The Walt Disney Company reported their earnings for the third fiscal quarter of the year on Thursday, August 12th. Thursday was also 50 days until the Walt Disney World 50th anniversary. Now we did not get a lot of updates in regards to the theme parks but we did get some nuggets worth discussing.
First off, Disney over achieved when it came to the earnings report, beating what analysts had expected. Disney+ subscriptions have now topped 116 million and revenue was $17.02B. ESPN+ has 14.9 million subscribers and Hulu 42.8 million. As you can see, streaming is huge for Disney and most companies right now. To go along with that, Disney announced that Disney+ day will be November 12th, 2021. Much like last year, Disney will reveal trailers, sneak peaks and announce what is coming to Disney+ during this event. Something fans likely won’t want to miss.
Now onto the parks, which is what most of us care about anyways. Disney CEO Bob Chapek started off by mentioning the new Disneyland MagicKey program. He noted that reaction so far from fans has been “extremely positive,” which is really what we have been seeing too. There have been some minor complaints here or there but overall people seem okay with what was announced.
Then it was onto some larger news with Disney Genie. This all new planning tool will be coming to Walt Disney World and Chapek noted that the company is excited about this new feature and that more details will be released soon. He also said “(Guests) will be able to spend less time waiting in line and more time having fun.” This service will be all about helping guests create a more personalized experience throughout their visit to the parks. Rumors have also suggested we will be hearing more soon. Chapek even called Disney Genie MyMagic+ on steroids. For those that may not recall, things like Magicbands, My Disney Experience and more were all part of the MyMagic+ program.
Disney noted that attendance has been up and at or near daily capacity levels throughout this fiscal quarter. Disneyland did increase attendance capacity during this quarter following the lifting of state restrictions on June 15th.
Bob Chapek was asked about growing concerns over covid and the Delta variant of the virus. He noted that they continue to see strong demand for the theme parks. Larger groups and conference bookings are where they are primarily seeing cancellations. Once again, Disney noted that the theme park reservations system is not going anywhere either. Chapek also said “We have 70% of the available rooms open in Walt Disney World.” All Walt Disney World hotels will be open by years end. Disney CFO Christine McCarthay said that park capacity and staffing will be back to 100% by years end as well. So, that confirms we are still not at that top capacity level yet.
As for my take on all of this… There isn’t a whole lot of substance from this call. Walt Disney World is gearing up for its big celebration which will kick off the next fiscal year. Disney Genie is still coming and sounds like it will be a huge piece to planning a Walt Disney World vacation moving forward. How this impacts things like Touring Plans and travel agents in general is yet to be seen. Rumors also suggest that the next iteration of FastPass will be part of this rollout as well.
If you don’t like the theme park reservation system you are going to have to learn to love it. It is not going anywhere. Disney clearly is enjoying the data that it is bringing in and how they can use it to plan theme park operations. It theoretically should get easier to book reservations once they are finally at 100% capacity but I think the days of phased closures on New Year’s Eve and Fourth of July may be over. We certainly have a lot of news ahead of us whether it be good or not so good, so stay tuned!
What were your thoughts on today’s earnings call?
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