For Disney, a Stricken Empire
The entertainment conglomerate’s vastness, once its strength, has posed a challenge during the pandemic.
It was once a prospering kingdom, the envy of all the land. But in crept an invisible menace.
It could be the story line for a classic Disney movie. Instead, Disney is living it — and happily ever after is nowhere in sight.
After a decade of spectacular growth, the entertainment conglomerate has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Its
14 theme parks (annual attendance: 157 million) delivered record profits in 2019.
They’re now padlocked. Its movie studios (there are eight) controlled a staggering 40 percent of the domestic box office last year. Now, they’re sitting at a near standstill.
“From great to good to bad to ugly,” Michael Nathanson, a leading media analyst, wrote in a report of Disney’s extreme reversal in fortunes. “Recession will cause further pain.”
On Tuesday, Disney’s new chief executive,
Bob Chapek, and Robert A. Iger, Disney’s executive chairman, will offer their first assessment of the damage. Disney is scheduled to report quarterly results after the stock market closes. Analysts are expecting per-share profit of
88 cents, down 45 percent.
The true scale of the pandemic’s impact on Disney will not be known until late summer, when Mr. Chapek reports results for the current quarter — the one in which Disney has furloughed an estimated 100,000 employees, slashed executive pay up to 50 percent and taken out a
$5 billion line of credit to bolster its liquidity (on top of $8.25 billion secured in March). The Disney board must decide in June whether to pay the company’s usual summer dividend; management is unlikely to recommend it.......
The entertainment conglomerate’s vastness, once its strength, has posed a challenge during the pandemic.
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