DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[irlandaise]

I don't know what it means.

I thought I would share the article because box office successes or failures can affect TWDC bottom line and stock prices too?

Oh yes, understood! There are frequent postings here about how Disney movies are doing or likely to do. I was just trying to understand that industry lingo.

 

[bryaalre]

What does this mean:

Debuting over Veterans Day weekend could create some backloading for the film, as the Saturday holiday will be observed on Friday.

I thought getting a lot of attendance in the first day or two was called frontloading. Aside from some showings the evening of Thursday the 9th, Friday the 10th is the first day for "The Marvels," so if a lot of people come on Friday because they don't have to work, isn't that the very definition of frontloading??

I also want to know whether that cat has superhero powers.

I'm thinking they are meaning more in terms of lower preview % of opening weekend as people will go watch it Friday vs Thursday compared to a usual Marvel movie.

Marvel lately has seen their opening weekends consist of higher and higher previews as everyone tries to watch it the first day. Thor Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange 2 had nearly 20% of their weekend consist of previews. I am assuming that the author referring to that but it is a confusing way to put it.

 

[wabbott]

https://deadline.com/2023/10/nbcuni...is-ad-revenue-ahead-of-tokyo-pace-1235576897/

NBCUniversal Says Olympic Games Remain “The Great Aggregator Of Viewership”, With Paris Ad Revenue Ahead Of Tokyo Pace
By Dade Hayes - Business Editor
October 18, 2023 9:33am PDT

NBCUniversal still considers the Olympic Games to be “the great aggregator of viewership,” in the words of top exec Dan Lovinger, and sees 2024 revenue for Paris on pace to exceed the tally of the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Lovinger provided the outlook on Olympic ads during Advertising Week in New York, echoing recent public comments by NBCU. He said it has sold out its inventory on live coverage of the Opening Ceremony as well as all planned halftime sponsorship positions for team sports like soccer and basketball across linear, streaming and digital platforms.

The Paris Games will run from July 26 to August 11. Due to Covid, the Tokyo Games were eventually held in 2021, but many ad categories still hadn’t returned to full strength by then and live telecasts were defined by masks and empty seats, not exactly a marketer’s dream.

Digital is on a growth curve, NBCU said. In a Summer Games first, every Olympic and Paralympic event will stream live and on demand on Peacock, with NBC and Peacock serving as primary hubs. Paris will have more programming hours on the NBC broadcast network than any previous Games, while Peacock will offer “the most comprehensive Olympic destination in U.S. media history,” according to NBCU. For the Paralympics, there will be more than 140 televised hours of coverage as well as 1,500 streaming hours on Peacock and digital platforms.

“The Olympic and Paralympic Games is the great aggregator of viewership bringing cultures and communities together to celebrate the pinnacle of athletic achievement and root for their favorite athletes and team,” Lovinger said. The Games offer sponsors and ad buyers “a premium environment to reach dedicated and engaged consumers anywhere and everywhere they are and builds long-lasting impacts for brands within and beyond the Games.”

Jenny Storms, CMO of Sports & Entertainment for NBCU, said the company has “deployed a new consumer engagement vision and reimagined marketing approach for Paris 2024.”

The city itself is a central part of marketing and promotional efforts, given that it is a top destination for Gen Z and Millennials, with the Eiffel Tower one of the leading locations for social media posts.

An early start on marketing the Games, Storms added, has been “bringing Paris 2024 into the cultural conversation and generating millions of impressions and higher intent-to-view figures than recent Games.”

While it had broadcast a couple of one-off editions in the 1960s and ’70s, NBC began its unbroken run as the exclusive U.S. rights holder to the Olympics in 1988.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/18/netflix-nflx-earnings-q3-2023.html

Netflix shares pop as streamer reports better-than-expected profit

Published Wed, Oct 18 2023 - 12:00 PM EDT - Updated 1 Min Ago
Sarah Whitten@sarahwhit10

NFLX+32.41 (+9.36%)

LOS ANGELES — Netflix shares popped more than 10% after the closing bell Wednesday as the company reported a boost in subscriber growth driven by a password-sharing crackdown efforts and interest in its new ad-supported tier.

Here are the results:

• Earnings: $3.73 vs $3.49 per share, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv
• Revenue: $8.54 billion vs $8.54 billion, according to LSEG
• Total memberships expected: 247.15 million vs. 243.88 million, according to Street Account

Netflix in the last week has seen a series of slashed price targets and revised forecasts from Wall Street analysts, most of whom are awaiting further clarity on the company’s growth strategy.

Company executives previously warned investors that its ad tier is still in its infancy and shareholders shouldn’t expect it to have a major impact on revenue until at least the end of the year.

Additionally, they have signaled that operating margins will grow more gradually going forward as it invests in more growth opportunities.

It’s been less than six months since Netflix instituted its password crackdown, so it’s unclear what impact that initiative has had for the company and how much executives will share.

Shares of the company slid before the earnings report Wednesday, but they’re up about 17% so far this year.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=nflx#cobssid=s

Market Summary > Netflix Inc (NFLX)
346.19 USD −9.53 (2.68%) today
Closed: Oct 18, 4:17 PM EDT • Disclaimer
After hours 377.99 +31.80 (9.19%)

 

[fatmanatee]

Thankfully I get it for free with T-Mobile but we’re reaching the point where i have to start making decisions on whether these cost increases are worth it.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/netflix-price-increase-basic-premium-1235761124/

 

[wabbott]

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=nflx#cobssid=s

4:55 PM EDT • NFLX
After hours 389.00 +42.81 (12.37%)

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DIS?p=DIS

The Walt Disney Company (DIS)

NYSE - Nasdaq Real Time Price. Currency in USD

84.68-1.52 (-1.76%) At close: 04:02PM EDT
85.47 +0.79 (+0.93%) After hours: 4:57PM EDT

 

[clarker99]

Record Net Income quarter and 8.7M subs added. I think it is safe to say that the password sharing crackdown is working. Netflix has proved to be sticky and there are price hikes coming.

4M subs added in the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) region. EMEA cruising passed the USA/Canada region in sub count.

 

[fatmanatee]

Thankfully I get Netflix for free through T-Mobile but the way things are going I’m not sure how long this will last.

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/netflix-price-increase-basic-premium-1235761124/

 

[wabbott]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...disney-gives-peek-at-sports-channel#xj4y7vzkg

ESPN’s Profits Are Down 20% as Disney Seeks Strategic Investor
By Thomas Buckley
October 18, 2023 at 4:13 PM CDT
Updated on
October 18, 2023 at 4:45 PM CDT

Profit at the ESPN sports networks fell 20% through the first nine months of fiscal 2023 as Walt Disney Co. provided the first peek at that business on a standalone basis.

Earnings at the company’s sports-media business fell to $1.48 billion in the nine months ended July 1, Disney said in a filing Wednesday. Sales declined 1.3% to $13.2 billion.

The Burbank, California-based entertainment giant released separate results for the sports division, which includes the flagship ESPN network and related channels, as management seeks a strategic partner for the business. The numbers indicate a still very profitable operation, even amid the growing challenges of weaker TV advertising markets and subscribers canceling cable TV.

The unit generated operating income of $2.71 billion in the previous fiscal year on sales of $17.3 billion, the company said.

In the third quarter, the sports division posted profit of $854 million on sales of $4.3 billion. More than half of that revenue, or $2.6 billion, came from cable and satellite TV subscribers. Some $1.15 billion was from advertising.

Disney acquired ESPN through the purchase of Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. At the time, it was an afterthought to the ABC network, but the business, with its twin revenue streams from advertising and cable subscriber fees, became a huge source of profit.

More recently, ESPN has been challenged by subscribers canceling their cable subscriptions and the company needing to continue to invest in ever more expensive sports rights.


https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1744489/000174448923000203/fy2023_q4xreportingxchange.htm

SEGMENT REPORTING CHANGES

This document provides summary recast segment financial information for the nine months ended July 1, 2023, fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2021 to reflect the following changes (which have no impact on our historically reported net income or earnings per share):

Media and Entertainment Reorganization

In February 2023, the Company announced that, to restore creativity to the center of our business, we will reorganize our media and entertainment businesses, which have been previously reported in one segment, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. As a result of the reorganization, effective with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, the financial results of the media and entertainment businesses will be reported in two segments, Entertainment and Sports, thereby providing increased transparency by giving incremental detail on our linear networks and sports businesses.

Consumer Products Revenue Share

Under our new segment financial reporting, the Entertainment segment will receive an intersegment allocation of revenues from the consumer products business, which is included in the Experiences segment (renamed from Disney Parks, Experiences and Products). This revenue allocation, which is now consistent with the approach taken prior to our last segment reporting changes in 2020, is meant to reflect royalties on merchandise licensing revenues generated on intellectual property (IP) created by the Entertainment segment, more consistent with certain of our industry peers and reflective of the value this IP brings to our consumer products business.

TABLE OF CONTENTS	Page
• Significant Operations and Major Revenue and Expense Categories by Segment	2 - 4
• Summary of Segment Reporting Changes	5 - 6
• Summary Recast Quarterly Segment Results for the nine months ended July 1, 2023 and fiscal year 2022

 

[wabbott]

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/earningsrecast.asp

What Is an Earnings Recast?

An earnings recast is the act of amending and re-releasing a previously released earnings statement with a specific intent. One of the most typical reasons for recasting earnings is to show the impact of a discontinued business. It might also be done to separate out earnings-related events that are deemed to be non-recurring or otherwise non-representative of normal business earnings.

An earnings recast is also known as an "earnings restatement."

 

[wabbott]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b...venue-profits-revealed-first-time-1235622182/

How Profitable Is ESPN? Disney Breaks Out Figures for First Time

The sports unit had revenue of $16 billion and profits of $2.9 billion in 2022 — more than Disney's entire entertainment business that year — as the company prepares a new financial reporting structure.

October 18, 2023 2:43pm PDT
by Alex Weprin

Just how profitable is ESPN to The Walt Disney Co.? For the first time, there’s a clear answer, and it shows just how lucrative the sports business is for the company.

Beginning next quarter, Disney will change how it reports its quarterly financials. The move comes after CEO Bob Iger’s reorganization earlier this year to “to restore creativity to the center of our business.”

The new structure will consist of parks and experiences, entertainment and sports (which is almost entirely ESPN, with Star-branded sports channels in India comprising a small portion). Whereas before ESPN was lumped in with all of Disney’s linear TV and streaming assets in the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division, and before that was folded into its other TV assets, including ABC and the Disney cable channels, it will now occupy its own division, led by Jimmy Pitaro.

According to an SEC filing Wednesday that outlines the new financial reporting structure, ESPN delivered $16 billion in revenue in fiscal 2022 (the company’s fiscal year ended Oct. 2022), and had profits of $2.9 billion.

For comparison, the new “entertainment” division, which includes Disney’s other TV networks and streaming services, as well as its film and TV studios, had revenues of $39.6 billion in fiscal 2022 … but profits of only $2.1 billion, thanks to Disney’s yet-to-be-profitable streaming business.

That lucrative profit margin for ESPN underscores why the company seems intent to keep it for the time being, and why it was so eager to cut a deal with Charter Communications and end its blackout last month.

Indeed, a deeper read of the finances show that most of ESPN’s revenues came from pay TV carriage fees ($10.1 billion), compared with advertising revenue of $4.4 billion. As cord-cutting has worsened, ESPN has bore the brunt of it for Disney, thanks to its lucrative carriage deals.

Now Disney is looking for partners to become minority shareholders in ESPN, with sports chief Jimmy Pitaro saying earlier this year the company wants “partners that we think can make the flagship product more compelling” as it plans a streaming offering. Hearst, an early investor in ESPN, continues to own a 20 percent stake in the channel.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/netf...rowth-as-streamer-hikes-prices-234257141.html

Netflix CFO says company has 'long runway of margin growth' as streamer hikes prices
Alexandra Canal · Senior Reporter
Wed, October 18, 2023 at 6:42 PM CDT

Netflix (NFLX) said its operating margins have more room to run as the streamer leans on initiatives like its crackdown on password sharing, cheaper ad-supported tier, and newly announced price hikes.

"We don't think we're anywhere near a margin ceiling. We've got a long runway of margin growth," Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann said on the company's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Operating margin, a key profitability metric, hit 22.4% in the quarter, slightly ahead of Netflix's own projection of 22.2%. The company said it expects full-year operating margin to hit 20% — the high end of its previous forecast of 18% to 20%.

The update is an encouraging sign for investors who have been hyper-focused on the company's margin outlook after Neumann doubled down last month on full-year margins falling in the range of 18% to 20%. Consensus estimates are just below 20% for full-year 2023.

Neumann added the company's full-year operating margin should improve to roughly 22% to 23% next year, assuming no material swings in foreign exchange.

(Source: Netflix Q3 earnings report)

Netflix did not provide a longer-term projection, although management has hinted the company has the potential to eventually secure margins similar to other media networks, which historically have been in the range between 40% to 50%.

"We have a very scalable business model," Neumann said. "It's a global network at scale that has, in many ways, not been seen with legacy entertainment networks. So we think we've got a long way to go."

The executive noted the platform will continue to take a "disciplined approach" when it comes to balancing margin improvement with investments for future growth.
He explained there are many areas Netflix can continue to invest in such as existing content categories both domestically and overseas, in addition to building out its advertising capabilities, live programming, and new content categories like gaming.
Consumers, however, will begin to more heavily bear the cost of those investments after Netflix said it will once again hike prices in in the US, UK, and France.

Netflix said its operating margins have more room to run after the company beat earnings expectations on both the top and bottom lines and reported a surge in subscribers.

Starting Wednesday, Netflix said its Basic and Premium plans will now cost $11.99 and $22.99, respectively, in the US. That's up from the prior $9.99 and $19.99 price points. Netflix’s $6.99 ad-supported plan and $15.49 Standard plan will stay the same price.
Management said the price hikes will help improve average revenue per membership, or ARM, which decreased 1% year over year in the quarter, along with other metrics like operating margins.

"While we mostly paused price increases as we rolled out paid sharing, our overall approach remains the same — a range of prices and plans to meet a wide range of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more," the company said in its shareholder letter.

"Our starting price is extremely competitive with other streamers and at $6.99 per month in the US, for example, it’s much less than the average price of a single movie ticket," the letter continued.

Netflix reported a surge in third quarter subscriber additions of nearly 9 million as the company beat earnings expectations on both the top and bottom lines. The stock surged in after-hours trading as a result, climbing more than 12%.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.ft.com/content/3312bd87...traffic/partner/feed_headline/us_yahoo/auddev

Hollywood turns inward
Disney’s move to consider selling all or part of Indian operations points to a broader trend among the studios

by Anna Nicolaou
10/19/2023
Is Disney preparing to say goodbye to India? The US entertainment giant’s chief Bob Iger is considering a significant change of strategy by selling all or part of its India business.

Disney first entered India through a joint venture in the 1990s, when it was riding high from hits like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. More recently, India became a crucial part of Iger’s big bet on streaming after he acquired Rupert Murdoch’s Star television business in 2019.

But Disney has recently reached out to Blackstone and other investors to gauge their interest in buying a stake in its Indian arm, according to reports confirmed by the Financial Times. Disney’s potential retreat from the world’s most populous country has been somewhat lost in the long list of things Iger needs to figure out — such as finding his successor, an upcoming bill to buy out a minority stake in streaming service Hulu estimated to be at least $9bn, and the latest attack from billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz.

But it speaks to a broader global retrenchment by Hollywood. Paramount, owner of the eponymous movie studio, might scrap plans to launch its streaming service in India, according to Bloomberg. Warner Bros Discovery has hinted at similar caution about launching its Max streaming service in countries such as India.

WBD executive JB Perrette recently told a conference in Bali that the company would partner with local distributors in markets where subscriber revenue is “just too low” or cluttered with “a ton of other players, who are . . . losing a ton of money”. This is a reversal from the prevailing thinking among US media groups just a few years ago, when they were all trying to replicate the Netflix playbook. The world outside the US was always a key part of Netflix’s strategy.

As the tech company stomped into Hollywood, rattling the companies that had long run the entertainment business, Netflix executives spoke often of the importance of countries like Brazil or South Korea, where it was investing heavily in local-language fare.

The strategy was to go big: spend a lot of money on making TV shows, and then beam them into televisions in hundreds of countries throughout the world. This helped justify the money they were spending. If Netflix paid $20mn to make a show, the expense was at least divided up among more subscribers.

The incumbent US media groups initially tried to follow suit. But a series of challenges — such as rising interest rates, inflation, and a more impatient stock market — have led them to scale back these ambitions.

As it turns out, producing television in different countries is time-consuming, expensive, and can be hard to get right. Netflix had a big advantage. It took on this task during an era when Wall Street was sympathetic to — even enthusiastic about — its heavy spending. In a sense, Squid Game and Lupin are creatures of the era of rock-bottom interest rates.

The incumbents have not been afforded the same leniency. The current iteration of Hollywood is about delivering profit. It is not surprising then, that Disney is exploring options for India, where its streaming subscribers on average pay only 59 cents a month.
Disney has operated in India for decades but was flung deeper into the country through its blockbuster acquisition of Fox, which included Rupert Murdoch’s Star India — the TV business he and his sons had spent decades building in the fast-growing media market.

This was a boon to Iger’s initial streaming push. Star India contributed a multitude of early subscribers, inflating Disney’s streaming numbers at a time when investors were obsessed with subscriber additions. But a few years later, with the market fixated on profit, these low-paying India subscribers appear less valuable. To make matters worse, Disney last year lost the rights to stream Indian Premier League cricket matches, leading millions of people to cancel their subscriptions.

With Peltz pushing for “multiple” board seats at Disney, Iger is under pressure to cut costs further. Against this backdrop, losing money in India for another five years is not appealing. Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos seems to have noticed that his competition is backing away.

“When we first started doing this, I thought it was kind of unusual that about 80 per cent of television viewing around the world was US content and we’re like 5 per cent of the population,” Sarandos said at a conference last week. But he added streaming is a “hard” business and “you have to do it at scale”. “It’s really hard for the legacy businesses to navigate that,” he said.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.barrons.com/articles/disney-stock-espn-value-buy-sell-668a51f7?siteid=yhoof2

Disney Breaks Out ESPN Numbers for First Time. This Is How Much It Makes.
By Adam Clark
Oct 19, 2023, 9:16 am EDT

Walt Disney has disclosed ESPN’s financial figures separately for the first time. The sports broadcaster is still a significant profit engine for its parent company, but falling revenue and a relatively low operating margin show its challenges.

Disney (ticker: DIS) published a filing Wednesday that showed ESPN and other sports-related businesses made an operating profit of $1.48 billion in the nine months to July 1. Their revenue was $13.2 billion, down 1.3% from the same period a year earlier.

Earnings from ESPN therefore represented about 19% of Disney’s operating profit for that same period. Disney separated out the unit’s financials for the first time as part of a restructuring that it hopes will help attract external investment in ESPN, such as from the sports leagues whose games it shows to viewers.

At a first glance, the figures don’t suggest Disney is in line for a windfall.

KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel said the figures were negative for his previous estimation of ESPN’s value at about $30 billion, saying investors would likely be disappointed by its midteens percentage operating margin.

“We suspect it will be difficult for Disney to drive much better operating income given rising sports costs, including the upcoming NBA renewal,” Nispel wrote in a research note.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has said the company’s plan is for ESPN to eventually pursue a full direct-to-consumer model—its existing streaming service ESPN+ only offers limited live sporting events—reducing the chances of a spinoff of the business. Instead, he has said the company is considering strategic options for its linear TV channels such as ABC, FX, and National Geographic.

“This update can help set some expectations for both an eventual ESPN OTT [over-the-top] service’s financials, and can help set some parameters around valuation of any possible asset divestures,” Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen wrote in a research note. An over-the-top service would follow the direct-to-consumer model Iger has said ESPN will pursue.

Nollen has a Neutral rating and $94 target price on Disney stock. Disney shares were up 0.4% at $85.03 in premarket trading Thursday.

 

[clarker99]

The new $DIS reporting structure is not good for historical comparisons. Every segment has been affected in some way.

But nice that we can tease out ESPN+ numbers for the last 7 Quarters. ESPN+ EBITDA was actually $4m profit in Q3FY23. All numbers in millions.

 

[clarker99]

The new Disney ‘Sports’ segment per quarter. All numbers in millions.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-offers-peek-espn-profit-224154019.html

ESPN May Be Worth $22 Billion Based on First Look at Results
Thomas Buckley
Thu, October 19, 2023 at 11:45 AM CDT


(Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co.’s sports division could attract outside investors at a valuation of up to $22 billion, according to analysts, based on financial results that were made public for the first time.

Disney provided the results for its flagship ESPN network and related channels on a standalone basis in a filing on Wednesday. Earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger reorganized Disney into three divisions: entertainment, sports and parks. In July, he said the Burbank, California-based entertainment giant is seeking an investor to help accelerate ESPN’s transition to streaming from traditional TV.

Disney shares were little changed at $84.36 on Thursday after analysts wrote that ESPN’s margins were lower than expected. Profit at Disney’s sports TV networks fell 20% to $1.48 billion through the first nine months of fiscal 2023, according to the filing. Sales declined 1.3% to $13.2 billion.

Although earnings are contracting at the sports media unit, the numbers indicate a still fairly profitable operation, even amid the growing challenges of a weaker TV advertising market and subscribers canceling cable TV in favor of streaming services like Netflix Inc.
The division generated operating income of $2.71 billion on sales of $17.3 billion in the previous fiscal year, Disney said.

The numbers support a valuation of up to $22 billion, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Geetha Ranganathan said in a research note.

“Disney’s disclosure of ESPN’s standalone financials highlights the urgency for attracting investors and making an aggressive direct-to-consumer pivot.”
— Geetha Ranganathan, senior industry analyst
— Read the note here

In this year’s third quarter, the division, which also included results for the ESPN+ streaming service, posted profit of $854 million on sales of $4.3 billion. More than half of that revenue, or $2.6 billion, came from cable and satellite TV subscribers. Some $1.15 billion was from advertising.

India’s Star channels offset ESPN’s earnings. Star lost $444 million through nine months of this fiscal year, while the domestic ESPN channels earned $1.89 billion. Disney won the traditional broadcast TV rights for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament in a bidding war last year. More recently, the company has been looking to sell its Indian TV business.

Disney acquired ESPN through the purchase of Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. At the time, it was an afterthought to the ABC network, but the business, with its twin revenue streams from advertising and cable subscriber fees, became a huge source of profit.

ESPN, like other traditional TV channels, has been challenged by subscribers canceling their cable subscriptions and the need to continue to invest in ever more expensive sports rights.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-marvels-box-office-tracking-1235622799/

‘The Marvels’ Tracking for $75M-$80M Domestic Debut in Latest Test of Box Office Superhero Fatigue

The sequel looks to come in notably behind the $153.4 million launch of 'Captain Marvel' in 2019.
October 19, 2023 9:24am PDT
by Pamela McClintock

Female-frontedThe Marvels is tracking to open in the $75 million to $80 million range in the latest test of box office superhero fatigue. It launches Nov. 10.

The 33rd installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a sequel to the 2019 Brie Larson-starrer Captain Marvel, which opened to $153.4 million in North America, not adjusted for inflation. Tracking for The Marvels varies widely depending upon the research firm; NRG has it at $72 million-$88 million, while The Quorum thinks $80 million-$90 million.

The superhero film is unique in that it stars three female leads. And it was directed by Nia DaCosta, who is the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios movie, as well as the youngest director of an MCU film.

The last title from Marvel Studios’ that didn’t open to $70 million or more was Ant-Man in 2015 ($57.2 million). The majority of MCU movies (or 25 of them) have opened to $100 million or more domestically, with eight movies coming in at $150 million or higher.

There’s extra pressure on exhibitors for The Marvels to do well after Dune: Part II abandoned its Nov. 2 release date because of the ongoing actors strike and the accompanying prohibition on talent doing any promotion. Marvel Studios and Disney decided to keep The Marvels on its date but had hoped the strike would end in time for the cast to do publicity.

There’s also ongoing concern about superhero fatigue. DC has been hit the hardest, highlighted by The Flash bombing this summer after opening to $55 million domestically. A major exception to any fatigue was Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The threequel debuted to $106 million domestically on its way to grossing $845.6 million globally, just behind the second film ($863.7 million).

In the new movie, Larson is joined by Iman Vellani, the breakout star of the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, as well as Teyonah Parris as the grown-up version of Captain Marvel character Monica Rambeau. The actor made her Marvel debut with WandaVision, which counted The Marvels screenwriter Megan McDonnell among its writers.

The Marvels finds the heroes linked in a quite inconvenient way: Any time one of them uses their powers, they switch locations with one another, as was teased in the season finale of Ms. Marvel last year.

Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur and Saagar Shaikh also star in The Marvels.