Bob Iger at the Pandora dedication in 2017 On February 8, 2023, the Walt Disney Company held its quarterly earnings call. It’s the first one since Bob Iger returned as the company’s CEO. If you’d like to listen to the full call, you can find it here. Here are a few brief highlights.
The company will be reorganized into three segments; Disney Entertainment, ESPN, Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products. This will be fully implemented by the end of 2023. Sadly, 7,000 jobs will be cut in the reorganization.
There was a small amount of theme park news. A new Avatar experience is coming to Disneyland. This is based on the success of the second Avatar film. No further details were given. Iger also said that the theme parks had an “outstanding first quarter”. Overall the theme parks are performing well. Part of the success is being attributed to Disney Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane.
On to movies, sequels were announced for Toy Story, Frozen, and Zootopia. Tim Allen later confirmed his involvement in Toy Story 5 on Twitter.
Disney+ lost 2.4 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2022. This was also when Disney+ reorganized its bundles and raised prices. Iger said that streaming remains a top priority.
All in all, it seems like it was a successful call. Walt Disney Company stock has seen a slight rise since.