Is Disney Doomed?

[PhysicalMediaMaestro]

Disney seems to be in really big trouble right now. The live-action remake of "Snow White" was a failure. "Elio" was a disappointment. Less people are going to Disney parks. Sure, the live-action remake of "Lilo and Stitch" is doing well, but that's the only good news coming out of Disney right now.

And I think things will only get worse for Disney. I think "Toy Story 5" is going to be a failure. The storyline is that the toys are coping with kids ignoring them because of their smartphones. I find it impossible to feel any sympathy for the toys in this scenario. The toys are capable of talking and moving around and having their own adventures without any human assistance, but they keep their abilities secret from the humans, and they wonder why the humans who own them are ignoring them? The solution is too simple. All the toys need to do is what they did at the end of the original "Toy Story" in front of Sid. Come to life in front of Bonnie. Show Bonnie what they can do and then they'll earn Bonnie's respect. In "Sesame Street", the Muppet characters and humans have toys that are sentient, living entities, and everyone's okay with that. Let me give you an example. Here's a Sesame Street episode with a ball that talks to Abby and Elmo:

Elmo and Abby’s Morning Routine | Sesame Street Full Episode - YouTube

See? Now you know how "Toy Story 5" will end.

Is Disney doomed to fade into irrelevancy or worse, to go out of business? And if not, how can Disney can be saved? Please let me know what you think. Have a nice day.

[Martoto]

blu-ray.com message boards are doomed.

[mwynn]

[Maddox121]

There's thousands of companies I see dying before Disney.

[starmike]

No.

Move along.

[Prohibida]

Studios are still struggling since 2020. No, they are not doomed. But they need to stay focus.

[BluBonnet]

[PhysicalMediaMaestro]

Originally Posted by Maddox121

There's thousands of companies I see dying before Disney.

Two-thirds of businesses go out of business in ten years or less, so Disney's hung on longer than most. I just wonder how long Disney can keep hanging on.

[PhysicalMediaMaestro]

Originally Posted by Prohibida

Studios are still struggling since 2020. No, they are not doomed. But they need to stay focus.

Not all studios. Paramount and Universal seem to be doing well.

[mwynn]

For Disney's fiscal year 2025, which ends in September 2025, the company has released revenue figures for the first two quarters.
Overall Revenue: In the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 (ended March 29, 2025), Disney reported total revenue of $23.6 billion, a 7% increase year-over-year.
Segment Breakdown (Q2 2025):
Entertainment: Generated $10.68 billion in revenue.
Sports: Primarily driven by ESPN, brought in $4.53 billion.
Experiences: Including theme parks, cruises, and products, contributed $8.89 billion.
Six-Month Revenue (through March 29, 2025): Disney reported revenue of $48.3 billion, up 6% compared to the prior year.

The Walt Disney Company announced a revenue of 91.36 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, up from 88.9 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier – an annual growth of about three percent.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by PhysicalMediaMaestro

Not all studios. Paramount and Universal seem to be doing well.

Paramount Global's annual revenue for 2024 was $29.213 billion, representing a 1.48% decline from 2023.

Comcast Corporation, the parent company of NBCUniversal (which includes Universal Studios), reported varying performance across its business segments in 2024.
The Theme Parks segment contributed 6.52% of Comcast's total revenue in 2024.
Comcast's first-quarter 2025 results indicated a 0.7% decrease in revenue for the connectivity and platforms segment, which includes broadband services.
Despite challenges in some areas, streaming service Peacock showed positive signs, with increased subscribers and narrowed losses in Q1 2025.

[Prohibida]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

[Martoto]

How come it's the same people who demonise Disney for being a thing that relentlessly sucks money out of the public's pockets, that also predict that it is a financial basket case or on a steep and irrevocable financial decline?

[mwynn]

Sony.

Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) ending Dec 31, 2024: $91.053B, a 0.96% increase year-over-year.
Calendar Year 2024: $90.14B, a 1.32% increase.
Calendar Year 2023: $88.97B, a 16.18% increase.
Fiscal Year Ending Mar 31, 2025: $86.79B, a 0.91% increase year-over-year.
Fiscal Year 2024: $86.00B, a 3.76% increase from 2023.
Fiscal Year 2023: $82.89B, a 1.84% increase from 2022.
Revenue by Segment (Fiscal Year 2023):
Game and Network Services: $28.5 billion, the largest segment.
Music: $10.8 billion.
Pictures: $9.7 billion.

Warner Bros. Discovery's total revenue for the full year 2024 was $39.3 billion. This represents a decrease of approximately 4% compared to the prior year. The company also reported a net loss of $11.3 billion for 2024.
Here's a breakdown of their revenue performance:
Full Year 2024:
Total Revenue: $39.3 billion
Revenue Change: Decrease of 4% ex-FX compared to 2023
Net Income: $(11.3) billion

So the moral of the story is if Disney is doomed, all the other studios should be buried.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by Martoto

How come it's the same people who demonise Disney for being a thing that relentlessly sucks money out of the public's pockets, that also predict that it is a financial basket case or on a steep and irrevocable financial decline?

Because Disney is a big bad business, and all the other studios are charities.

[L.J.]

Been few years since cared much about what Disney is doing. Don't feel their dead but surely not on top.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Because Disney is a big bad business, and all the other studios are charities.

The whole anti-Disney nonsense shows just how gullible some people are, all it takes is a few grifters on YouTube saying something is "evil" in some strange way, and they will absolutely 100% believe it...

[Prog5000]

Originally Posted by PhysicalMediaMaestro

Disney seems to be in really big trouble right now. The live-action remake of "Snow White" was a failure. "Elio" was a disappointment. Less people are going to Disney parks. Sure, the live-action remake of "Lilo and Stitch" is doing well, but that's the only good news coming out of Disney right now.

And I think things will only get worse for Disney. I think "Toy Story 5" is going to be a failure. The storyline is that the toys are coping with kids ignoring them because of their smartphones. I find it impossible to feel any sympathy for the toys in this scenario. The toys are capable of talking and moving around and having their own adventures without any human assistance, but they keep their abilities secret from the humans, and they wonder why the humans who own them are ignoring them? The solution is too simple. All the toys need to do is what they did at the end of the original "Toy Story" in front of Sid. Come to life in front of Bonnie. Show Bonnie what they can do and then they'll earn Bonnie's respect. In "Sesame Street", the Muppet characters and humans have toys that are sentient, living entities, and everyone's okay with that. Let me give you an example. Here's a Sesame Street episode with a ball that talks to Abby and Elmo:

Elmo and Abby’s Morning Routine | Sesame Street Full Episode - YouTube

See? Now you know how "Toy Story 5" will end.

Is Disney doomed to fade into irrelevancy or worse, to go out of business? And if not, how can Disney can be saved? Please let me know what you think. Have a nice day.

A very quick googled yielded the following.

"Disney had revenue of $23.62B in the quarter ending March 29, 2025, with 6.96% growth. This brings the company's revenue in the last twelve months to $94.04B, up 5.42% year-over-year. In the fiscal year ending September 28, 2024, Disney had annual revenue of $91.36B with 2.77% growth."


Disney are doing fine, they won't go out of business and they'll out live us all.

Last year Inside Out 2 became the highest grossing animated film of all time. (Or one of). Also, Moana 2 grossed a billion+. Pretty sure Deadpool hit a billion also.

Of course they don't see every penny from a release but Stitch is pushing a billion dollars this year & Mufasa exceeded 700 million. This will assist the offset of Snow White.

They've got parks, attractions and streaming too.

[moreorless]

Leaving aside the moaning of men suffering from incurable culture war brain rot I think really a lot of Disney's success was based on buying out younger studios which had more creative vitality to them.

Both Pixar and Marvel weren't bogged down by uncreative exec politics and Disney mostly just took a hands off approach with them and let them carry on doing what was sucessful and already making money. Lucasfilm I think didnt go as well because their wasn't that same creative drive there and Starwars struggled more as a result.

Disney hasn't really had that injection of fresh blood, a new hungry studio with a formula for success in the last decade. They bought Fox but thats not really given that an established formula for success. Pixar and Marvel are gradually diminishing, Starwars may have been damaged as a larger blockbuster draw by the sequels, the live action Disney remakes also getting played out...

[Martoto]

I watched a video essay the other day about the Disney Vault and Disney's history with home video.

By the end of it I couldn't tell if I'm supposed to be mad that Disney makes it difficult to buy their stuff, or that Disney is trying to sell their stuff to us too often. And if you pause for five seconds to think about it, it's not as if patches of scarcity at times and frequent FOMO about the latest re-release in between are unique to Disney. But you would think that all other studios have some organic, altruistic release policy. "Just pay us when you can. And don't pirate this if you can avoid it."