The Ledger
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Steve Jobs demanded 100% of Pixar film profits in renegotiation with Disney
“He proposes a deal to Eisner, and this is where the relationship becomes irreparable. Pixar should actually be getting a hundred percent of the profits, not 50%, and they're now prepared to fund the budget themselves, too. Disney would just get a 10% distribut…”
Top weekly Disney+ movies are consistently Pixar and Disney Animation
“We've heard that the vast majority of the top 15 movies viewed every week on Disney Plus are either Pixar or Disney Animation. Not live action, not Star Wars, not The Avengers. The stuff that kids watch over and over. And those Disney animation movies are all …”
Disney secretly formed Circle 7 Animation to make Pixar sequels without Pixar
“Disney actually does start a new studio inside the company called Circle Seven Animation. That will be tasked with developing, right away, Toy Story III, Monsters, Inc. II, and Finding Nemo II.”
The NFL traded NFL Network to ESPN for a 10% equity stake
“So August, 20, 25, the NFL reached a deal with Disney and ESPN to essentially sell the NFL network, the NFL's cable network and the NFL's official fantasy app to ESPN for a 10% equity stake in all of ESPN in return for this swap.”
Disney incurred approximately $13 billion in cumulative operating losses building streaming
“Cumulatively, there were thirteen billion dollars or so of losses that Disney incurred in building it out in that segment.”
Gilbert: ESPN generates three billion dollars annually in operating income
“Yeah, it's a declining asset that does three billion dollars a year now in operating income.”
Gilbert: Original Pixar films have set no box office records in a decade
“If you look at the new Pixar films developed in the last 10 years, nine, 10 years, none of them have set new records. The only record setters and real smash hits are these sequels.”
Rosenthal: Bass family was forced to liquidate $2B in Disney shares
“In the days after September 11th, they face a margin call on their other investments. They have to become forced sellers of two billion dollars worth of Disney shares, which puts even further downward pressure on the Disney stock, which has already just fallen…”
Gilbert: Toy Story was the first non-Disney animated blockbuster
“It made twenty-nine million in its opening weekend, went on to become the number one film in the U.S., and it was the first ever animated film That was a blockbuster that was not created by Disney.”
Gilbert: Disney committed $60B over a decade to parks and cruises
“So in 2023, they announced That they're investing sixty billion dollars of capital expenditures over the next decade into parks and cruises.”
Rosenthal: Disney grew market cap from $50B to $200B from 2005-2015
“Disney's market cap is up four X to two hundred billion dollars up from the fifty billion dollars when Bob took over. Overall revenue grows from thirty two billion to fifty two billion. Operating income goes from 4.7 to 14.7 billion.”
Rosenthal: Disney Merged Fox India Assets with Reliance at Huge Markdown
“Those assets end up not performing for Disney nearly as well as they thought they would. They end up merging them with Reliance in twenty-twenty-four in a deal that values them at only a fraction of what they value them in the Fox acquisition.”
By 2015, Disney generated over $50B annually in gross retail merchandise sales
“By 2015, Disney is doing over fifty billion dollars a year in gross sales at retail of merchandise up almost two X over the past five years.”
Gilbert: Netflix, YouTube, and Disney Generate Hollywood's Major Profits
“If you just do the very simple exercise of looking who generates profits in the movie TV Hollywood landscape right now, it is Netflix, YouTube, and Disney generating the large profit streams.”
Mickey Mouse watch sold 2.5 million units and saved Ingersoll Watch Company
“In 1933, right after he takes over, he does a deal with the Ingersoll watch company to manufacture the famous Mickey Mouse watch. That watch would sell two and a half million units over the next two years. The Ingersoll watch company was about to go bankrupt d…”
Historical film box office split was 65% theater, 22% studio
“65% actually gets retained at the exhibitor, or the theater. 13% goes to the distributor, and 22% goes to the studio.”
The Mickey Mouse Club surpassed Boy and Girl Scouts combined
“Pretty quickly, there are eight hundred Mickey Mouse clubs across the country with more than one million total members. That is more members than the Boy and Girl Scouts of America combined at this point in time.”
Rosenthal: ESPN lost 3 million subscribers in 2015, falling to 92M
“It would come out later in Disney's annual report that ESPN lost three million subscribers that year. Which still meant it had ninety-two million in total.”
Gilbert: Disney net income grew fivefold to $12.4B under Iger
“Revenue tripled from thirty one billion in 2005 to 94,000,000,020 years later, and net income went from 2.5 billion to 12.4 billion. So interestingly, net income outpaced revenue. They became five times more profitable while generating three times more revenue…”
Rosenthal: Disney stock fell nearly 25% following 9/11 attacks
“Disney stock falls nearly 25% in the days after the September 11th attacks.”
Rosenthal: Disney+ hit 10 million signups in 24 hours
“Disney gets ten million signups within the first 24 hours. Twenty-six million in the first quarter.”
Disney+ Reached 100M Subscribers Within 16 Months
“When they announced Disney Plus originally, Disney said that their goal was to get 60 to ninety million subscribers within five years. All of a sudden, COVID happens. Everybody's sitting at home. Disney gets a hundred million subscribers within 16 months.”
Gilbert: MCU became highest-grossing film franchise at nearly $32B box office
“By twenty-twenty-five, the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Has become the most successful film franchise in history.
Generating nearly thirty-two billion dollars at the box office.
That's more than Star Wars.
That's more than James Bond.”
By 1994, Disney's market cap topped all other traditional media companies
“So by 1994, Disney's market cap hits twenty two billion dollars, up 10 X from when the Eisner crew took over, and it becomes the highest valued Of all the traditional media companies, more valuable than Time Warner, more valuable than Viacom, more valuable tha…”
Rosenthal: Disney Parks generated $10B in operating profit last year
“Last year, Disney Parks and Experiences contributed ten billion dollars in operating profit to Disney.”
Rosenthal: Disney sold 3M Frozen dresses in the movie's first year
“After Frozen comes out, Disney sells three million Elsa and Anna dresses in the first year after the movie's released.”
Gilbert: Disney lost billions over half a decade transitioning to streaming
“They're in the midst of a transition to streaming with Disney Plus and Hulu. And ESPN making giant technology and marketing investments to support that transition that lost billions for half a decade.”
Gilbert: Pixar's first customer check came from Disney for CAPS
“The first check to Pixar Inc. Is from Disney to work with them and create the CAPS system for improving their two D animation.”
AOL's Steve Case pitched Michael Eisner on a merger before Time Warner
“Steve Case approached him before Time Warner about an AOL Disney combination.”
Disney recouped just $325,000 on Fantasia's $2.3 million budget
“The budget for Fantasia was 50% bigger than Snow White, and in the first run at the box office, they tried to use Fantasound, this new sound technology they had invented, and distributors didn't pick it up to do like a real first run, and so out of the 2.3 mil…”
Disney created four sponsored pavilions for the 1964 World's Fair
“The four exhibitions that they create for the 1964 World's Fair, many of which should probably sound familiar to you, It's a Small World, sponsored by Pepsi and UNICEF... Two, the Carousel of Progress, sponsored by General Electric. Three, The Magic Skyway, sp…”
1944 Snow White re-release brought Disney $3 million on minimal costs
“So in 1944, they re-release Snow White in theaters, and it brings in three million dollars in revenue to Disney on just a, like a few 100,000 in Cost.”
Snow White used two million sketches and 250,000 finished drawings
“Two million sketches and 250,000 finished drawings and cells go into Snow White.”