The Walt Disney Company reported earnings for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 29, 2018, smashing Wall Street's expectations. There's apparently no stopping the House of Mouse who, even before completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and TV assets saw both quarterly and year-over-year growth in three of its four core segments.
For the fourth quarter, Disney reported revenue of $14.31 billion and earnings of $1.48 a share for the three months that ended Sept. 30. That's a 12 percent increase from the year-ago quarter's $12.78 billion and earnings of $1.07 a share. The company easily beat analysts expectations of $1.34 per share on $13.73 billion in revenue.
Most notably, Disney's Studio Entertainment segment saw revenues for the quarter increase a 50 percent to a whopping $2.2 billion. The company attributed this to the theatrical success of both Pixar's
Incredibles 2 and Marvel's
Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Incredibles 2, the highly anticipated sequel to 2004's animated hit about the Parr family of superheroes, was met with critical acclaim and commercial success. The film grossed over $600 million domestically with a combined worldwide total of $1.23 billion. Comparatively,
Cars 3 generated $383 million in the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, Marvel's
Ant-Man and the Wasp earned a respectable $216 million domestically and $622.4 million worldwide, proving to be a major factor in Disney's increased earnings as there was shockingly no Marvel film released in the prior-year quarter.
For the fiscal year, Disney reported a massive $59.43 billion in revenue, up eight percent year-over-year from the $55.14 billion in 2017. Disney reported adjusted earnings of $7.08 per share on its $59.43 billion revenue compared to Wall Street's projected earnings of $6.94 per share on $58.87 billion in revenue.
Studio Entertainment revenue grew 19 percent year-over-year with Disney specifically mentioning "the exceptional performance" of its theatrical releases driven by
Black Panther, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Avengers: Infinity War, and
Incredibles 2. All four of those films topped $1 billion worldwide, with
Avengers: Infinity War actually pulling in over $2 billion worldwide. On the year, Disney's Studio Entertainment earned revenues of $9.98 billion, up from the $8.38 billion in 2017.
Disney also made note of an increase in home entertainment results
"due to higher unit sales and net effective pricing... all of which reflected the performance of Avengers: Infinity War in the current quarter compared to Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 in the prior-year quarter." Solo: A Star Wars Story was also considered a "significant title" in the current quarter compared to the prior-year quarter's
Beauty and the Beast.
Despite the jump in Studio Entertainment revenue, Disney's Media Networks and Parks and Resorts segments were still the largest revenue drivers. The company's Media Networks segment earned yearly revenue of $24.5 billion (up four percent from $23.5 billion). Meanwhile, the Parks and Resorts segment earned yearly revenue of $20.39 billion (up 10 percent from $18.42 billion). The only division that saw a decrease both quarterly and yearly was Disney's Consumer Products and Interactive Media. Disney noted,
"Lower income from licensing activities was due to a decrease in revenue from products based on Star Wars and Cars and lower minimum guarantee shortfall recognition. These decreases were partially offset by lower third-party royalty expense and an increase in revenue from products based on Spider-Man."
Overall, it's hard not to be impressed with Disney's performance and investors have finally been rewarded after years of stagnation. Disney's stock was up 1.49 percent after-hours at the time of this writing.
“We’re very pleased with our financial performance in fiscal 2018, delivering record revenue, net income and earnings per share,” said Disney CEO Robert A. Iger.
“We remain focused on the successful completion and integration of our 21st Century Fox acquisition and the further development of our direct-to-consumer business, including the highly anticipated launch of our Disney-branded streaming service late next year.”
Looking ahead, it may seem difficult for Disney to top these sort of numbers, but never doubt the House of Mouse. 2019 will see the theatrical release of
Captain Marvel - Marvel's first female-led superhero movie - as well as
Avengers 4, the highly anticipated conclusion of the current MCU phase. Additionally, Disney will be launching its streaming service, now officially named Disney+, in late 2019. Disney will also be opening
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the
Star Wars-themed land located in Disney's Hollywood Studios. Oh yea, and let's not forget about 21st Century Fox's film and TV assets which will see the
X-Men, Fantastic Four, and plenty of other franchises come under Disney's umbrella.
Mickey Mouse truly is the Thanos of the entertainment universe.