Today, The Walt Disney Company released its Earnings Report for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2021.
Magic Kingdom
These reports and the subsequent Earnings Calls often reveal a lot of information about the Walt Disney Company’s business operations, and this one is no different! We’re here to give you a look at the major points from the just-released report.
In the Q4 earnings call last year, we learned that Disney is shifting its focus to a direct-to-consumer model. We also learned that Disney’s Investor Day would be HUGE (and it was), with lots of exciting announcements for Disney entertainment.
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Disney predicted that Quarter 1 of this fiscal year may not be great, and we’re here to see if that was true!
Overall Financial Results
The first fiscal quarter of the year took place from October 2020 through January 2nd, 2021, and marks the fourth fiscal quarter to be significantly impacted by the global health crisis. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, a quarter that was prior to the global health crisis, Disney has seen a significant drop in performance. This has been the case with many of the recent Earning Reports.
©The Walt Disney Company
Overall, Disney reported a 98% drop in earnings from continuing operations for Q1. The prior year saw Earning Per Share at $1.17 where this quarter brought in just $0.02. Income reflected an equal drop of 98% from the prior year’s Q1.
Parks, Experiences and Products
The largest adverse impact on the company’s earnings came from the situation with the Parks, Experiences and Products segment. The report notes an approximate $2.6 billion loss in Q1 “due to revenue lost as a result of the closures and reduced operating capacities.”
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On the other side of the segment, Disney also spent significantly less money on the theme parks this quarter. There was an approximate 43% drop in investments in parks, resorts, and other property from last year.
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The company has also incurred significant additional costs as a result of implementing safety measures for guests, employees, and talent across their segments. At this time, they continue to anticipate a loss of approximately $1 billion as these measures continue into 2021.
Click here to learn more about this anticipated cost.
Disney Media and Entertainment
The situation for Disney Media and Entertainment saw similar results to last year with only a 2% decrease in operating income. Last year’s Q1 saw an income of $1,474,000,000 and this year saw $1,451,000,000.
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The Direct-to-Consumer segment continues to see growth with Disney+ increasing subscriber count by over 350%, ESPN+ increasing subscriber count by 83%, and Hulu increasing subscriber count by 30%. Disney+ currently reports approximately 94.9 million subscribers.
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We’ll be checking out the Earnings Call from The Walt Disney Company, and will share all of the biggest information with you. Stay tuned for updates to this post and for more coverage!
The BIGGEST Details You Missed From Disney’s Q4 Earnings Call.
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I have really enjoyed your site and videos because you just offer really good information and fun tips while maintaining your journalistic integrity. But the inflammatory nature of headline for this article falls well short of those ideals..
The truth is, if you listened to the investor’s call they didn’t LOSE billions – they fell short compared to their record year in 2019. Which would have been a more accurate headline and representation of the article.
As business owners, I’m sure you understand the difference between falling short and losing money – there’s a big difference.
Please don’t become yet another one of those sites, like Inside The Magic has become, that relies on hype and hyperbole to attract clickthrough.
If you choose to look at the responses to this article being posted on FB you can see that there are MANY people that are not happy about the manipulative nature of that this headline and call it out as the clickbait that it is.
I agree, the headline makes you think billions were lost, but not net billions, gross billions….a huge difference. Please walk the fine line