The Walt Disney Company reports its first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2020, which closed on March 31st. There has been a consistent loss of 90%. According to the analyst, Disney is losing 30 million dollars per day, almost 1 billion dollars per month. Even the success of their new streaming platform Dinsey+, that ha surpassed 50 million subscribers all over the world, didn’t help. This is because the company’s entries depend on different sectors of the entertainment business, that have been heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic: without sports, cruises and theme parks, Disney is facing an unprecedented crisis.
This is a hard pill to swallow if we think about that 2019, was a “golden year” for the company. Disney-produced films accounted for about 33% of the total U.S. film market (thanks to titles such as Avengers: Endgame, the live-action of Aladdin and Star Wars: L’ascesa di Skywalker), they bought the production company 20th Century Fox and launched their streaming platform, becoming one of Netflix’s biggest competitor.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, they had to temporarily close 14 theme parks that hosted 157 million people per year, as well as their themed cruises and their private island in the Caribbean (Castaway Cay). Also, Disney owns many television channels, like ABC and ESPN, the 24/7 sports channel that is not transmitting anything at the moment due to the cancellation of any kind of sports event. No content which means no publicity. Then, we’re not even mentioning all the hotel and properties all over the world, the investments in editorial and merchandising (that earns 55 billion dollars per year).
In a year that was supposed to gain them a cultural dominion, Disney is facing their biggest economic crisis since their foundation. But the company is staying positive: Dinsey+ just release their first Disney short film with a gay main character and from next month it will available Artemis Fowl by Kenneth Branagh and a special concert of Taylor Swift.
From July 11th Disney World at Orlando, Florida should open their gates again (with the right precautions) while on May 11th Disney Resort di Shangai re-opened and the response from the public was encouraging.
In a year that was supposed to gain them a cultural dominion, Disney is facing their biggest economic crisis since their foundation. But the company is staying positive: Dinsey+ just release their first Disney short film with a gay main character and from next month it will available Artemis Fowl by Kenneth Branagh and a special concert of Taylor Swift. From July 11th Disney World at Orlando, Florida should open their gates again (with the right precautions) while on May 11th Disney Resort di Shangai re-opened and the response from the public was encouraging.
