Disney has just dropped some MAJOR news…but one thing was surprisingly missing!
Magic Kingdom
On November 14th, 2024, Disney held its earnings call (and released its earnings report) for the 4th quarter of fiscal year 2024. We got updates about the financial standing of Disney’s theme parks, streaming services, and more. But Disney completely ignored one HUGE thing…
There’s arguably no story more important to the future of the Walt Disney Company’s future than the issue of Bob Iger’s (second) successor. After the first try with Bob Chapek led to Iger’s second term as CEO, there’s immense pressure on the company to get Iger’s second replacement right. This has led to changes on the Disney board and multiple reports on potential candidates from inside and outside the company in the lead-up to the 2026 CEO announcement. All of this makes it seem like a large (if expected) omission that nothing regarding the CEO search or Iger’s future was mentioned during the earnings call.
Pandora
You never quite know exactly what will come out of an earnings call and sometimes you may even be met with some surprises, like this one.
That’s what was missing from this past earnings call and report, but what did Disney announce? Well, there were some big updates shared during this last report. When it comes to theme parks, the Experiences Division saw record growth numbers with “6% to 8% segment operating income growth compared to fiscal 2024, weighted to the second half of the year” and domestic parks in particular saw operating income rise 5% to $847 million, “helped by higher guest spending at the parks and cruise lines.” This has led to an overall $34.1 billion in topline revenue in 2024, a 5% increase versus 2023, an overall record for the division. The company suffered roughly $130 million in losses due to Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
Magic Kingdom
On the Disney+ front, the company reported 174 million Core and Hulu subscriptions and more than 120 million Disney+ Core paid subscribers, an increase of 4.4 million over the prior quarter. There was also an amusing “hot mic” moment on the call when Iger spoke about subscribers on advertising-supported plans vs those not.
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Disney provided some updates about sports as well, noting that an ESPN tile will be debuting on December 4th, as part of a larger push for live sports integration due to the appeal of that type of programming to advertisers. In addition, Iger floated the possibility of an AI-driven SportsCenter that would provide curated highlights for a user.
EPCOT
That’s the latest update from Disney…for now. But every day can bring more surprises, so stay tuned — we’ll keep you up to date on ALL the latest!
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I wouldn’t consider it an omission. It’s still 2024 and Iger won’t retire until 2026. There’s certainly a lot occurring internally, but not something that’s going to be discussed during quarterly calls. I wouldn’t expect any discussion of it on quarterly calls until an announcement occurs.
WOW 2 ALMOST 2 GRAND FOR AN ANNUAL PASS AND YOU GET A MAGNET. CAN THEY AFFORD SUCH LAVISH GIFTS FOR THEIR LOYAL PASSHOLDERS! REALLY?