Led by its streaming services and theme parks revenue, the Walt Disney Co. beat analyst expectations in those key categories after reporting quarterly earnings this afternoon.
Disney did miss its overall quarterly revenue projection as analysts estimated the company would bring in $20.03 billion. The actual number was $19.25 billion in revenue, but Disney had to pay out $1 billion for early termination of rights for films and television shows.
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Still, Disney stock is down more than 30 percent since January and more than 40 percent over the last 12 months, something the company will have to address although analysts expect the next quarter to be more profitable.
Nonetheless, the $19.5 billion in revenue was still 23 percent higher compared to the same quarter in 2021.
Otherwise, trepidation over the company’s Disney+ streaming service – especially in the wake of rival Netflix losing more than 200,000 subscribers last quarter – and its theme park revenue proved to be unwarranted. The total number of overall subscriptions to its streaming service increased to 137.7 million in the second quarter, beating analyst expectations of 135 million.
Revenue from Disney theme parks doubled from the same quarter last year to $6.7 billion during this year’s quarter.
“Our strong results in the second quarter, including fantastic performance at our domestic parks and continued growth of our streaming services — with 7.9 million Disney+ subscribers added in the quarter and total subscriptions across all our DTC offerings exceeding 205 million — once again proved that we are in a league of our own,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement Wednesday.
Chapek added that per capital spending at the parks was up 40 percent compared to 2019, although Disney has been criticized for raising prices at Disney World and Disneyland.
Disney also just raked in more than $450 million in the first four days of its latest Marvel movie release, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” with expected blockbusters “Lightyear” – a backstory to the character Buzz Lightyear from the “Toy Story” franchise – and another Marvel film, “Thor: Love and Thunder,” still to be released.
In the greater perspective, it was a fairly good showing especially factoring in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ law to strip Disney of its tax-exempt status. That was done as retaliation for Chapek criticizing the state’s law to bar the teaching of sexual preference and gender identity to children in grades kindergarten through third grade.
And it was also a good quarter in the face of a social media campaign to boycott Disney’s streaming service and attendance at its theme parks.
