I would suggest you might reconsider how often you share regarding China since that seems to be what always gets you edited.
Signed,
Trying to Help in Ohio
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Disney's FY20 Q3 Earnings (8/4/20)
- Thread starter brb1006
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Signed,
Trying to Help in Ohio
mikejs78
Premium Member
Just call it COVID, COVID-19, or SARS-COV-2, or refer to the "current pandemic". Everyone will know what you mean. No need to use the place of origin as an adjective to describe the virus - that's inflammatory and bad form.
nickys
Premium Member
So are you saying you’d rather your posts were deleted completely than be edited, even if much of what you say was relevant, on topic and not veering into the social or political aspects of things?
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
I know some of the analysts that cover Disney and other companies. I went to school with them....let's just say they are guessing like everyone else. God can't predict the economy.
Pull out the Chapek quote exactly. I listened to the call and I'm having trouble remembering the interaction you refer.
Really, no one's opinion is very meaningful. We'll see. Opening the doors was step 1.
What is NOT opinion is that NOTHING material has changed about Disney's products/services and the demand for them given a normal scenario. This is entirely a macro story that has hurt them. When that improves, demand bounces back. This is not a Disney problem. Go look at the 10 years prior of record setting Parks attendance/revenues/operating income. Yeah, real dire over there.
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Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
Disney.
RaiseTheShields
Active Member
THIS. Thank you!
tirian
Well-Known Member
This is true. The economy has factually begun its recovery, despite what clickbait op-eds claim on Reddit. That doesn’t mean things are perfect, and that doesn’t mean it won’t be long road to recovery. Only immature people think everything in life is either absolutely wonderful and good, or absolutely terrible and evil, all the time.
As a company, Disney is going to be fine. The bigger question for me is whether it will continue Walt’s legacy of creativity and innovation. I believe the answer is no.
hopemax
Well-Known Member
I think it will end up looking very much like the 25th. Castle Theming - check, new Illuminations show - check. 25th got a new parade, but being able to promo Ratatouille, Tron, Guardians will cover that. Just need some "I survived", "Welcome Back" buttons like they had where you put the year of your first visit, and a new theme song like "Remember the Magic."
GoofGoof
Premium Member
It’s not really cash flow positive. When they say a positive net contribution they mean that revenues exceed variable costs. Any fixed or sunk costs are ignored because they exist whether the parks are open or closed. Many of the fixed costs are things like depreciation of the fixed assets which is non-cash, but there are other fixed costs that are cash based. For example if you look at something like labor costs there’s a variable component (CMs at the front gate) and there’s a fixed component relating to things like security, maintenance and various corporate functions like HR or IT directly related to WDW. If the parks are closed they still have to pay for those things. So in a basic example if it costs them $1B a month in expenses (no revenue less fixed costs) to keep the parks closed and they lose $500M a month with the parks open (revenues less variable costs less fixed costs) then they have a positive net contribution of $500M even though they are still operating at a loss.
I don’t have the specific numbers to make a graph but WDW has always been successful due to economies of scale. There are huge costs associated with just having the parks but they always made great profits by running massive numbers of people through the parks and hotels while maintaining a premium price. If you lose the high revenue numbers coming in it’s really hard to make profits considering the fixed costs of just existing are so high.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
you sure about that? I bet Disney and UO care about cases.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Not sure why you think what I’m saying is that Disney itself has a problem. I’ve been pretty clear throughout this thread that I don’t think they have any issues financially. They have plenty of cash to ride out the storm and are much better positioned than almost anyone in the travel and leisure space to take advantage of travel demand as soon as people are interested. It’s the travel industry in general that’s going to take a year or more to come back. Disney had no control over what happened in FL with cases spiking out of control. Their safety protocols are better than anyone else. If anything they are a victim of some of the less responsible behaviors from some other businesses.
As far as my opinion about the customer base not feeling comfortable coming back to WDW now the exact quotes from the opening remarks were:
Chapek: “At Walt Disney World, we are achieving our objective of driving a positive net contribution at current attendance levels and we expect demand will grow when the COVID situation in Florida improves.“
Christine McCarthy: “At Parks, Experiences, and Products. It's worth noting that while Walt Disney World is operating at a positive net contribution level, the upside we are seeing some reopening is less than we had originally expected given the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Florida.“
These comments back my opinion that enough people don’t feel comfortable going to WDW due to the current issues with Covid in FL and Disney internally is disappointed with the soft attendance numbers.
There's definitely some truth here, which is why UO is doing the "buy one ticket, go for the rest of the year" deal they are doing. If there was such high demand, they wouldn't need to do that.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Agreed, and as I just posted above the CEO and CFO of TWDC both care a whole lot about Covid cases, especially in FL.
When Disney re-opened in mid July, there was something like 10,000-even 15,000 cases daily. That's the last thing they wanted.
To say people don't care about cases besides an "agenda pushing media" is downright laughable. Disney, UO, Seaworld, etc, most definitely do care about cases, as the more cases impacts their parks attendance in a negative way.
KikoKea
Well-Known Member
I hate to interrupt the discussions on Covid and what is politics, but....is there any way to tell from the figures the cost of running the parks (& resorts) is being covered by the number of guests WDW has seen? Are they losing money, breaking even, or seeing a profit from being open?
WDW Pro
Well-Known Member
Losing $ except for third party contracts with sports leagues.
*This post contains no references to governments, social constructs (other than sports and contracts out of necessity, nor conspiratorial actions)*
Mac Tonight
Well-Known Member
... I'm going back to the Disneyland section
The money coming in for the day is covering money going out for the day. That's an *operational* profit. However, there is more to expenses than operations for that day, such as depreciation. The operational profit isn't covering those extra 'business' costs. But, many of those business costs would still be on the books whether opened or closed, so, it's better to be open than closed, but not *completely* profitable yet.