DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

https://deadline.com/2023/06/nation...ing-writers-disney-owned-magazine-1235426691/
Disney-owned National Geographic Lays Off Remaining Writers
Lynette Rice
6/28/23

National Geographic Lays Off Writers; Disney-Owned Title Will Survive On Freelancers

The famed National Geographic magazine has become the latest victim of those painful Disney cuts: several writers of the already picked-over publication were laid off Wednesday.

Roughly 19 editorial staffers were notified in April that the job cuts were coming, reported The Washington Post. The newspaper went on to report that freelancers will end up picking up the slack at the magazine, which is still the most read periodical in America.

This is the fourth round of layoffs since ownership of the title changed in 2015. Disney took over in 2019 after the Fox deal; the National Geographic Society remains a minority partner.

A spokesman insisted to Deadline that editors as well as some writers still remain on staff.

“National Geographic will continue to publish a monthly magazine that is dedicated to exceptional multi-platform storytelling with cultural impact,” according to a company statement. “Staffing changes will not change our ability to do this work, but rather give us more flexibility to tell different stories and meet our audiences where they are across our many platforms. Any insinuation that the recent changes will negatively impact the magazine, or the quality of our storytelling, is simply incorrect.”

Several writers announced their sad departure via Twitter.

National Geographic was created in 1888 and began including pictures in 1905. It reached 1 million subscribers by the 1930s.
 
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/d...-have-our-doubts-about-espn-and-more-9c7863d8

Disney’s stock gets a downgrade: ‘We have our doubts’ about ESPN and more
Last Updated: June 29, 2023 at 7:50 a.m. ET First Published: June 29, 2023 at 7:48 a.m. ET
by Emily Bary

KeyBanc moves to the sidelines on Disney amid concerns about ESPN’s evolution, poor movie debuts and high parks expectations​


ESPN is Disney’s “cash cow,” but KeyBanc is worried about the flagship service’s future in a streaming world.

KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel sees “meaningful uncertainty” for Walt Disney Co.’s stock, one reason he’s downgrading the media name.

Nispel has various concerns about Disney DIS, -0.44%, including that expectations for its parks business seem too high and that the company faces a daunting journey as it contemplates a standalone streaming future for its flagship ESPN service.

“While this note might call the bottom, we have our doubts,” he wrote in a note to clients as he lowered his rating on the stock to sector weight from overweight late Wednesday.

He added that he and his team “prefer to step aside, acknowledging meaningful uncertainty, and wait for further catalysts, as buying the dip has been a losing trade.”

Within the parks business, Nispel looked at domestic geolocation data for Disney and Universal Theme Park, and he determined some Florida weakness for the first two months of the quarter. Meanwhile, Walt Disney World will be compared to a year-ago period in which it celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“We worry the ‘tough comps’ are not properly reflected in consensus,” Nispel wrote.

The company could face other challenges in parks, including around margins, given a new labor contract in Florida.

As for the company’s streaming business, Nispel took the view that the entertainment giant hasn’t done enough to differentiate itself in a way that improves performance on churn, or the portion of consumers who opt to leave the service.

“While DIS has started to drive pricing, we have yet to see DIS services separate from peers from a churn standpoint…, though it arguably has had a bundling advantage,” he wrote. “We believe this speaks more to the structural element of churn within the industry that is unlikely to go away.”

The company “is likely to need to monetize existing subscribers better through price increases, while establishing a lower-priced subscription advertising tier to retain subs,” Nispel continued.

He had further concerns about the company’s roadmap as it reportedly evaluates how to make ESPN into a standalone streaming service. That evolution could wind up “materially harder than we initially thought,” he noted.

Since Disney allocates about 30% of its $30 billion content budget to sports, he said he thinks the breakeven price for such a service would be $33 a month, but his survey work has left him with doubts that many consumers will pay that price.

“We believe this level of ARPU [average revenue per user] seems highly unlikely, where these data points make us cautious as DIS’s cash cow may have a worse future in streaming vs. linear than we originally anticipated,” Nispel wrote.

He also had questions about big-budget films, noting the recent weak performances of “Lightyear” and “Elemental” from Pixar. Those poor showings seem to reflect “less of an animation/superhero slump at the box office and more of a structural reality that consumers will expect to watch this type of content at home,” he commented.

Nispel titled that section of his note, “Are the days of $200M+ productions done?” He said that Disney may need to “fundamentally rethink its content creation strategy.”
 
Anyone here following the catastrophe today with the Oogie Boogie Bash ticket sales? You cannot treat loyal customers this way without consequences.
 
https://www.ft.com/content/6e8a07b6...traffic/partner/feed_headline/us_yahoo/auddev

Disney at 100: a castle built on magical thinkingMany see the company’s recent troubles as the twist in a fairytale saga — but history tells a different story

Recently, I took my eight-year-old nephew to his first Disney movie. The venue was a London preview of Elemental, the new animation from subsidiary Pixar. In a crowded cinema, the screen filled with the famous logo of the parent company: a vast fairytale castle lit now by magnificent fireworks. De facto anthem “When You Wish Upon a Star” boomed in Dolby Atmos. The words 100 Years of Wonder, marking this year’s corporate centenary, shone in liquid silver.

For just a moment, the magic worked. My nephew, a science-minded child from a home without the Disney+ streaming service, said, unprompted: “Wow.”

By that evening, the film was officially a disaster. Released in the US the same weekend, it would deliver the worst American box-office opening in Pixar history: $29.5mn against a budget of $200mn. (My nephew? Non-committal.)

It was just the latest bad news in a rolling doom-cloud over Disney headquarters in Burbank, California. Anniversary celebrations are planned until late 2023. But the cheers may be drowned out by gloomy noises off.

Despite the return last November of veteran CEO Bob Iger, box office is down; the share price erratic; Disney+ subscriber numbers have fallen for two quarters running. And all the while, a canonic American brand is cast as the enemy within by Republican governor of Florida and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.

The sense of an industry titan in crisis makes for seductive drama. But the truth is more prosaic than that — Disney has long been accident-prone — and stranger too, as befits a company made rich monetising children’s emotions.

As with any movie, a lot depends on where you come in. My nephew’s experience of Elemental was prefaced by a brief film montage about Disney’s first century. Images of Fantasia and a young Walt Disney at his sketchbook mingled with Marvel movies, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water and Harrison Ford as Han Solo. For an eight-year-old, or anyone unversed in entertainment business takeovers, a clear line of descent would lead from the hand that drew Mickey Mouse to the minds behind Star Wars.

Historically, that’s a little broad-brush. In fact, Star Wars and Avatar only went to Disney in 2019, with the acquisition of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. As well as the pen of Uncle Walt, a true celebration might also show Iger signing the contracts that, even before Fox, gave Disney vast tracts of intellectual property. Pixar was bought in 2006; Marvel Entertainment in 2009; Lucasfilm in 2012. (Disney’s big release this weekend, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, comes from that last buyout.) These were brilliant, far-sighted deals. They deserve a scene in the movie.

But histories produced by the subject themselves can often feel like fairy tales. Imperial conquests might well be played down to better convey calm continuity. And self-mythology is deeply Disney. Whatever you make of DeSantis and his culture war, his complaints that the company regards itself as an independent state are not plucked from thin air. For all Walt Disney’s patriotism, there was always something secessionist in his magic kingdom.

I mean: a castle? Sheer pageantry is some of it. (Let’s leave aside the weird overtones of having been inspired by the Bavarian castle Neuschwanstein, depot for Nazi-looted artwork during the second world war.) But the symbolism of the logo hints too at what castles were designed for: a literal means of keeping out all that displeased the powers inside. That much was foundational for Disney. And often what was unwelcome was reality. The era in which the company broke big was the late 1920s extending into the 1930s: the years of the Wall Street crash, Al Capone and the rise of fascism. Disney responded with cartoons and children’s stories whose happiness was non-negotiable.

Yes, Bambi’s mother would eventually die. But the fervent escapism at its heart helps explain why Disney still only feels adjacent to the wider story of the movies. For all the golden moments its animators have conjured, there is a reason Disney has never won a Best Picture Oscar under its own banner. For many film lovers, the name forever speaks of things that have not been good for cinema: infantilisation, branded tat.Mickey Mouse, in red coat and tall blue hat, stands in front of a broom that has been brought to life and is carrying buckets of water

Iger’s spending spree since 2006 has only heightened the sense that the company’s stock response to crises of creativity is simply to buy someone else’s. But the image of apex predator can also be deceptive. If the ground under Disney in 2023 seems shaky, so it was in the past. Even in the company’s salad days, Pinocchio and Bambi underperformed financially; Fantasia almost led to bankruptcy. In the real Disney story, box-office bombs are less anomaly and more recurring theme.After Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the company drifted into a long irrelevance.

Revival only came with new-broom CEO Michael Eisner. In a graphic break with the past, the fairytale logo now took precedence above the founder’s signature. It debuted on 1985 live-action adventure Return to Oz: a flop. “When You Wish Upon a Star” was added for the next release, dark fantasy The Black Cauldron. The $44mn budget made it the most expensive animation then ever produced. In the wake of its woeful commercial performance, Eisner exiled the entire animation department from Burbank to a warehouse five miles away.Eventually, though, a string of hits dubbed the “Disney renaissance” began with The Little Mermaid (1989).

Like Iger’s acquisitions, it is hard to argue with the sleek, clever movies Eisner oversaw (The Lion King, Aladdin and so on), or their profits. But the wizardry was pragmatic. On screen, a hefty spoonful of sugar was added back into fairy tales grown gnarled in films such as The Black Cauldron. Behind the scenes, with digital animation cutting overheads, headline titles were joined by untold sequels quietly going straight to video.

In 1932, with Disney almost buckled by the Depression, the company had been saved by salesman Herman Kamen, licensing the image of Mickey Mouse on to napkins, watches and wallpaper. Sixty years later, Eisner again squeezed every drop of juice from products in newly opened Disney Stores.The films were origin stories for the merchandise. And the business model led to the definitive moment in Disney history. It came with another pen stroke: the 1991 decision to list the company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Disney was instantly enshrined as leader of the entertainment industry.

Yet that same year, it didn’t have a single film in the American box-office top 10. Its most successful movie in 1991, Beauty and the Beast, wasn’t even the year’s most popular family film, beaten at cinemas by Home Alone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.But that was no break with Disney tradition. Unlike other Hollywood moguls, Walt Disney had limited time for movie theatres. The jumbo train set of Disneyland monopolised his attention. Television too was quickly embraced. And the arm’s-length relationship with cinema continued via Eisner on to his successor, Iger. In the 2010s, with Marvel deputised to the multiplex, the parent brand kept leaning into smaller screens in private homes. Frozen was soon the bestselling Blu-ray in US history.A drawn character of a young woman apparently made of fire and another of a young man made of water‘Elemental’, which recently delivered the worst US box-office opening in Pixar history

. Industry royalty spooked by upstart Netflix, a Hollywood studio for whom cinema was just another platform. With the Fox acquisition, 2019 must have felt the perfect moment for the endgame: the triumphant launch of a leviathan content library built for home consumption. The world’s favourite stories hoarded in one place; Pixar, Marvel and the rest making more. The castle was complete.But history is filled with monarchs who misread the room. After a bountiful Covid, 6.5mn subscribers have recently left Disney+. And much of the thinking behind the rush to streaming now feels magical itself. Once other Pixar movies were sent straight to the service, why would families see Elemental in cinemas? Just how many series could Marvel inspire, given that its films were already sputtering creatively? And would Apple and Amazon be outmuscled as easily as Rupert Murdoch?RecommendedThe Weekend EssayA whole new world? Disney after ‘Don’t Say Gay’Thus far, the response has been predictable: 7,000 staff fired since Iger’s return last year. Heading into Burbank, he will have also passed the protests of the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike. That too is historically on-brand: Walt Disney’s employment practices famously led to a bitter 1941 animators’ strike.Troubled industrial relations put a layer of irony on the company’s other current headache: the attacks on it as a leftist cell by Ron DeSantis. In fact, his whole vision of Disney management tainting a once innocent company with politics might be the wrong way round. Back in the 1940s, the company founder was a zealous rightwinger whose worldview helped shape its films. The inclusivity of modern Disney is, by contrast, blandly mainstream: the everyday stuff of a corporation seeking to maximise reach.A smiling mermaid swims underwater with a seagull and a fishHalle Bailey in this year’s live-action remake of ‘The Little Mermaid’ © Disney EnterprisesIn 2023, that much can mean war. The recent live-action remake of The Little Mermaid starring the black actress Halle Bailey drew grim online comment. It did well with US audiences, though, at a time when Disney movies often don’t.But the film’s creative context raises another question for Iger. It was made in yet another round of remakes of existing company property: Peter Pan & Wendy, Pinocchio and so on. For Disney, the past 100 years might suggest you can always save the day with the same old fairy tales. But after so many close calls with failure, a lack of new ideas now seems quite the gamble. History repeats a lot, it’s true. Every now and then, though, someone else gets to have a happy ending.Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ftweekend on TwitterDisney: Return of Iger, 'King of Hollywood' | FT FilmCopyright The Financial Times Limited 2023. All rights reserved.Latest on Film ReviewFilm Six films to watch this week ReviewUpstream Prime time for the midlife crisis Three women walking through woodland in costume — the one on the left in folk attire, the middle one wearing a large feathered head-dress and the one on the right in a purple coat and bright mauve trousers Six films to watch this week Mother and Son — Ivorian immigrant story of immense tenderness A young boy sits on his mother’s lap on a bus as another boy sleeps on her shoulder Benjamin Netanyahu Hollywood producer says champagne gifts for Netanyahu may have been ‘excessive’ Arnon Milchan, a Hollywood producer and Israeli citizen Six films to watch this week Hello, Bookstore — sugary portrait of one man and his bookshop A man in a white cardigan jacket leans on the wall of a bookshop next to the window Six films to watch this week La Syndicaliste — Isabelle Huppert turns activist in stark tale of injustice A woman in a black coat and silk scarf walks in front of women in white boiletsuits and helmets Six films to watch this week Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny raids the old IP with big-budget chutzpah — review A man in a wide-brimmed hat looks up to the sky alongside a young boy with a Moroccan skyline behind them
 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warn...why-analysts-are-still-bullish-125724967.html

Warner Bros. Discovery's stock down 50% since merger — why analysts are still bullish
Alexandra Canal
·Senior Reporter
Fri, June 30, 2023 at 2:57 PM GMT+2



Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has faced an uphill battle since the completion of its $43 billion merger in April 2022, plagued by challenges that include executive shake-ups, box office bombs, company-wide layoffs, and more.

But with a sinking stock price that's fallen roughly 50% since its debut, some have questioned whether the merger was even worth it.

"There were mistakes made but also separate issues out of their control," Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif-Ehrlich told Yahoo Finance, referencing macro challenges like the weakening ad market and increased linear cord-cutting.

Still, the analyst, who has a Buy rating on the stock and $21 price target, said she remains confident in WBD's future as it works to pare down its massive debt load.
"I am optimistic [this merger] will work. It's still very early in its lifecycle," she said. "If [Discovery] can't make it work, somebody else will. Warner Bros. has the best asset class and the best library."

Attorney Bryan Sullivan, partner at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae, echoed the same sentiment, explaining the two companies are stronger together than apart.
"I'm buying stock in it," he told Yahoo Finance. "I think it has way too much IP that's valuable."

WBD currently has 18 Buy ratings, 10 Holds and 1 Sell, according to data from Bloomberg.

The media giant, which is targeting $4 billion in cost saving synergies over the next two years, saw streaming losses reverse in the first quarter as subscriber growth came in above consensus estimates.

"We’ve come through some major restructurings and have repositioned our businesses with greater precision and focus. And we see a number of positive proof points emerging, with DTC perhaps the most prominent," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said at the time.

The company revised previous guidance, saying it now expects its US direct-to-consumer business to be profitable by this year. Previously, the company said the streaming division will break even by next year before hitting profitability in two years.

"[WBD] has its costs in a really good place now," Ehrlich said. "When revenue starts to improve — whether it's from advertising, film, or subscription now that Max has launched — the company is in a phenomenal position, and they'll have significant leverage."

The analyst added she expects WBD to benefit from stronger free cash flow and improved margins in the quarters to come, which should help drive the stock price higher.

Zaslav 'corrects' his mistakes

The recent debut of "Max" comes at a critical time in the streaming wars with competitors like Disney (DIS), Netflix (NFLX) and Apple (AAPL) all vying for subscribers.

At the time of the platform's debut, Zaslav touted the company's strong storytelling IP from franchises like "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" to successful shows like "Friends" and "The Big Bang Theory."

According to Bloomberg, the company is planning to add live programming from CNN to Max later this year — a move Ehrlich says makes sense.

"News drives engagement," she said. "News may not bring subscribers on, but it it does drive engagement and keeps people on for a while. Since they own it, having news as part of Max makes perfect sense."

WBD, which did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance's request for comment, has been rethinking the future of CNN as the network grapples with historically low ratings, mass layoffs, a failed foray into streaming with CNN+ and, most recently, the firing of former chief Chris Licht.

Ehrlich said that decision underscores the decisiveness of Zaslav, explaining, "When he makes a mistake, he corrects it. He doesn't stick with the mistake. That's the right thing to do."

"I think he's extremely decisive and wants to everything to move forward as quickly and efficiently as possible," Sullivan added. "But Warner Bros. has had issues for a number of years. That's not something that can change on the dot."

"You can't bring in a head coach and expect to compete for the championship that season. You've got to rebuild," he said.

Zaslav's no-nonsense leadership style has led to atypical strategies like licensing content to competitors.

According to Deadline, the company is shopping its HBO titles to Netflix (NFLX), which would mark the first time in nearly a decade that HBO shows would exist on a rival streaming service in the US, the outlet noted.

"I think everybody's going to follow," Ehrlich said. "They don't need all of that content behind a walled garden. Warner Bros. is a massive producer of television. They already supply shows to Apple, Amazon and other streamers. Why not sell to Netflix?"

The company did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance when asked about the report.

Warner Bros. Discovery shares are are up about 30% year-to-date but down roughly 10% on the year.
 
Won’t selling to multiple streamers also make sense - especially if they can have the other streamers like Netflix have to circulate through content, and then they can use their platforms to have a “complete collection” of say animated classics, Marvel Movies, DC Movies, etc.
 
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b...-year-entertainment-stocks-review-1235508105/

Mid-Year Hollywood Stocks Review: Spotify Soars, Netflix Gains, Paramount Drops

Halfway through 2023, it's been a rocky year for U.S. media share prices as companies reacted to economic headwinds, but no recession yet left many company stocks surging.

By Georg Szalai, Etan Vlessing
June 30, 2023 1:38pm P

Top executives at media and entertainment giants will be happy to see the end of the first half of 2023, where stock sell-offs and analyst downgrades were recurrent features of their year to date.

In 2022, most Hollywood stocks fell sharply amid pressure by Wall Street on media to push streaming businesses to profitability, increased cord-cutting pressures and a challenged advertising market amid inflation-induced recession fears. From 30,000 feet, many sector shares have returned to healthy growth, while others struggle with declines or slower gains amid industry headwinds.

Music streamer Spotify was one of the big gainers of the first six months of 2023, ending the half-year period up 103 percent as of Friday’s market close up $1.38, or nearly 1 percent, at $160.64. Layoffs and other cost cuts have given Wall Street more confidence in the company’s profit outlook. “Spotify’s commitment to margin improvement is picking up pace,” Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall wrote in February when he upgraded the stock from “equal weight” to “overweight” and boosted his price target from $121 to $180. “Spotify is a better business, but not yet a great business. We see the path to our new target as Spotify largely proving it’s sustainably profitable.”

Lionsgate shares finished the first half of 2023 around 60 percent higher as its stock closed down 26 cents, or 3 percent, at $8.82 on Friday. That’s after a 100 percent jump for its share price posted during the first three months of 2023. Stronger-than-expected financial results and an upcoming split into two companies, scheduled to happen around September, have made Wall Street analysts bullish. “We see these steps making it easier for the separated Starz and studio businesses to be acquired, and see the potential for the studio business alone to be valued meaningfully north of where Lionsgate’s equity currently trades,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett noted in a report earlier this year. And Cahall similarly in a late May report said Lionsgate was “among the best setups in media.” He raised his stock price target by $1 to $13 and maintained his “overweight” rating, highlighting: “We continue to like the setup for Lionsgate as it will spin Studios in September, creating a likely consolidation target [for] larger media players.”

A bull market in tech stock left Netflix feeling Wall Street love and support as of late, and its shares gained 49.4 percent in the first half of the year to close Friday up $12.25, or 3 percent, to $440.49. TD Cowen’s John Blackledge on June 15 raised his financial estimates for the streaming powerhouse and boosted his stock price target by $60 to $500, while sticking to his “outperform” rating. In his report, titled “Netflix Paid Sharing Likely Helping Conversions,” he shared his firm’s survey data, explaining: “More than a third of ‘borrowing’ respondents across the U.S., U.K. and Germany plan to maintain access to Netflix via either becoming a new member or the existing member paying an extra fee. Netflix’s paid sharing and AVOD tier should drive revenue upside over time.”

Meanwhile, Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak in a June 9 report raised his stock price target for Netflix to a street-high $535, while maintaining his “buy” rating. Touting the streamer as a “unique growth story,” he wrote: “Netflix should be able to deliver solid subscriber and financial results by better monetizing the 100 million-plus households that use Netflix product [via password sharing] but do not [currently] pay for it via higher average revenue per user and/or conversion to pay subscribers, and having an ad-supported product should be helpful in this area.”

Another streaming stock recording big gains so far this year is Roku, which is up 42 percent on a Friday close at $63.96, or up by 1.5 percent or 96 cents on the day. That performance for the first half of the year was capped off by exclusive live sports coming to Roku as the streaming platform and CBS Sports inked a deal to become the U.S. media partners for Formula E, the motorsport series featuring electric racing cars.

All these stocks outperformed the broad-based S&P 500 stock index, which climbed 16.5 percent from January through June to end the week up $53.88, or just over 1 percent, at $4,450.20. Among Hollywood conglomerates, Warner Bros. Discovery, led by CEO David Zaslav, has been the strongest performer and also managed to beat the gain in the S&P 500. Its stock ended the first half of the year up 30.5 percent to close June at $12.54, up 12 cents or 1 percent on Friday.

WBD started 2023 by earning various upgrades and stock price hikes from analysts. While the jury on its streaming rebrand under the name Max is still out, its cost cuts and focus on driving its streaming business to profitability, which it expects to reach in the U.S. this year, earned plaudits on the Street. Goldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman has designated it his favorite media stock with a “buy” rating and $21 stock price target. In a recent update on Goldman’s list of “conviction” stocks, the firm explained: “WBD represents something of a unique financial proposition in traditional media: a company that can materially grow earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) over the next two to three years through synergy realization from the still-recent merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery — growth that should drive rapid deleveraging that appears to be underappreciated by investors.”

Others have been having a tougher time on the stock market.

Shares of Disney, for example, were virtually unchanged during the first six months of the year, closing Friday up 31 cents, or 0.3 percent at $89.26. That’s just 0.5 percent above the Mouse House’s 2022 closing price. Disney’s outlook has been much discussed on the Street given the various cost cuts and strategic changes, such as removing many shows from Disney+ and Hulu to bring down costs, pursued by returned CEO Bob Iger in recent months. Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne in early June reiterated his “overweight” rating on the stock despite a price target cut by $10 to $110. “Disney is in the midst of restructuring its media operations and earnings optimization will take time,” he explained. “However, we see the implied value of its content as too low here and remain overweight.” And SVB MoffettNathanson analysts Michael Nathanson and Robert Fishman, in a June 20 report, maintained their “outperform” rating, but reduced their stock price target by $7 to $120, writing: “It should be obvious by Disney’s stock price, weak subscriber data, and the recent inconsistent management comments about their streaming strategy, that the market has largely written off any optimism about where Disney’s direct-to-consumer operations can go. Given our historical doubts about these streaming business models, we completely understand that. Yet, we think there is a much better opportunity here than meets the eye.”

Meanwhile, Paramount Global’s stock saw a negative shift in momentum during the first half of 2023 as questions over its own streaming strategy persist. It gained around 30 percent in the first three months of the year after reporting strong streaming subscriber gains for 2022 and posting the biggest full-year film unit profit increase of all Hollywood conglomerates. But in its first-quarter earnings update, it cut its dividend to preserve cash in addition to layoffs and a broader restructuring. The result: Analysts expressed concern, and the stock ended the first half of the year lower. Its Friday closing price of $15.91 — down 8 cents or 0.5 percent on the day — means a drop of 6.5 percent in stock performance year-to-date.

Meanwhile, exhibition stocks have benefited this year from signs of a box office recovery, but were recently dragged down when Elemental and The Flash ran into box office troubles and recorded disappointing openings. Interestingly, their first-half performance differs significantly. Cinemark’s stock gained 97 percent over the first six months of the year, to get to a Friday close down 19 cents, or just over 1 percent, at $16.50. Elsewhere, shares in AMC Theatres parent AMC Entertainment edged up 10 percent at the year’s halfway stage to close Friday down 25 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $4.39 after unveiling a host of new ancillary revenue streams, including branded popcorn in Walmart stores.

In between the two, Imax Corp. shares rose year-to-date by 15.5 percent to a close down 30 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $16.99 at the end of June. B. Riley Securities analyst Eric Wold on June 26 published a report expressing support for movie theater stocks, titled “Theatrical Moviegoing Demand Demonstrates Strength in the Face of Two Duds and Lagging Post-Pandemic Film Slate Recovery.”

“The total quarter-to-date domestic box office of $2.575 billion through this past weekend represents an exceptional around 86 percent of the $2.986 billion that was generated through the same quarter-to-date period in 2019,” before the COVID pandemic, he wrote. “In our opinion, not only does this represent upside performance versus our projection that second-quarter industry box office would reach about 78 percent of second-quarter 2019 levels, but it represents the strongest quarterly indexing to pre-pandemic box office levels.” The B. Riley analyst reiterated his “buy” ratings on the shares of Imax and Marcus Corp.

“The box office recovery we got was not the one we wanted,” TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz highlighted in the title of a June 20 report. “The disappointing performances of The Flash and Elemental … were ‘the last straw’ in cementing our belief that box office attendance will never recover to pre-pandemic levels, or even close,” he argued. “We believe this has negative implications for the theatrical footprint, which in turn is likely to put more pressure on box office performance.”

With the second half of 2023 expected to provide more challenges for the entertainment sector, investors will keep a close eye on opportunities and further risk.
 
I agree with the post above that Disney’s stock is currently undervalued. It seems to me somewhere between $125-150 per share is where it should be trading, but sadly, it hasn’t been at that level for a long time.
 
Cfabar1 said:
Won’t selling to multiple streamers also make sense - especially if they can have the other streamers like Netflix have to circulate through content, and then they can use their platforms to have a “complete collection” of say animated classics, Marvel Movies, DC Movies, etc.
Click to expand...
We pretty much came to the same conclusion a while back - if licensing the first showings to others will bring in more dollars then do that first and next, let it live on D+ after those initial runs:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...tock-info-only.3881254/page-130#post-64829449
 
https://deadline.com/2023/07/box-office-indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-1235427644/

‘Indiana Jones’ & The Box Office Of Doom: Why ‘Dial Of Destiny’ At $60M Opening Isn’t Setting Records For Franchise Finale – Updated Box Office
By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
July 2, 2023 8:12am

SUNDAY AM Writethru after Saturday AM Update: Refresh for more analysis and chart….Even though Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is looking to hit the bottom rung of its tracking projection of $60M Sunday morning, there’s no question this is a disastrous result for the finale to a historically beloved franchise film, one of the reasons why Disney shelled out $4 billion for Lucasfilm. Global start here at $130M, is $10M less than what we were seeing; Nancy will have more. The fan-loathed Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull had a $272.1M global start, unadjusted for inflation/currency swings back in 2008.

A few things to stomach: Not only did Star Wars bomb Solo: A Star Wars Story open higher than Dial of Destiny ($84.4M 3-day, $103M 4-day), but so did Paramount’s seventhquel Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ($61M).

How could Disney and Lucasfilm mess this up?

Yesterday, I learned from a key source that Indiana Jones and the Dial Destiny before $100M in estimated P&A, cost a mindboggling $300M-plus. Much higher than the $250M-$295M that’s been leaked out there. Disney doesn’t comment on budgets, and I’m getting some pushback, but the high price tag here is due to the start and stops of production during Covid, Harrison Ford’s $20M fee which I’m told, director James Mangold got a pretty penny, with Steven Spielberg reaping as is standard a huge producing fee here. That said, it stands to reason Disney would invest greatly here to revive a franchise; they spent $259M on Force Awakens, it’s just that they’re not getting Force Awakens like results.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has been destined to live in a Temple of Box Office doom since world premiering at Cannes to lackluster reviews. This resulted in landing like a wet towel on tracking three weeks ago with projections not budgeting. This despite the fact that Dial of Destiny had a marketing and publicity global campaign louder than The Flash, with the cast doing several interviews and $90M in promotional partners.

It’s baffling that a storied franchise can end on a downer note at the box office in its finale. I found the movie out of Cannes to be too plug-and-play, laden in tropes of the franchise from the kid sidekick to videogame-like action to it’s his god-daughter as his sidekick (not his dad). It completely lacked the breath and nuance that Steven Spielberg provided in action scenes of the older films. And I’m a James Mangold fan! He knows how to make a styled and dramatically charged movie just like Spielberg, whether it’s Logan, Ford v. Ferrari, or Walk the Line.

I’m not too far off in my take on the film: CinemaScore audiences gave Dial of Destiny a B+, which isn’t that far from the previous unloved 2008 installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which landed a B.

So what the hell went wrong here with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Lucasfilm is so precious and fastidious when it comes to developing Star Wars properties, and the legend with Indiana Jones is that these movies could never be made unless George Lucas and Spielberg (and Harrison Ford) saw eye-to-eye on the script. Remember all the TLC that J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kadsan took in hatching Force Awakens? There were stories of them walking down NYC streets, hatching storylines. Given the black eye that Lucasfilm took on Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker, and Solo from fans, they’re careful not to just rush and dump sequels nowadays (thus, the safety of building out the franchise on Disney+), which is why it’s taken them so long to bake the next Star Wars sequels. All of this makes the misfire here with Dial of Destiny so concerning.

I’m told from a few insiders that this movie did not have the behind-the-scenes calamity melodrama of such Lucasfilm titles as Rogue One (which had Tony Gilroy doing reshoots and rewrites on the Gareth Edwards film) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (which had the ungracious firing of Lord & Miller and Ron Howard rescue), installments that required major surgery during production. No melodrama meaning everyone got a long with Mangold calling the production and Lucasfilm Boss/Indy producer Kathleen Kennedy and producer Frank Marshall “family” at Cannes. Spielberg loved and signed off on the script by Mangold and his Ford v. Ferrari scribes, Jez and John Henry Butterworth, and that’s a challenging enough bar to clear. Yesterday, I heard that several editors were brought in to get this one right. It’s unfortunately apparent here that the sublime which Mangold delivered to the X-Men franchise with the R-rated Logan, could not translate here to Indiana Jones.

To date, Indy co-franchise architect George Lucas has remained silent about his thoughts on Dial of Destiny.

I heard some scuttlebutt that one of the questions surrounding Dial of Destiny and Elemental were over-inflated test scores, which encouraged Disney to brazenly send both movies to Cannes — in hindsight, a huge mistake. I’m still looking into this. However, the studio, with its top secret franchise MCU and Lucasfilm fare, typically uses a ‘friends and family’ testing system so that no spoilers are leaked in advance. Perhaps it’s time to look under the hood and see if that sampling is still working.

It’s so not like Disney to stick their head out there on a chopping block with a movie on a global stage when it’s not ready. The studio plots the marketing campaigns for their tentpoles like D-Day. Both of these planned tentpoles’ commercial potential went out the window the minute Disney took them to Cannes. True, the band-aid would have been ripped off at some point in time. However, perhaps keeping the lid longer on these lukewarm movies and away from the press would have increased some box office revenue here on this crazy expensive sequel.

But here’s the consistent problem Indiana Jones has had at the box office, and with critics, and that is he’s always been in competition with himself. Raiders of the Lost Ark really blew audiences away back in 1982, bringing new life to the old adventure serial movies. The pic grossed more than $212M in its initial release, and had multiple reissues making its way to $248.1M. That’s been the gold standard against which all Indy sequels have been compared, and well, he generally comes up short. Read on.

I think to this day that part two, 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is still the best sequel to this day; it’s as edgy as hell. C’mon, it has a villain who pulls hearts of people and makes human sacrifices! It’s a PG movie that prompted the MPA to create a PG-13 rating because it scared the heck out of kids. However, I’ll never forget back then in the whip and buggy days before Rotten Tomatoes that critics loathed the movie. Variety’s then-critic, Deadline’s current, Todd McCarthy slammed Temple of Doom, writing, “The pic comes on like a sledgehammer, and there’s even a taste of vulgarity and senseless excess not apparent in ‘Raiders.’” That sentiment played out at the box office, where Temple of Doom saw its final domestic gross of $179.1M off 15% from Raiders of the Lost Ark‘s first-run gross. Temple of Doom didn’t receive the rereleases at the box office like Raiders did, as it has its fans and nonfans. Spielberg and Lucas were able to please fans with the Sean Connery co-starring Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which landed an A CinemaScore in 1989 (during the exit poll firm’s early days) and boost domestic box office by 10% to $197.1M.

So why did the critically not-loved Crystal Skull (77% on RT, just like Temple of Doom), wind up being the franchise’s highest grossing film, with a massive $100M-plus opening, and 3x leg out to $317M stateside? Because it was coming off of Last Crusade, which was quite beloved, and there was an appetite from moviegoers to see the sequel because there hadn’t been an Indiana Jones film in close to two decades. But despite its blockbuster success in a stadium-seating, vibrant exhibition era, not many people liked Crystal Skull — hello, B CinemaScore. And that sequel, too, also doted and joked around about Indy going gray. Unlike 007, the same actor has always played Indiana Jones. The franchise’s legacy with Ford has prevented it from being rebooted with a new leading actor.

Which leads us to Dial of Destiny‘s meh results. Why so low? Because it’s coming off of a sequel not many loved, and it’s playing the same game of Indiana Jones getting older. Couple that with sour reviews coming out of Cannes, plus the finale’s older skewing audience (42% over 45) who are slow to come to cinemas, and here we are with a less-than-stellar box office result.

While Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak exits show a 93% recommending Dial of Destiny (combined from the yes or probably recommend category) and 8% not recommending, dig further in this AM’s report and you’ll find a more-telling stat about how no one is rushing to Dial of Destiny: Only 9% heard it was good from friends and family.

Here’s the box office surprise no one was expecting this summer: At an opening of $61M, Paramount’s long-in-the-tooth franchise sequel Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opened higher than these high-gloss sequels, including Dial of Destiny and The Flash. The latter DC film counts a running total at end of weekend 3 of $99.2M; that’s 19% behind the running total of Rise of the Beasts at the same point in time. OMG. Rise of the Beasts currently has a running total of $136.1M at end of weekend 4. Can Indy even out-gross Rise of the Beasts by the end of the summer? Who the hell knew we’d be having this conversation??

Dial of Destiny‘s problems, to a certain degree, aren’t that different from Flash‘s: More than Ezra Miller’s lack of publicity on that DC film and tabloid dilemmas, that DC movie at the end of the day was a B CinemaScore film and way too long at 2 hours and 24 minutes. Dial of Destiny has a similar grade and is also too long at 2 hours and 34 minutes.

More diagnostics on Dial of Destiny:
–PostTrak’s audience is 79% and four stars. The leading guy 25+ ticket buyers at 43% are giving it a 77% grade. That’s not good. Overall, men at a 58% turnout are giving a 74% grade.

–Here’s what’s interesting: Even though 10% came to see Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the female lead in the movie, women like Dial of Destiny better than men with a 85% grade. Women over 25, who showed up at 35%, give it an 86%.

–The older Dial of Destiny‘s audience gets, the better the grades with the 45-55 sect (19% turnout) giving it 83% and the over 55 people (at 23%) giving it 89%.

–Diversity demos weren’t that diverse with 54% Caucasian (79% grade), 18% Latino and Hispanic (80% grade), Black at 10% (73% grade), and Asian 13% (80% grade).

–Pic played Destiny played best in the West, Mountain and Mid-West. PLF and Imax driving 37% of the weekend to date. Disney’s El Capitan in Los Angeles is the top grossing theater so far with $114K running cume.

All tickets sales for movies are at $127M off 33% from a year ago when the weekend counted $189.9M (per Boxoffice Mojo), led by Universal/Illumination’s Minions: Rise of Gru which racked up $140.6M over its holiday Friday-Tuesday (July 4th fell on a Monday). Indiana Jones is expected to be around $82M over its five days, around -40% less Minions take last year — who’da thunk?

Chart is updating….
1.) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Dis) 4,600 theaters, Fri $24M, Sat $19M, Sun $17M 3-day $60M/Wk 1
2.) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) 3,405 (-380) theaters, Fri $3.4M (-40%) Sat $4.3M Sun $3.7M 3-day $11.5M (-39%)/Total $339.8M /Wk 5
2.) Elemental (Dis) 3,650 (-385) theaters, Fri $3.4M (-40%), Sat $4.2M, Sun $3.7M 3-day $11.3M (-40%), Total $88.7M/Wk 3
4.) No Hard Feelings (Sony) 3,208 theaters, Fri $2.3M (-63%) Sat $2.8M Sun $2.4M 3-day $7.5M (-50%), Total $29.3M /Wk 2
5.) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Par) 2,852 (-671) theaters, Fri $1.92M (-40%) Sat $2.7M Sun $2.3M 3-day $7M (-40%), Total $136.1M/Wk 4
6.) Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (Uni/DWA) 3,400 theaters, Fri $2.3M, Sat $1.6M Sun $1.2M 3-day $5.3M/Wk 1

Yikes, this movie is opened lower than Paws of Fury last summer. The results here make Strange World‘s 3-day of $12M look like a blockbuster. Just kidding. What’s the lesson here? Don’t make animated movies that have unknown protags in the title, and animation that looks like Strange World. Ruby Gillman‘s few moviegoers gave it a surprising A- CinemaScore, the same as last summer’s Paws of Fury. For the record, it’s higher than the B which Strange World got. PostTrak exits, which are always harder than CinemaScore, at 68% positive, however, kids under 12 said 91%. Moms leading, of course at 52% females, 64% between 18-34, biggest demo being 18-24 at 42%. The mix of audience was 39% White, 33% Latino and Hispanic, 11% Black, & 17% Asian/other. Kraken played strongest in the South, South Central & West. AMC Burbank best theater in the nation for the film with an awful take near $5k through EOD Friday.

7.) The Little Mermaid (Dis) 2,430 (-845) theaters, Fri $1.55M (-42%) Sat $1.9M Sun $1.7M 3-day $5.2M (-37%)/Total $280.9M Wk 6
8.) The Flash (WB) 2,718 (-1,538) theaters, Fri $1.4M (-68%), Sat $1.9M Sun $1.6M 3-day $5.15M (-67%), Total $99.2M/Wk 3
9.) Asteroid City (Foc) 1,901 (+226) theaters, Fri $1.18M (-69%), Sat $1.5M, Sun $1.12M 3-day $3.8M (-58%), Total $18.1M/Wk 3
10.) Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 (Dis) 1,165 (-845) theaters, Fri $525K Sat $725K Sun $550K 3-day $1.8M /Total $354.8M/Wk 9
11. The Boogeyman (Dis/20th) 1,020 (-620) theaters, Fri $575K (-29%), 3-day $1.8M (-29%) Total $41M/Wk 5
 
https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/...entary-disney-channel-4-licensing-1235660326/

Jul 3, 2023 3:42am PDT
by Naman Ramachandran
'The X-Files,’ ‘Alias,’ ‘Abbott Elementary’ Among 10 Titles Licensed by Disney to U.K.’s Channel 4 Streaming Service

Disney has licensed 10 series to Channel 4’s streaming service in the U.K.

The deal, which will add some 1,000 hours of American drama to Channel 4’s streaming platform, will kick off with “Alias” Seasons 1-5 and “The Americans” Seasons 1-6 this summer, followed by “Empire” Seasons 1-6, “Scandal” Seasons 1-7, “The X Files” Seasons 1-11, “Bones” Seasons 1-12, “The Killing” Seasons 1-4, “Star” Seasons 1-3, “Grown-ish” Seasons 1-6 and “Abbott Elementary” Seasons 1-2.

Except “Star,” all the series are available on streamer Disney+ in the U.K., which requires a monthly subscription. The Channel 4 streaming service is free.

The Disney move is the latest in a burgeoning trend of studios being open to licensing content to third parties. Warner Bros. Discovery is in talks to licence a package of library HBO titles to Netflix, while original Amazon series like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will be sold off-platform to third parties for the first time, the company revealed in May as it launched Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.

Nick Lee, head of acquisitions at Channel 4, said: “We’re so pleased to have agreed such an extensive content deal with Disney, ranging from their most iconic series like ‘The X-Files’ to fresh hits such as ‘Abbott Elementary’ and ‘Star.’ We look forward to our viewers being able to binge series after series on Channel 4.”

The 10 new Disney series will be available to stream on Channel 4 from later this month.

In 2022, U.K. public service broadcaster rebranded its VoD service All4 as Channel 4. The service used to be known as 4oD and it was renamed as All4 in 2015.
 
I don't recall seeing this interview anywhere else on the boards. If it's posted already, I apologize.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/disney-josh-damaro/

Meet the man responsible for everything you see at Disney parks - The Points Guy

by Scott Mayerowitz
6/27/2023
Josh D’Amaro notices chipped paint as he passes by the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

“It bugs me, absolutely bugs me,” he says.

We are walking through Disneyland, and D’Amaro is on the hunt for burned-out lightbulbs, trash on walkways and anything else that can take away from the magic.

But this 52-year-old isn’t just any Disney employee (or “cast member,” as he would note).
D’Amaro is in charge of Disneyland and the 11 other Disney theme parks around the world, plus Disney Cruise Line, a timeshare business, 50 hotels, an adventure tour company and all the merchandise (think: toys, books, games and clothing) The Walt Disney Company produces and licenses globally.

Yet on this June afternoon, the chairman of Disney parks, experiences and products is obsessing over a paint chip on a little-used railing. Doesn’t one of the company’s top executives have better things to do with his time?

“Absolutely not,” he quickly shoots back. “That's all part of the show.”

D’Amaro is one of the most powerful theme park executives in the world. He has to balance, among other things, keeping the magic and nostalgia of Walt Disney’s vision alive with innovating rides and attractions for a younger tech-savvy generation.

Not to mention, D'Amaro has the difficult task of juggling the conflicting goals of creating profits for shareholders and making a Disney vacation affordable — or, at least, within reach — for families that dream of such a trip.

Disney parks are, in some ways, the ultimate aspirational trip for kids of all ages. Children dream of visiting, and Super Bowl champions have turned it into a winning catchphrase.

“This is a place for everyone,” D’Amaro says. “When you go walk around, you'll see people from everywhere, from all walks of life.”

Yet prices keep climbing.

Disney experimented with a "Star Wars"-themed "hotel," a one-of-a-kind immersive experience that ultimately failed due to its high cost (rates started at $5,000 for two nights). Now, the company is launching a $115,000 private jet tour that takes passengers to all 12 parks around the world, plus the Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Giza and the Eiffel Tower. It’s only open to 75 people.

“We have to have options for guests,” D’Amaro says. “I want to make sure there are as many choices presented to you as simply as they can be. You could stay at a value resort if you choose to, or you could stay at the Grand Floridian or the Grand Californian if you'd like to.”

That choice includes visiting during peak school breaks when prices are higher or on cheaper off-peak dates, though not every family has the flexibility or feels comfortable pulling their kids out of school to enjoy a less expensive ride on Space Mountain.

D’Amaro notes that there are now more days available at the lowest price (about $100 per person per day). Earlier this year, The Walt Disney Company also eliminated self-parking fees for Disney World hotel guests, a 4-year-old charge that angered many Disney fans. It represented the beginning of a multiyear era that removed some previous inclusions, such as the Magical Express bus and MagicBands, and saw the addition of new add-on charges like Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.

It’s a balancing act, D’Amaro acknowledges. If the price is too low, lines will be unbearable, souring the experience for all. But if it is too high, the parks become inaccessible for a large share of the population.

“I'll repeat the same thing I said before: We don't always get it right,” he notes.

That led me to ask about Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Disney’s attempt to turn a themed hotel into an immersive "Star Wars" drama with actors, battles and adventures that brought guests into the story and experience.

D’Amaro said he’s always pushing the park designers (known as Imagineers) to take risks and not be afraid to try something new.

“Raise the bar. Try things that the guests aren't even asking for because they don't know to ask for that,” he says. “I know not everything's going to work. What did work, though, is we took creativity and storytelling to a completely new level, to a level that had never existed before. ... It didn't work commercially. And so, when we realized that, you just make a call and move on.”

So, what will become of the hotel after the last guests check out in September?

“No hints yet,” D’Amaro says, smiling, “but something will happen.”

There are few people as close to Disney’s evolution as D’Amaro.

For the past 25 years, he’s been working in the parks, starting with a team at Disneyland that planned out park operations.

“On day one, I sat in a meeting with probably 14 people and I could not believe what was happening in front of me,” he recalls. “These people, cast members, were talking about the most granular details on Main Street. Where should the trash bins go? What if we moved this from here to there, which way do we think the guests are going to go?

The pain and the detail and the concern that the people in that room were taking ... is burned in my memory.”

He eventually rose to become president of California’s Disneyland Resort, where he opened the wildly popular Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land before moving on to become president of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida in 2019.

Then, in 2020, Bob Chapek, who was the chairman of parks and resorts, was promoted to CEO of the entire Walt Disney Company, opening up the opportunity for D’Amaro to become the one responsible for overseeing the entire parks and experiences empire.

Chapek’s tenure as CEO didn’t last long, and Bob Iger came out of retirement in late 2022 to once again take the helm. But given Chapek’s rise from chairman of parks to CEO, it isn't all that surprising to learn that D’Amaro’s name has been floated as Iger's replacement when he steps down for good. If that happens, many Disney fans will likely be pleased, as they are already familiar with D’Amaro. In fact, he's a bit of a celebrity when he's in the parks.

As we walked through Disneyland on a Friday afternoon, people would scream out his name: “Josh! Josh! Can I get a photo please?”

And it wasn’t just one fan. It was dozens, all within minutes, including a couple from Louisiana spending five nights of their honeymoon at the California resort.

“You're a celebrity to me, actually,” the newly married man said. “It's nice to meet you.”

A few paces later, a middle-aged woman getting a selfie told him, “This is a big day for a Disney adult.”

It was almost like Anna and Elsa were strolling the parks in terms of excited fans making requests for photos. (For the record, D’Amaro’s three favorite characters are Mickey, Goofy and Buzz Lightyear, while his favorite villain is Maleficent.)

“I don't love the recognition for the sake of the recognition,” he says. “I love the fact that people will come up and talk to me and tell me what they love and tell me when their family first came here and tell me what they would love to see change.”

For some politicians, Disney doesn't warrant the same reaction. To them, Disney has become the villain in America’s fairy tale.

Around the globe, guests can stroll Main Street, U.S.A., Walt Disney’s sanitized vision of what a small town should look like — a place where a band still plays “God Bless America” in the afternoon.

Yet Disney, as a company, has thousands of employees and millions of consumers who care about modern-day issues and don’t want executives frozen in some idealized past vision of America.

Most notably, Disney has clashed with some Florida Republicans over a new law restricting classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, a measure dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its opponents. The company also battled California officials over when to reopen the parks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Add to that the politics and challenges of operating parks in China during the past few years, and it's safe to say that D’Amaro's job of keeping sometimes conflicting groups happy isn't easy.

D’Amaro acknowledges the political struggles but says he tells his team to just focus on what they do best.

“That is telling incredible stories, continuing to innovate and making sure that every one of these guests out here have a great time when they're in our theme parks,” he says.

Sometimes, those debates spill over to the parks themselves.

Disney recently shut down Splash Mountain, a water ride that featured characters from the 1946 film "Song of the South," which has been criticized for its racist themes. The ride will be reopened as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, a ride based around Disney’s first Black princess.

While many praised the change, there were plenty of critics, some accusing Disney of being “woke.”

“I think that as guests have points of view on what we might do inside of the theme park, changing an attraction or changing a walkway, what that says to me is: People care about our product,” D’Amaro says. “What am I going to do? I'm going to listen and make sure that I do the best for all the guests that I possibly can.”

Almost on cue, a mom with an 8-year-old daughter approaches D’Amaro. Her daughter has never been on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They have a Lightning Lane pass to skip the line, but the girl is frightened.

“I'll tell you what's going to happen,” D’Amaro tells the girl. “You're going to finish it up. You're going to be laughing and you're going to say: 'I can't believe I was worried about going on that.' You're going to tell all your friends, and you're going to look cool. I would do it.”

They pose for a photo, then the mom says, “He makes this park amazing. He's the reason why.”

The walk continues on, and the conversation shifts to hidden Mickeys (abstract circles that look like the famous mouse hidden in plain sight) and other more hush-hush aspects of the parks.

Naturally, I ask if he has ever been questioned about and revealed the locations of the park's secret tunnels.

“Yes,” D’Amaro says. “And I don't tell them.”

Then, we entered the land D'Amaro opened as Disneyland president. He recalls watching the first guests come into Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge on opening day. Kids were running around, and 50-year-old men were crying.

Before long, he hints at another park secret.

“When we opened this land and before everything was kind of sealed up and ready to go,” he says, pausing and smiling, “I had a chance to get out here and do some fun things that I think will go down — maybe — someday in history.”

Then, like the great show master that he is, D'Amaro moves the conversation on, not offering up any more details about his own contribution to the "Star Wars" universe.

Much of the modern-day Disney empire developed well after Walt Disney's death in 1966.

The first "Star Wars" movie wouldn't hit theaters for another decade. Disney World wouldn't even open for five additional years. Yet Walt Disney's force, attention to detail and belief that nothing is ever truly finished are still very much felt in the parks today, especially with executives like D'Amaro focusing with Walt-like attention on the small details, like ensuring that paint isn't chipped.

So, what would Walt think about the "Star Wars" campus?

“I think he'd be pretty proud. I think he would actually be pretty amazed at the evolution of storytelling," D'Amaro said. "I don't think he could have ever imagined it was this, but at its core, we're doing the same thing he wanted to do. We could just do it so much more effectively now.”
 
wabbott said:
I don't recall seeing this interview anywhere else on the boards. If it's posted already, I apologize.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/disney-josh-damaro/

Meet the man responsible for everything you see at Disney parks - The Points Guy

by Scott Mayerowitz
6/27/2023
Josh D’Amaro notices chipped paint as he passes by the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

“It bugs me, absolutely bugs me,” he says.

We are walking through Disneyland, and D’Amaro is on the hunt for burned-out lightbulbs, trash on walkways and anything else that can take away from the magic.

But this 52-year-old isn’t just any Disney employee (or “cast member,” as he would note).
D’Amaro is in charge of Disneyland and the 11 other Disney theme parks around the world, plus Disney Cruise Line, a timeshare business, 50 hotels, an adventure tour company and all the merchandise (think: toys, books, games and clothing) The Walt Disney Company produces and licenses globally.

Yet on this June afternoon, the chairman of Disney parks, experiences and products is obsessing over a paint chip on a little-used railing. Doesn’t one of the company’s top executives have better things to do with his time?

“Absolutely not,” he quickly shoots back. “That's all part of the show.”

D’Amaro is one of the most powerful theme park executives in the world. He has to balance, among other things, keeping the magic and nostalgia of Walt Disney’s vision alive with innovating rides and attractions for a younger tech-savvy generation.

Not to mention, D'Amaro has the difficult task of juggling the conflicting goals of creating profits for shareholders and making a Disney vacation affordable — or, at least, within reach — for families that dream of such a trip.

Disney parks are, in some ways, the ultimate aspirational trip for kids of all ages. Children dream of visiting, and Super Bowl champions have turned it into a winning catchphrase.

“This is a place for everyone,” D’Amaro says. “When you go walk around, you'll see people from everywhere, from all walks of life.”

Yet prices keep climbing.

Disney experimented with a "Star Wars"-themed "hotel," a one-of-a-kind immersive experience that ultimately failed due to its high cost (rates started at $5,000 for two nights). Now, the company is launching a $115,000 private jet tour that takes passengers to all 12 parks around the world, plus the Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Giza and the Eiffel Tower. It’s only open to 75 people.

“We have to have options for guests,” D’Amaro says. “I want to make sure there are as many choices presented to you as simply as they can be. You could stay at a value resort if you choose to, or you could stay at the Grand Floridian or the Grand Californian if you'd like to.”

That choice includes visiting during peak school breaks when prices are higher or on cheaper off-peak dates, though not every family has the flexibility or feels comfortable pulling their kids out of school to enjoy a less expensive ride on Space Mountain.

D’Amaro notes that there are now more days available at the lowest price (about $100 per person per day). Earlier this year, The Walt Disney Company also eliminated self-parking fees for Disney World hotel guests, a 4-year-old charge that angered many Disney fans. It represented the beginning of a multiyear era that removed some previous inclusions, such as the Magical Express bus and MagicBands, and saw the addition of new add-on charges like Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.

It’s a balancing act, D’Amaro acknowledges. If the price is too low, lines will be unbearable, souring the experience for all. But if it is too high, the parks become inaccessible for a large share of the population.

“I'll repeat the same thing I said before: We don't always get it right,” he notes.

That led me to ask about Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Disney’s attempt to turn a themed hotel into an immersive "Star Wars" drama with actors, battles and adventures that brought guests into the story and experience.

D’Amaro said he’s always pushing the park designers (known as Imagineers) to take risks and not be afraid to try something new.

“Raise the bar. Try things that the guests aren't even asking for because they don't know to ask for that,” he says. “I know not everything's going to work. What did work, though, is we took creativity and storytelling to a completely new level, to a level that had never existed before. ... It didn't work commercially. And so, when we realized that, you just make a call and move on.”

So, what will become of the hotel after the last guests check out in September?

“No hints yet,” D’Amaro says, smiling, “but something will happen.”

There are few people as close to Disney’s evolution as D’Amaro.

For the past 25 years, he’s been working in the parks, starting with a team at Disneyland that planned out park operations.

“On day one, I sat in a meeting with probably 14 people and I could not believe what was happening in front of me,” he recalls. “These people, cast members, were talking about the most granular details on Main Street. Where should the trash bins go? What if we moved this from here to there, which way do we think the guests are going to go?

The pain and the detail and the concern that the people in that room were taking ... is burned in my memory.”

He eventually rose to become president of California’s Disneyland Resort, where he opened the wildly popular Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land before moving on to become president of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida in 2019.

Then, in 2020, Bob Chapek, who was the chairman of parks and resorts, was promoted to CEO of the entire Walt Disney Company, opening up the opportunity for D’Amaro to become the one responsible for overseeing the entire parks and experiences empire.

Chapek’s tenure as CEO didn’t last long, and Bob Iger came out of retirement in late 2022 to once again take the helm. But given Chapek’s rise from chairman of parks to CEO, it isn't all that surprising to learn that D’Amaro’s name has been floated as Iger's replacement when he steps down for good. If that happens, many Disney fans will likely be pleased, as they are already familiar with D’Amaro. In fact, he's a bit of a celebrity when he's in the parks.

As we walked through Disneyland on a Friday afternoon, people would scream out his name: “Josh! Josh! Can I get a photo please?”

And it wasn’t just one fan. It was dozens, all within minutes, including a couple from Louisiana spending five nights of their honeymoon at the California resort.

“You're a celebrity to me, actually,” the newly married man said. “It's nice to meet you.”

A few paces later, a middle-aged woman getting a selfie told him, “This is a big day for a Disney adult.”

It was almost like Anna and Elsa were strolling the parks in terms of excited fans making requests for photos. (For the record, D’Amaro’s three favorite characters are Mickey, Goofy and Buzz Lightyear, while his favorite villain is Maleficent.)

“I don't love the recognition for the sake of the recognition,” he says. “I love the fact that people will come up and talk to me and tell me what they love and tell me when their family first came here and tell me what they would love to see change.”

For some politicians, Disney doesn't warrant the same reaction. To them, Disney has become the villain in America’s fairy tale.

Around the globe, guests can stroll Main Street, U.S.A., Walt Disney’s sanitized vision of what a small town should look like — a place where a band still plays “God Bless America” in the afternoon.

Yet Disney, as a company, has thousands of employees and millions of consumers who care about modern-day issues and don’t want executives frozen in some idealized past vision of America.

Most notably, Disney has clashed with some Florida Republicans over a new law restricting classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, a measure dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its opponents. The company also battled California officials over when to reopen the parks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Add to that the politics and challenges of operating parks in China during the past few years, and it's safe to say that D’Amaro's job of keeping sometimes conflicting groups happy isn't easy.

D’Amaro acknowledges the political struggles but says he tells his team to just focus on what they do best.

“That is telling incredible stories, continuing to innovate and making sure that every one of these guests out here have a great time when they're in our theme parks,” he says.

Sometimes, those debates spill over to the parks themselves.

Disney recently shut down Splash Mountain, a water ride that featured characters from the 1946 film "Song of the South," which has been criticized for its racist themes. The ride will be reopened as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, a ride based around Disney’s first Black princess.

While many praised the change, there were plenty of critics, some accusing Disney of being “woke.”

“I think that as guests have points of view on what we might do inside of the theme park, changing an attraction or changing a walkway, what that says to me is: People care about our product,” D’Amaro says. “What am I going to do? I'm going to listen and make sure that I do the best for all the guests that I possibly can.”

Almost on cue, a mom with an 8-year-old daughter approaches D’Amaro. Her daughter has never been on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They have a Lightning Lane pass to skip the line, but the girl is frightened.

“I'll tell you what's going to happen,” D’Amaro tells the girl. “You're going to finish it up. You're going to be laughing and you're going to say: 'I can't believe I was worried about going on that.' You're going to tell all your friends, and you're going to look cool. I would do it.”

They pose for a photo, then the mom says, “He makes this park amazing. He's the reason why.”

The walk continues on, and the conversation shifts to hidden Mickeys (abstract circles that look like the famous mouse hidden in plain sight) and other more hush-hush aspects of the parks.

Naturally, I ask if he has ever been questioned about and revealed the locations of the park's secret tunnels.

“Yes,” D’Amaro says. “And I don't tell them.”

Then, we entered the land D'Amaro opened as Disneyland president. He recalls watching the first guests come into Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge on opening day. Kids were running around, and 50-year-old men were crying.

Before long, he hints at another park secret.

“When we opened this land and before everything was kind of sealed up and ready to go,” he says, pausing and smiling, “I had a chance to get out here and do some fun things that I think will go down — maybe — someday in history.”

Then, like the great show master that he is, D'Amaro moves the conversation on, not offering up any more details about his own contribution to the "Star Wars" universe.

Much of the modern-day Disney empire developed well after Walt Disney's death in 1966.

The first "Star Wars" movie wouldn't hit theaters for another decade. Disney World wouldn't even open for five additional years. Yet Walt Disney's force, attention to detail and belief that nothing is ever truly finished are still very much felt in the parks today, especially with executives like D'Amaro focusing with Walt-like attention on the small details, like ensuring that paint isn't chipped.

So, what would Walt think about the "Star Wars" campus?

“I think he'd be pretty proud. I think he would actually be pretty amazed at the evolution of storytelling," D'Amaro said. "I don't think he could have ever imagined it was this, but at its core, we're doing the same thing he wanted to do. We could just do it so much more effectively now.”
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this. Very interesting!
 
https://www.investing.com/news/stoc...d-to-outperform-in-q3-says-bofa-432SI-3118748

Netflix and Disney poised to outperform in Q3 says BofA
Sam Boughedda
Published Jul 03, 2023 08:03AM EDT


Both Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) were included in BofA's top 10 US ideas for the third quarter in a note Monday.

BofA analysts told investors that Netflix, which is rated at Buy with a $490 price target, is "poised to outperform."

They listed four main drivers, including a crackdown on password sharing, the introduction of a value-oriented, ad-supported tier that expands its total addressable market and monetization, an inflection point in free cash flow, and a significant subscriber runway due to the ongoing shift from linear to streaming.

"Netflix's introduction of an ad-supported tier provides significant potential operating and financial upside," they wrote.

On Disney — which the firm has assigned a Buy rating and $135 price target — the analysts said it had underperformed the S&P by over 40% since November 2021, but they believe it is set to outperform in Q3.

According to the analysts, the potential rise is due to recent price increases across Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+, strong advertiser demand for the recently launched ad-supported tier on Disney+, cost discipline across the DTC business, and the continued robust theme park demand with several levers for future growth.
 

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FWIW, not a whole lot new, but as this guy follows DIS, probably worth a read.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2023...hoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

Disney's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Multiplex Doom
By Rick Munarriz–Jul 3, 2023 at 11:00AM

Key Points

Key Points
  • "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" fell short of expectations, generating just $60 million in domestic ticket sales and $130 million worldwide in its premiere weekend.

  • The number of ticket buyers fell nearly 60% from those who went to see the last Indiana Jones movie at theaters in its debut back in 2008.
    Only one Disney film since 2019 has topped $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. The dry spell will continue.

    Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones is back, but fails to deliver the box office hit that Disney and the industry needed.

    Walt Disney (DIS 1.73%) needed a box office hit to get back on track over the weekend. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny failed to woo summer audiences back to the movie theater. The fifth installment of the iconic franchise starring Harrison Ford as the trouble-digging archaeologist generated just $60 million in domestic ticket sales in its debut weekend. It collected another $70 million internationally.
    With an estimated $250 million to $300 million production budget, it's now possible that the film will fail to turn a profit. It's bad news for Disney, of course. It's also unwelcome news for multiplex operators as well as competing movie studios. Let's do what Dr. Jones would do in a situation like this: dig a little deeper to find answers.

    Disney was having a good run in recent months. From November of last year to the end of May it had five of the six highest-grossing domestic theatrical releases. Its winning streak ran out in June with Pixar's Elemental slumping at the box office and the new Indiana Jones film failing to fill seats.


How bad was the $60 million debut? One can argue that Dial of Destiny generated more box office receipts than all but one of the previous franchise premieres, but that's not adjusted for inflation. The earlier entries came out ages ago when ticket prices were substantially lower. The more sobering way to approach the film's initial performance is that it opened 40% lower than 2008's Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but the number of tickets sold this time around was actually 59% lower based on average ticket prices.


This is problematic for more than just Disney. Temperatures are surging this summer, making the air-conditioned respite that movie theaters provide an obvious place for folks to go. It's not happening. This is also an action movie, typically the kind of movie that folks demand to see on the silver screen instead of just waiting until it springs up on a streaming service a couple of months later. With Warner Bros. Discovery's The Flash also tanking at the multiplex in June it's a troublesome sign for all players making big-budgeted bets on superhero adventures.

It's still early, of course. Like Jones' signature whip, the new film could wind up having a long tail. Disney saw what happened with Encanto. A disappointing theatrical run in late 2021 didn't stop it from becoming a big cult fave with audiences on Disney+ and theme park visitors.

The problem for Disney investors is that the initial disappointment at the box office will lead to the market being more critical on the next potential blockbuster. All eyes will now turn to the Haunted Mansion release later this month. Then it could be a dry spell until The Marvels rolls out in November ahead of the holiday season.

Bulls will argue that Disney is a diversified media stock. If a movie flops it won't be long before it has another film, TV show, or theme park attraction to help draw audiences. However, with the stock failing to participate in this year's rally it needed this hit to get the Disney flywheel going.
 
https://deadline.com/2023/07/box-of...s-spiderman-little-mermaid-disney-1235429523/

Midsummer Box Office Hitting $1.88 Billion, -2% From 2022
By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
July 3, 2023 2:29pm

We’ve had a couple of tentpole missteps here this summer, read Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny this weekend with $60M, The Flash and Elemental; putting the running summer box office at $1.88 billion for May 1-July 2.

That’s close to -2% off from the $1.91 billion reached over the same frame last year. All these figures come from Comscore.

While the pacing isn’t terrible, the overall industry always likes to exceed year-over-year, especially after that disastrous pandemic that forced theaters to close in 2020 through early March 2021. Summer 2020 for the May 1-July 2 period only grossed $47.3M.

Next to the pre-pandemic summer 2019, which was on Viagra and steroids led by Disney/Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame (delivering $416.7M for that May 1-July 2 play period), summer 2023 is 17% behind that midsummer, which accumulated $2.27 billion.

Still, there’s a lot of hope in July with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One set to open to a franchise-record $100M over 5 days, and the Barbie-and-Oppenheimer weekend fueling what could be a near-$200M weekend over July 21-23 for all films.

Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian points out, “The fortunes of the summer can be perceived as rich or fallow depending on which week is being examined and with many weeks and numerous potential high-profile blockbusters on the way in July and August, it’s way too early to characterize the overall summer box office performance as a hit or a miss.”

Even though we’re slightly behind 2022, we could be ahead ultimately, as Dergarabedian says, “August could be the unexpected savior and take the summer out with a bang instead of a whimper as happened last year.” Remember, Sony’s Bullet Train was the last huzzah last summer before studio movies went dry to the post-pandemic logjam in post-production. This August we have marquee fare in Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (August 2), Warner Bros’ The Meg 2 (August 4), Universal’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter (August 11), Sony’s Gran Turismo (August 11), Universal’s raunchy R-rated talking-animals comedy Strays (August 18), Warner Bros/DC’s Blue Beetle (August 18) and Sony’s The Equalizer 3 (September 1).

Disney, despite stumbling with Dial of Destiny and Elemental, is leading all studios at the summer box office thus far with an estimated $811M, per Deadline calculations, and from a diverse slate that includes 20th Century Studios fare and tentpoles. That’s more than the combined $620M that Universal and Sony have pulled in for the beach season. Disney is providing a diverse slate of theatrical releases to cinemas post-pandemic, and it’s largely being very good about long windows (none of this 17-days-to-Disney+ stuff); all this despite the beating the studio took for going theatrical day-and-date on their streaming service back in summer 2021 under the CEO Bob Chapek era.

Summer currently reps 42% of the $4.5M running domestic box office cume this year for January 1-July 2. Overall, 2023 is 18% ahead of 2022 and 21% behind 2019.

Currently Disney owns five of the top 10 movies in summer; here is the list for May 1-July 2:

1.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Dis) – $354.8M
2.) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) – $339.8M
3.) The Little Mermaid (Dis) – $281M
4.) Fast X (Uni) – $145.4M
5.) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Par) – $136.1M
6.) The Flash (WB) – $99.2M
7.) Elemental (Dis) – $88.7M
8.) The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Ill/Uni) – $82.6M (of a total cume that is $573.4M)
9.) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Dis) – $60M
10.) Boogeyman (Dis/20th) – $40.9M
 
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