What Is the Current State of Disney? 2024 Edition
Every December for the past several years, MickeyBlog has taken a hard look at The Walt Disney Company.
Generally, we wait until mid-December to perform this evaluation, but there’s really no need this time.
Walt Disney Company
Disney just reported its quarterly and annual fiscal earnings. Simultaneously, the company offered three years of projections.
So, we currently possess the best short- and mid-term data possible to analyze our favorite company.
Photo: Disney
What is the current state of Disney at the end of 2024? If you’ve been paying attention, I suspect you already know the answer.
A Brand No Longer in Crisis
Photo: Disney
If you’d like to read back on previous analysis, here are my commentaries from 2022 and 2023.
The 2022 version was challenging in that the current state of Disney at the time was, “Chaotic.”
Photo: CNBC
The Board of Directors had just fired former CEO Bob Chapek and restored Bob Iger.
At the time, I described Iger’s initial job during his return as that of a janitor, the person left to clean up Chapek’s mess.
Photo: CNBC
To his credit, Iger engaged in only a modest amount of public griping before he grabbed a broom and started sweeping.
For all Iger’s often enumerated faults, including his massive ego, he’s a brilliant executive who isn’t afraid of some hard work.
Photo: CBR.com
Iger’s ability to lock in and vast knowledge of Disney’s entire enterprise made him the ideal choice to fix all that Chapek broke.
After an admittedly shaky first year, Iger survived the looming threat of activist investor Nelson Peltz (twice) and grew confident.
HEIDI GUTMAN/CNBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK/NBCUNIVERSAL/GETTY IMAGES; SLAVEN VLASIC/GETTY IMAGES
In fact, by the end of last year, Iger felt more confident about Disney’s position than most outside observers did.
To wit, I predicted purgatory for Disney in 2024. Iger proved me wrong every step of the way.
Credit: Disney
Late last year, Iger had confidently stated that Disney had exited the “problem-solving phase.” He was right.
Disney somehow solved virtually all the problems it had faced entering the year.
Photo: Pexel.com
Thus, for the first time since the pandemic started in March 2020, Disney was no longer a brand in crisis.
You may question this point. So, let’s discuss all the ways that Disney resecured its fortress in 2024.
Righting Many Wrongs
Photo: Disney
So much has happened with Disney this year that you honestly may have forgotten some of the highlights.
As a reminder, as we entered 2024, Disney stock was in a bad place, with a price hovering in the low $90s.
(Photo by Lisa Kyle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In the build-up to Disney’s vote on Nelson Peltz joining the Board of Directors, the stock briefly reached $120.
However, profit-taking occurred almost immediately afterward, with investors recognizing that wasn’t reliable stock behavior.
Photo: restorethemagic.com
Many buyers purchased Disney stock simply to take a stand for/against Iger/Peltz.
In the process, Peltz suffered the most stinging defeat of his career, but he claimed he made $1 billion in the process.
Photo: measureupgroup.com
If everyone lost like that, the word loser would have a much different connotation.
Anyway, after that showdown, Disney stock sunk again…until November 14th. That’s when the company reported its earnings.
Photo: Bank rate
Since then, Disney stock has hovered in the $115-$118 range, rivaling the price during the activist investor battle.
That statement alone tells you how well Disney has done, as does this article suggesting that the stock is undervalued.
Photo: Playbuzz.com
How is that even possible based on Disney’s last few years? Well, it starts in the Sunshine State, where the Florida Feud suddenly ended.
Nobody expected that, especially during an election year. But the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board suddenly changed leadership.
Central Florida Tourism Oversight District
The new boss, Stephanie Kopelousos, was formerly a lobbyist FOR Disney. Meanwhile, anti-Disney crusader Martin Garcia was pushed out.
Soon afterward, Disney signed a new development plan at Walt Disney World and dropped its lawsuits.
Image: The Healthy Mouse
Meanwhile, in California, the DisneylandForward project gained final approval.
At the 2024 D23 Expo, Disney announced tons of new expansion plans. None of that would have been possible without these deals.
Fixing the Disney Flywheel
The Walt Disney Company
In writing last year’s article, I stated my biggest concern about Disney in 2024 as the lack of film content.
Iger and his team adopted a “less is more” approach with its 2024 movie release schedule.
Image: Disney
I stressed that without enough content, the Disney Flywheel wouldn’t function correctly. Yeah, I missed that one badly.
While I liked Disney’s 2024 lineup, I worried about the lack of overall content. That concern proved to be a non-factor.
Image: Pixar
Disney’s focus on quality over quantity proved the right call, as every major release enjoyed a full-throated marketing strategy.
Not coincidentally, Disney claims the top two films of 2024 with Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.
Photo: Disney
Just this past weekend, Moana 2, a movie none of us even knew existed until early 2024, absolutely shattered box office records.
The previous best Thanksgiving five-day performance was Frozen II’s $130 million.
Photo: Disney
Also, for perspective, the original Moana managed $82 million over Thanksgiving Week. Moana 2 beat that total in two days!
Mufasa: The Lion King hasn’t even debuted in theaters yet, but Disney has already hung a giant “Mission accomplished!” banner for its 2024 release schedule.
Mufasa: The Lion King
Nobody today is wondering whether Disney can re-train fans to watch films in theaters. The company already has.
Streaming and Linear Networks
Families Streaming Disney+
Then, we have two other phases of the Flywheel: streaming and Linear Networks.
Disney turned a profit on its streaming division twice during the four quarters of 2024.
Photo: IGN.com
More impressively, the company projects profits of $1 billion in fiscal 2025.
As for Linear Networks, every new ESPN ratings story seems to include some combination of the words “record viewership.”
Photo: Disney
Disney has anchored ABC and its cable channels with live sports and news, thereby setting the clock back several years.
Right now, Disney is getting ratings everyone would have considered excellent in 2017. For 2024, they’ve bordered on impossible.
Photo: Hulu
I’m not even factoring in the staggering Emmy Awards success Disney experienced with The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, and Shogun.
Thus far, I’ve focused solely on the part of the business that matters: the money.
Photo: Getty Images/Ringer illustration
In that regard, the current state of Disney is legitimately the best it’s been since 2019.
Disney has weathered the storm of the pandemic and any number of unforced errors, most by Chapek but some by Iger, too.
The Walt Disney Company
Overall, we can summarize the current state of Disney stating what the company has done well this year.
Disney settled with Florida, agreed to a new deal in Anaheim, resecured its theatrical releases, turned a profit with streaming, found the perfect balance with its linear and streaming, steadied the stock price 30 percent above 2023, won all sorts of Emmy acclaim, confirmed expansion at most Disney parks, and turned back the clock on live sports consumer habits.
The Walt Disney Company
When you read all that, how could you not feel great about the current state of Disney?
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