One big piece of sustainable competitive advantage for a lot of firms is owning assets that have potential for future success (revenue streams, profit, competitive advantage, etc.)—that’s kind of the point of brand equity—and we are talking about a company that owns everything Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, ESPN, etc. They own a whole lot of stuff people deeply love. They build more stuff too (how many recent Dis/Pixar films could be built off, for instance—a bunch!)
They’ve mostly successfully navigated the fracturing of TV, increased competition on all fronts, a pandemic, massive political and cultural schism, etc.
This doesn’t mean they do everything right. What it does mean is that they can afford misses. Yeah, the parks have some misses, but c’mon. The doom and gloom I’m reading by some folks on this site focusing on
Genie+ or some member changes or a political stance or $$ increase etc. is understandable as y’all are super active members of a super active brand community and (like Harley-Davidson trying to expand angered its core) take it personally.
But all things considered, Disney is in great strategic shape.