Despite hardships with its theme parks, Disney is making up the weight elsewhere.
Yesterday, entertainment giant Disney posted their earnings for the fourth quarter. Due to ongoing theme park closures caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, their revenue has understandably suffered, with a 23% decline posted, as well as a 20 cent loss in individual share value. However, despite these losses, investors have Disney’s Q4 pegged as a success due to several factors.
While Disney’s revenue did decline in Q4 2020 compared to the same time last year, it actually managed to beat the predictions of analysts. According to analyst surveys, a decline of 27% was expected by analysts, which Disney managed to beat by 4%. Not only that, but while overall revenue was down, Disney still managed to turn a total profit of $14.71 billion, again beating analyst expectations of $14.20 billion.
While Disney has lost a lot of money on closed theme parks, it has managed to gain a respectable sum back thanks to Disney+. Streaming networks are extremely valuable right now, with mainstays like Hulu and ESPN+ still on the rise in valuation. The fact that so many people have been staying home in the last eight months, and will likely continue to do so in the foreseeable future, has almost definitely contributed to the massive inflation of streaming subscriptions. Disney+ in particular has already beat their future projections on subscriber counts with a stunning 73.7 million, a sum they weren’t expecting to reach until 2024.
How many characters can you ➕add up➕ in this Plus-sized poster?! Happy #Plusiversary! #DisneyPlus ?: Ross Murray pic.twitter.com/TzJLArfsvv
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) November 13, 2020
Additionally, while Disney has undoubtedly lost a substantial sum due to their closed parks, they’re still doing better than their competition. While Disney has lost about 61% of its revenue from the closure of parks around the world, its major rivals such as Universal Studios Orlando and Seaworld have seen even greater losses at 81% and 78%, respectively. While Universal does have the backing of Comcast, neither it nor Seaworld have the sheer brand power that allows Disney to stay afloat, and suffer for it.
