The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is officially back on track with its newest animation hit, Inside Out 2. For its debut weekend, Disney's newest theatrical release sold almost $300 million in total ticket sales across the globe, easing concerns that its storytelling magic is gone.
Disney Finally Delivers A Much-Needed Hit
With $155 million in domestic ticket sales, the only animated feature film that had a stronger opening was Incredibles 2 that made $183 million during its 2018 debut. Inside Out 2 almost topped the head turning premiere weekend of Barbie when Warner Bros. Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) made $162 million. Along with $140 million in box office receipts for international screenings, Inside Out made the total of $295 million from ticket sales. Compared to Disney's previous major animated release, Wish only wished for such a performance as failed to reach $20 million in domestic screenings during its debut weekend.
Next month, Disney will be releasing Marvel's Deadpool & Wolverine and month after that, Alien: Romulus. In addition, eagerly anticipated sequels of Moana and The Lion King will be released before the end of the year.
Disney Is Also Advancing On The Streaming Front
All in all, Disney is in a much better place compared to last year. Disney+ and Hulu reported their first ever quarterly profit during the first three months of 2024 as it raised prices and aggressively slashed costs, taking a page from the book of the streaming king, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX). But overall, Disney's streaming business is yet to become profitable as ESPN Plus' operating loss blocked the unit from exiting the red zone. But, Disney expects to reach profitability in the September quarter. To rival Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros have joined forces to offer their video streaming services as a streaming bundle as of this summer. Despite intense competition on the streaming front that is still dominated by Netflix who lastly reported it gathered 269.6 million subscribers across the globe, Disney and Warner Bros actually complement each other. While Disney is best known for its family-friendly content, Warner Bros brings more adult-oriented offerings with the HBO brand, Discovery documentaries and CNN news. Therefore, this collaboration is expected to lure in subscribers and result in greater retention. Meanwhile, Netflix issued a report on Friday, showing higher subscriber engagement. With its latest media survey, Netflix showed that content improvements it made paid off as it continues to defend its streaming throne.
By the looks of it, Disney brought magic back to its magic kingdom and an exciting summer just got started.
沃爾特·迪斯尼公司(紐約證券交易所代碼:DIS)憑藉其最新熱門動畫《Inside Out 2》正式重回正軌。在首個週末,迪士尼最新上映的電影在全球的總門票銷售額接近3億美元,這緩解了人們對其講故事魔力消失的擔憂。
迪士尼終於推出了急需的熱門歌曲
憑藉1.55億美元的國內門票銷售額,唯一開場感更強的動畫長片是《超人總動員2》,它在2018年首次亮相時收入爲1.83億美元。當華納兄弟探索公司(納斯達克股票代碼:WBD)賺了1.62億美元時,Inside Out 2差點在芭比娃娃的首映週末名列前茅。除了1.4億美元的國際放映票房收入外,《Inside Out》的門票銷售總額爲2.95億美元。與迪士尼之前發行的主要動畫相比,Wish只希望這樣的表演,因爲在首個週末的國內放映量未能達到2000萬美元。
下個月,迪士尼將發行漫威的《死侍與金剛狼》,之後一個月,《異形:羅慕路斯》。此外,備受期待的《莫阿娜》和《獅子王》續集將在年底前上映。
迪士尼也在流媒體方面取得進展
總而言之,與去年相比,迪士尼的處境要好得多。迪士尼+和Hulu公佈了2024年前三個月的首次季度利潤,原因是它們提高了價格並大幅削減了成本,摘錄了流媒體之王Netflix公司(納斯達克股票代碼:NFLX)的書中的一頁。但總體而言,由於ESPN Plus的營業虧損使該部門無法退出紅色區域,迪士尼的流媒體業務尚未盈利。但是,迪士尼預計將在9月季度實現盈利。爲了與Netflix競爭,迪士尼和華納兄弟聯手從今年夏天起將其視頻流媒體服務作爲流媒體捆綁包提供。儘管流媒體方面的激烈競爭仍然由Netflix主導,Netflix最後報告說,它在全球吸引了2.696億訂閱者,但迪士尼和華納兄弟實際上是相輔相成的。儘管迪士尼以其適合家庭的內容而聞名,但華納兄弟通過HBO品牌、Discovery紀錄片和CNN新聞帶來了更多面向成人的產品。因此,這種合作有望吸引訂閱者並提高留存率。同時,Netflix週五發佈了一份報告,顯示訂戶參與度更高。Netflix在最新的媒體調查中顯示,隨着其繼續捍衛自己的流媒體王位,其所做的內容改進得到了回報。
從表面上看,迪士尼將魔法帶回了魔法王國,一個激動人心的夏天才剛剛開始。