times and the elevated litigation costs,” Negrini said in discussing adjusted EBITDA.
Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was approximately $243,000 in the second quarter, down from approximately $628,000 in the prior-year quarter. For the first half, adjusted EBITDA loss was approximately $224,000, compared with a loss of approximately $82,000 a year earlier.
Basic and diluted loss per share was $0.13 in both the 2026 and 2025 second quarters, though weighted-average shares outstanding increased to approximately 12.8 million from 11.2 million. Dolphin also introduced adjusted EBITDA earnings per share, reporting $0.02 for the second quarter of 2026. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $7.7 million as of June 30, down from $8.8 million at year-end 2025.
Graviteur Studios Targets Creator-Led Content
During the call, O’Dowd discussed Graviteur Studios, a newly announced venture formed with KYNETIC Media Ventures. He said the studio will seek to produce, distribute and market creator-led content for streaming platforms, television networks and theatrical releases.
Graviteur’s name combines “gravity” and “auteur,” reflecting the company’s view that creators can attract audiences across formats and platforms. O’Dowd said Dolphin’s experience in film, television and marketing could support projects involving creators as on-camera talent or directors.
In response to an analyst question about the venture’s financing approach, O’Dowd said Graviteur would look to finance projects similarly to Dolphin Films, including by sharing costs with distributors or otherwise reducing the company’s financial exposure where possible. He said creator-led projects may generally have smaller budgets, but did not provide ownership percentages for Dolphin and KYNETIC.
O’Dowd said the company believes Graviteur could become a meaningful part of Dolphin’s story over the next several years, while emphasizing that the effort remains in its early stages.
DealMaker Pipeline and Other Initiatives
Dolphin’s strategic partnership with DealMaker began in February. O’Dowd said the companies spent the remainder of the first and second quarters building processes and evaluating potential transactions. He said the partners are evaluating two prospective deals and still expect to bring the first deal to market before the end of 2026.
Under the envisioned model, a startup or company launching a product or venture would pay Dolphin’s subsidiaries cash marketing fees while Dolphin also receives an ownership stake. O’Dowd emphasized that Dolphin would not exchange its services solely for equity and said the ventures are intended to require no capital from Dolphin’s balance sheet.
The company’s longer-term goal is to establish a regular cadence of approximately three to four DealMaker-related ventures per year, O’Dowd said. He described the initiative as a source of potential upside beyond Dolphin’s existing agency operations.
O’Dowd also said Dolphin Intelligence, the company’s artificial-intelligence marketing capability, has generated client interest, though early work has largely been incorporated into existing public-relations contracts. The company is seeking to establish the offering as a standalone service and hopes to secure a “signature client” for it before year-end.
Separately, O’Dowd said Dolphin’s Copper Books partnership could provide clients with book publishing and distribution opportunities through Simon & Schuster. He said the partnership may take time to develop a pipeline but could differentiate Dolphin from competitors and potentially support client acquisition.
Second-Half Expectations and Cash-Flow Outlook
Management said its business is seasonally stronger in the second half of the year, particularly from September through December. O’Dowd identified The Digital Department and 42West as the company’s largest revenue contributors and said both tend to benefit from that seasonal pattern. He also said Shore Fire Media has started the second half well.
Regarding The Digital Department, O’Dowd said the company saw encouraging early indications for the holiday season, when brands begin contracting with creators for campaigns. He said Dolphin has no reason to believe the unit will not grow from its strong second half in 2025.
O’Dowd said Dolphin expects profitability to improve in the third quarter as retention-bonus and elevated litigation costs recede. He also cited anticipated future savings from the maturity of bank debt in just over two years and the expiration of major New York and Los Angeles leases in the second half of 2027. He estimated those items could ultimately reduce annual principal and interest costs by nearly $2.2 million and lease costs by roughly $1 million.
The company has approximately $127 million in net operating losses, O’Dowd said, which he believes would allow much of those future savings to flow to the bottom line.
About Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ:DLPN)
Dolphin Entertainment, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an independent entertainment marketing and production company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Entertainment Publicity, and Marketing and Content Production. The Entertainment Publicity and Marketing segment provides diversified marketing services, including public relations, entertainment and hospitality content marketing, strategic communications, strategic marketing consulting, social media and influencer marketing, digital marketing, creative branding, talent publicity, and entertainment marketing services, as well as produces promotional video content.
