After a choppy two years, Paragon Entertainment wraps fiscal 1996 with revenues, margins and earnings showing improvement across the board over fiscal ’95.

For the year ending March 31, 1996, revenue is up 32% to $52.3 million from $39.6 million in 1995. Gross margin calculates to $10.6 million or 20% of revenue, compared to $6.7 million or 17% in 1995. The slightly higher margin reflects profits from the sale of Intimate Relations and a $4.3 million injection from the HandMade Films library.

Earnings were $1.3 million or $0.10 a share, compared to $457,000 or $0.03 per share in 1995.

In licensing and distribution, productions revenue is up 31% to $37.7 million. Revenue from libraried inventory is up 42% to $11.8 million. Paragon’s 1994 us$8.5 million purchase of HandMade, a British feature film company, began paying off this year with the library more than quadrupling its $711,000 revenue draw for the six months Paragon owned the catalogue in 1995.

Paragon is calling ’96 a ‘breakout year’ in terms of international distribution, pointing to the sale of the HandMade catalogue rights to Germany, France and Benelux via CLT Multimedia, and to Channel 4 in the u.k. in June, as adding to the bottom line, and the sale of Kissinger and Nixon and Frequent Flyer into major international markets.

Indie product repped by Paragon also made the balance sheet, with Dandelion’s Hidden City selling into the u.s., Germany, Italy and France. Insight Productions’ Ready or Not ‘has not yet peaked’ in terms of international sales, says Paragon, adding that good reviews are resulting in increased fees from the incumbents.

Paragon earns more than 93% of its distribution revenue outside of Canada.

Film inventory, which includes projects in development, films in process and the unamortized cost of the library, is a documented asset with a value of $30.9 million in 1996, compared to $27.9 million in 1995. The increase reflects new additions of Kratts’ Creatures, Frequent Flyer, Kissinger and Nixon, Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, and six episodes of Tourist Trap.

Final tally for the production slate for fiscal ’96 ran to: one feature, Intimate Relations; two mows, Kissinger and Nixon and Frequent Flyer; 22 new episodes of Forever Knight; six episodes of Tourist Trap; and 10 new episodes each of Lamb Chop and Kratts’ Creatures. Lacewood Animation, Paragon’s joint venture (50% ownership) with Ottawa-based Lacewood Films, put Savage Dragon on the books.

Staying on course with its focus on export-ready projects for the children’s and family entertainment market, Paragon is projecting 1997 profits 20% to 25% higher than fiscal 1996, according to chairman and ceo John Slan. Farther down the road, 85 episodes of Lamb Chop will be available for u.s. syndication in 1998. In 1999, 65 episodes of Kratts’ Creatures will follow the same route.