Sony's net income rose to 53.2 billion yen ($500 million) from 32.9 billion yen, or 33.48 yen a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues, however, fell by 5.3 per cent, to 1.70 trillion yen ($15.9 billion) in the quarter.

Driven by Spider-Man 2 the film segment recorded an operating profit of 27.4 billion yen for the quarter ended in September, after a loss of 4.6 billion yen last year.

As far as its gaming division was concerned Sony's sales of video game software were negated by a decline in sales of the aging PlayStation 2 game machine.

The company is now hedging its bets on the PlayStation Portable, or PSP. This is a hand-held video game and movie player that goes on sale in Japan in December and in the US early next year.

Looking to the future Sony expects earnings for the fiscal ending next March to touch 110 billion yen ($1.04 billion). Earlier it had estimated earnings of 100 billion yen. The new forecast represents a 24 per cent increase from Sony's 88.5 billion yen profit last year.