Internationalmedia(IM) - parent company of Intermedia - has blamed currency imbalances between the Euro and the Dollar for a 5.7% year on year revenue fall in the first half of 2003.

IM's CEO Moritz Borman said that "had the Euro and the Dollar maintained their comparative values from a year ago, IM's 2nd quarter revenues would have shown a year to year improvement of nearly Euros 15m." Instead revenues fell back to Euros 88.9m

The "vast majority" of the revenues for January-June - Euros 76.5m - came from minimum guarantees on four releases - Dark Blue, The Life Of David Gale, Basic and National Security. Euros 7.7m was earned on overages from such films as Iris, The Wedding Planner and K:19 - The Widowmaker, Euros 2.7m from library revenues mainly from the Largo catalogue, and Euros 2m from financing fees for Mooseport and Laws Of Attraction.

Speaking to analysts CFO Andreas Konle explained that since there were no IM films released in the second quarter, "we knew profitability would go down significantly". Revenues year-to-year for April-June dipped from 2002's Euros 27.5m to Euros 8.3m.

However, Konle pointed out that the third quarter should be "very profitable, probably the most profitable in the history of Internationalmedia" thanks to the "really significant" revenues and profits being reported from the release of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines and the closing of the financing fee for Oliver Stone's Alexander.

Moreover, the improvement in IM's operating result - by Euros 6.9m to Euros -9.3m - was a result of the extensive cost cutting programme instituted last autumn which seen overall overhead costs shaved by 48% to Euros 9.6m from Euros 18.5m.

The launching of I.S. Film Distribution, Intermedia's joint venture with Summit Entertainment, contributed to an 84% reduction in the group's distribution costs from last year's Euros 1.8m to Euros 296,000.