Sony swung to a better-than-expected quarterly operating profit on robust sales of flat TVs and gains from mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson.
A weaker yen also helped the electronics and entertainment conglomerate overcome valuation losses at its life insurance unit and start-up costs for its PlayStation 3 game console.
The box-office hit The Da Vinci Codeboosted Sony's movie division sales by 42 per cent in the quarter, but marketing expenses linked to the release of new pictures pushed the business into the red.
Sony will launch PS3, the latest version of its game machine, in November. It will compete for holiday buyers' attention with Nintendo.'s upcoming Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in the video game market.
Sony earned an operating profit of 27.05 billion yen ($232.5 million) in April-June, topping a consensus forecast of 18 billion yen in a poll of seven analysts by Reuters Estimates and swinging from a 6.58 billion yen loss a year earlier.
For the full year to next March, Sony revised up its operating profit forecast by 30 per cent to 130 billion yen due to changes in its own accounting.