Disney's magical earnings

kruzer98

kruzer98

New Member
Original Poster
Walt Disney said late yesterday that it had earned $1.18 billion, or 57 cents per share, in its fiscal third quarter, up from $1.13 billion, or 53 cents per share, from the year-ago quarter.

Disney's earnings beat The Street's consensus estimate of 55 cents per share.
Revenue also rose, albeit slightly, to $9 billion from $8.5 billion last year, thanks in part to increased advertising rates at its ABC television network and sales of paraphernalia tied to the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."


You think with all that they could at least lower ticket prices?:shrug:
 
cb3k

cb3k

Member
kruzer98 said:
Walt Disney said late yesterday that it had earned $1.18 billion, or 57 cents per share, in its fiscal third quarter, up from $1.13 billion, or 53 cents per share, from the year-ago quarter.

Disney's earnings beat The Street's consensus estimate of 55 cents per share.
Revenue also rose, albeit slightly, to $9 billion from $8.5 billion last year, thanks in part to increased advertising rates at its ABC television network and sales of paraphernalia tied to the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."


You think with all that they could at least lower ticket prices?:shrug:
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The less money coming in from ticket sales, the less improvements we will see towards the parks we love...Its a lose lose situation...I guess you really can't have your cake and eat it too!
 
Epcotian

Epcotian

Member
A little more parks related detail: For their "Parks & Resorts" segment, operating income was up 12% for this fiscal year's completed 9 months. This increase comes mostly from increases to operating income at the 2 domestic resorts. For WDW, Disney says the increase is due to higher attendance and increased guest spending. Looking closer, the increased guest spending boils down mainly to higher room rates at the resorts (and driven even higher by higher occupancy of those rooms).

Bottom line is business is good at the parks. I also liked seeing that investment in the parks increased from ~$700 million to ~$980 million. It didn't list a breakdown as to which parks were receiving the investments.

Source: 3Q 8K SEC Filing & pdf of 3Q Earnings Conference Call, both available at www.disney.com/investors
 
Slowjack

Slowjack

Well-Known Member
cb3k said:
The less money coming in from ticket sales, the less improvements we will see towards the parks we love...Its a lose lose situation...I guess you really can't have your cake and eat it too!
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This is almost certainly not true. The decisions: A) how much to spend on capital improvements and B) how high to price tickets, are weakly correlated at best. They will charge based on how the perception of the price affects sales--that is, they will charge as much as they can up to the point where they believe sales would be significantly lowered. And they will spend based on how much the new attractions and improvements increase attendance.
 
sknydave

sknydave

Active Member
It's not a coincidence that the parks' earnings are way up and tons of long-overdue refurbishments and other improvements are happening/planned.
 
Enderikari

Enderikari

Well-Known Member
kruzer98 said:
You think with all that they could at least lower ticket prices?:shrug:
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Do you really want them to lower ticket prices?

Think of how much fun WDW would be if each park closed to capacity every day, and each attraction posted more than 60 minute waits...

If Disney lowered ticket prices by any significant amounts, the number of trip reports that would complain about parks being way too crowded would sky rocket
 
WDWGuide

WDWGuide

Active Member
kruzer98 said:
You think with all that they could at least lower ticket prices?:shrug:
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That's a highly unlikely scenario - the parks are now as busy or busier than during the late 1990s peak. It would be irresponsible to their shareholders not to milk the hell out of the parks right now, maximizing their profits and increasing investments back into the parks to future-proof them a bit. Even back during 2001/2002, when the parks were pretty much deserted, they didn't lower ticket prices - they just stopped increasing them and offered some promotions instead (and pretty much stopped all investment).

The downside is, of course, that my visits to WDW have declined from biweekly to bimonthly over the past few years - high gas prices combined with the increased ticket, lodging and dining costs are taking their toll. But most tourists, who visit once a year at the most, will spend that money no matter how high the costs rise. And that's in Disney's best interest.
 
casualrdt

casualrdt

New Member
Looks to me like we are getting what we want.... more attractions and better overall upkeep of the parks. So what is the problem again with Disney making a few bucks if they are taking care of us.
 
PhilharMagician

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
Enderikari said:
Do you really want them to lower ticket prices?

Think of how much fun WDW would be if each park closed to capacity every day, and each attraction posted more than 60 minute waits...

If Disney lowered ticket prices by any significant amounts, the number of trip reports that would complain about parks being way too crowded would sky rocket
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Ticket prices will continue to increase along with the attendance. This is the second year in a row that the prices wil be increased twice in the calander year, and expect that to continue until the attendance numbers stabilize. As Enerikari said that if the parks are always at capacity it will create a very unhappy, thusly a less magical experience. Even WDW has a capacity that has to be regulated.
 
WDWFigment

WDWFigment

Well-Known Member
Great news. I agree with those who have stated that ticket prices will/need to keep going up until attendance stabilizes. We can hope that the added revenue the company gets from the increases go directly back into improvements in the park (and with park expenditures increasing by $280 million, it looks like they have), but don't complain that the company is operating like *gasp* a business.
 
Epcotian

Epcotian

Member
Disney's also benefitting from a weak dollar internationally. When that little jewel corrects, prices at the parks/resorts will begin to stabilize (meaning smaller percentage increases, not absence of increases).

Bottom line: When business is booming and demand is high, prices are going to go up.
 
Rosso11

Rosso11

Well-Known Member
Epcotian said:
Disney's also benefitting from a weak dollar internationally. When that little jewel corrects, prices at the parks/resorts will begin to stabilize (meaning smaller percentage increases, not absence of increases).
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This is 100% true and more than likely the #1 reason we are seeing such huge park attendance right now. For most Europeans it is much cheaper right now to go to Disney World than it is Disneyland Paris
 

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