By Michelle Chapman, Business Writer
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) --Disney returned to a profitable third quarter as its combined streaming business started making money for the first time and the movie Inside Out 2 did well in theaters.
Operating income for the entertainment segment nearly tripled to $1.2 billion thanks to better performances from its direct-to-consumer and content sales/licensing and Other segments.
The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday that its direct-to-consumer business, which includes Disney+ and Hulu, reported a quarterly operating loss of $19 million, which was smaller than its loss of $505 million a year earlier. Revenue climbed 15% to $5.81 billion.
For the period ended June 29, Disney earned $2.62 billion, or $1.43 per share. A year earlier it lost $460 million, or 25 cents per share.
Stripping out one-time gains, earnings were $1.39 per share, easily topping the $1.20 analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected.
Revenue for the Burbank, California, company rose 4% to $23.16 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $22.91 billion.
The company made $254 million in operating income from content sales and licensing helped by the strong performance of Inside Out 2 at movie theaters, which is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Disney said Wednesday that the original Inside Out, which came out in 2015, helped drive more than 1.3 million Disney+ sign-ups and generated over 100 million views worldwide since the first Inside Out 2 teaser trailer dropped.
The combined streaming businesses, which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, achieved profitability for the first time thanks to a strong three months for ESPN+ and a better-than-expected quarterly performance from the direct-to-consumer unit.
Disney said in May that it expected its overall streaming business to soften in the third quarter due to its platform in India, Disney+Hotstar. The company also said at the time that it anticipated its combined streaming businesses to be profitable in the fourth quarter, so the money-making quarter was a surprise.
In the Experiences division, which includes theme parks, revenue climbed 3% in the third quarter. International rose 5%. Domestic parks and experiences operating income fell 6%, while international operating income edged up 2%.
Disney said that the decline in operating revenue for domestic parks and experiences was because of increased costs driven by inflation, technology spending and new guest offerings.
The company cautioned that the moderation in demand it saw in its domestic parks in the third quarter could linger for the next few quarters. It anticipates fourth-quarter Experiences operating income falling by mid single digits compared with the prior-year period due to the domestic parks moderation as well as cyclical softening in China and less people at Disneyland Paris due to the impact the Olympics had on normal consumer travel.
Disney now anticipates full-year adjusted earnings per share growth of 30%.
In April shareholders rebuffed efforts by activist investor Nelson Peltz to claim seats on the company board, standing firmly behind Iger as he tries to energize the company after a rough stretch.
In June Disney asked a federal appellate court to dismiss its lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after his appointees approved a deal with the company on how Walt Disney World will be developed over the next two decades, ending the last piece of conflict between the two sides.
As part of the 15-year deal, Disney agreed to invest $17 billion into Disney World over the next two decades and the district committed to making infrastructure improvement on the theme park resort’s property.
Shares dipped slightly before the opening bell Wednesday.
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More