Back in February, the Walt Disney Company revealed its financial standings after experiencing extreme losses amidst the closures of 2020. The Q1 Earnings Call for 2021 detailed that Disney lost billions of dollars. Yet, things have been looking up as of late as Disneyland has reopened and plans are in place for a hopeful reopening of the Disney Cruise Line.

Now that the past few months have brought a bunch of new developments into the mix, the Q2 Earnings Call will surely have a LOT of major details. And, you can read on to find out all the major notes that were discussed in the report!

Overall Financial Results

The second fiscal quarter of the year took place from January 3rd, 2021 through April 3rd, 2021 and marks the fifth consecutive fiscal quarter to be significantly affected by the global health crisis. Still, compared to the second quarter of 2020, the first quarter of the global health crisis, Disney has seen an improvement in performance. This is the first time we’ve seen a quarter compared to a prior-year quarter that was affected by the crisis.

Overall, Disney reported a 92% increase in earnings from continuing operations in Q2. The 2020 Q2 saw Earnings Per Share (EPS) at $0.26 where this quarter brought in $0.50. As a note, EPS were $1.17 in the quarter prior to the global health crisis. So, we’re seeing an improvement, but still a significant drop from pre-crisis levels. Income reflected a 17% improvement over the prior-year quarter from $1,051,000,000 to $1,230,000,000.

Of the results, Disney CEO Bob Chapek notes, “We’re pleased to see more encouraging signs of recovery across our businesses, and we remain focused on ramping up our operations while also fueling long-term growth for the Company. This is clearly reflected in the reopening of our theme parks and resorts, increased production at our studios, the continued success of our streaming services, and the expansion of our unrivaled portfolio of multiyear sports rights deals for ESPN and ESPN+.”

Disney Parks, Experiences & Products

The largest adverse impact on the Walt Disney Company as a whole was in the Parks, Experiences and Products segment, as has been the case for the last year.

The report notes an approximate $1.2 billion loss in Q2 “due to decreases at our parks and experiences business, partially offset by growth at our consumer products business.” Though the losses are significant, the figure is nearly half the losses experienced in Q1.

Click here to learn more about the losses experienced at the Disney parks.

During the earnings call, Chapek also announced that Walt Disney World has already begun further increasing capacity at this time. This comes as social distancing is set to decrease from 6 feet to 3 feet in the parks soon.

Chapek did not share a specific percentage of capacity.

To learn more about the increase, click here!

Chapek also made comments on today’s update from the CDC on mask usage by vaccinated people.

Though he did not announce any specific changes to the mask mandates in the theme parks, he said that this was big news “particularly if anybody’s been in Florida in the middle of the summer with a mask on.”

Learn more about these comments here!

Disney Media and Entertainment Division

When the Q1 Earnings Call was held in February, it was reported that there was only a small decrease in operating income of just 2% for the media segment. Months later, now there has been significant improvement.

The situation for Disney Media and Entertainment saw improved results to last year with a 74% increase in operating income. Last year’s Q1 saw an income of $1,651,000,000 and this year saw $2,871,000,000.

The Direct-to-Consumer segment continues to see growth with Disney+ increasing subscriber count by over 200%, ESPN+ increasing subscriber count by 75%, and Hulu increasing subscriber count by 30%. 

Disney+ currently reports approximately 103.6 million subscribers.

Want to learn more about the Disney+ results? Click here!

As we continue to find out more information about the Walt Disney Company, we’ll be sure to give you a look at how things change throughout the rest of this year. Be sure to stay tuned with DFB for MORE insights from the earnings report!

Click here to learn more about last quarter’s results!

Have you visited a Disney Park this year? Let us know in the comments below!