Walt Disney Company Doubles Park Revenue While Streaming Growth Slows

Disney just released their fourth quarter earnings, and that means it’s also time for another earnings call!

These reports and earnings calls are always filled with plenty of news to unpack and break down. Today, we’re sharing all the important things you need to know!

Financial Reports

Looking at Q4 financials from 2021, Disney is doing better than Q4 from 2020. They’re still recovering from the effects of the pandemic, and there is still a ways to go. Revenue in Q4 was $18.534 billion, while their diluted earnings per share was $0.37, compared to a loss of $0.20 per share last year.

Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products

We also got some news specifically about the Parks, Experiences, and Products division. The theme parks were hit hard by the closure last year and the third quarter was the first time that the parks posted a profit since the pandemic began.

Disney Parks, Experiences and Products reported revenue of $5.450 billion from this quarter, nearly doubling the revenue from the end of Q4 in fiscal 2020, which was $2.733 billion.

CEO Bob Chapek noted that the Company had experienced a “productive year” when it comes to making “great strides in reopening our businesses while taking meaningful and innovative steps in Direct-to-Consumer and at our Parks, particularly with our popular new Disney Genie and Magic Key offerings.”

Speaking of Genie+, Bob Chapek shared today that around one third of all guests visiting Disney World are upgrading to the new paid version of what used to be FastPass+, and that the overall response to the service is “very positive.”

Click here to read more about how many guests are upgrading to Genie+!

Also positive for Disney is the trend in park attendance in the domestic parks. It was announced today that attendance is up at both Disney World and Disneyland, with attendance increasing by double digits in the Florida park. While attendance is up thanks to domestic visitors, Disney does not expect to recover its loss of international visitors until the end of fiscal year 2022.

Disney is looking to the future when it comes to maximizing their profits, which means looking at both increasing revenue while decreasing expenses. One of the ways CFO Christine McCarthy proposed the company could look at minimizing expenses overtime would be to reduce the portion sizes of their food, among other options.

Click here to read more about Disney CFO’s remarks on reducing expenses in the parks.

The company also shared a look at how Disneyland’s new Magic Key passholder system is performing.

While not every number was disclosed, Bob Chapek did share that nearly 40% of all Magic Key purchases thus far were made by NEW Disneyland passholders (a.k.a. those who were not considered to be Legacy Passholders during the closures).

Click here to read more about what percentage of Magic Key purchases were made by new passholders.

Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution

But how is Disney doing on the media side of things? Well, we got some numbers there as well. Revenue for the business segment was $13.084 billion, an increase of 9% from the end of Q4 from fiscal 2020.

We also got an update on the subscriber count for Disney+! The platform is celebrating two years since its launch with Disney+ on November 12th, and we can’t wait for all the surprises. At the end of fiscal 2021, Disney had gained a total of 179 million total subscriptions across all of their DTC portfolios, with 118.1 million of those subscriptions allocated to Disney+. 

That’s a 60% increase from the end of fiscal 2020, but a slight gain of only over 2 million since the end of Q3.

Click here to read more about the updated subscriber count released today by Disney.

Looking ahead, Disney is going to remain “flexible” when it comes to prospective theatrical releases, and that flexibility will continue to be a significant part of their ongoing strategy.

Some major titles, however, are heading their way to Disney+ next year. It was announced today that three major titles: Andor, Ms. Marvel, and the live-action remake of Pinocchio will all debut on the streaming service in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022 (late summer to early fall).

Disney+ is also continuing to expand into more international markets, with South Korea coming online this Friday. The streaming service will also launch in Taiwan and Hong Kong soon.

Click here to read more about Disney’s continued strategy to remain flexible when it comes to their theatrical releases.

That’s the major takeaways from the Q4 earnings report! We’ll continue to update throughout the call, so stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Disney news and updates!

Click Here to See the Summary From the Q3 Earnings Call!

Did any of this news surprise you? Tell us in the comments!

 

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