It’s no secret that Disney is in deep trouble financially.
The entertainment giant’s top executives appear to have become ideologically possessed in an apparent bid to kill the company—Disney has lost over one billion dollars since the start of conservative boycotts.
It isn’t very hard to see why scores of concerned parents have either boycotted the company outright or cut their consumption of Disney movies, merchandise, and television programs.
GBN News Reporter Darren Grimes presented this headline and asked: “Would you change what your children can watch to avoid woke propaganda?”
Would you change what your children can watch to avoid woke propaganda? pic.twitter.com/fPfw4RgIBK
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) August 31, 2023
Additionally, the company is reportedly suffering due to low revenues from its streaming service and its large number of owned networks and intellectual properties.
Why does Disney own National Geographic, ESPN, ABC, Lifetime, and the History Channel? They need to focus on what they previously did best: animated entertainment suitable for families.
These numerous woes are enough to end any large company, yet the entertainment giant shows no sign of reversing course.
According to the latest reports, Disney has been severely underestimating financial costs on some of its biggest Blockbuster movies.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, which released last year, reportedly cost roughly ~$95 million more to produce than the original budget estimates.
It stands to reason that the entertainment giant also went over budget on several other recent film releases.
This spells bad news for Disney as films typically have to bring in double the production costs merely to break even at the box office.
Film Updates, a news outlet covering developments in the entertainment industry, was critical of the company’s recent decision to ignore HR problems plaguing both Disney and the broader industry. Film Updates explained:
“Instead of simply paying writers and actors what they deserve, Disney is reportedly looking to hire a senior executive to “lead crisis communications response efforts” and “assist senior executives in preparing for media events” and “interviews.”
This follows a disastrous interview with Bob Iger, in which he called the actors and writers’ strikes “very disturbing,” and their demands “not realistic.”
Instead of simply paying writers and actors what they deserve, Disney is reportedly looking to hire a senior executive to “lead crisis communications response efforts” and “assist senior executives in preparing for media events” and “interviews.”
This follows a disastrous… pic.twitter.com/BcmJA7frTU
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 1, 2023
Forbes dissected the numbers:
As with all UK companies, its financial statements are released in stages long after the period they relate to.
The latest set was released earlier this week and covers the year to May 8, 2022 which was two days after Doctor Strange 2 was released.
During the year, $135.3 million (£106.5 million) was spent on making the movie with the majority of it going on post-production.
When this is combined with the $213.7 million that had already been incurred during pre-production and filming it gives the movie total costs of $349 million.
OutKick’s Clay Travis presented this chart of Disney’s stock price and noted: “Disney stock just hit another nearly ten year low. The company is in danger of falling below $80 a share for the first time since January of 2014. Look at this chart. Complete and total disaster.”
Disney stock just hit another nearly ten year low. The company is in danger of falling below $80 a share for the first time since January of 2014. Look at this chart. Complete and total disaster. pic.twitter.com/mpAW3hTLG6
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) September 1, 2023
A more detailed analysis of Disney’s stock shows a steady downtrend for the company’s stock price, at the time of this writing Disney’s stock is trading at $81.87 per share.
Seeking Alpha, a stock and investing site, had this to say about Disney’s stock and the current writers’ strike:
How might the strike impact Disney?
It could cause (if not already causing) a loss of revenue for DIS.
As just mentioned, the strike has effectively shut down production of new content, so Disney would be unable to release them on its streaming services, such as Disney+ and Hulu.
Second, a number of films that DIS is undertaking could be delayed or unreleased because of the strike.
It’s difficult to establish a definitive causal relationship here and quantify how much delay is caused by the strike.
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