Frozen complainers are finally making headlines.

[Victor Kelly]

Nearly all Disney movies are adaptations that are re-written to be child friendly. After all the hype I expected Frozen to be way better. It is very good considering Pixar did not touch it. Animation was clean, quality was good, story was ok, singing was ok. I look at movies from a pick it to pieces point of view, which drives my poor wife bonkers.

Disney knows that little girls are eating this stuff up like we chow down on Dole Whip. So, they are cashing out, big deal. Everything eventually goes away like Lion King, Pirates everywhere all the time. Frozen will take time to go away. And in that time it draws families, whole families from attractions that the rest of us go to. It is basically changing traffic flow and concentration in all the parks.

Frozen is replacing Maelstrom, just like Pooh replaced Toad, FLA replaced 20k, etc. Some replacements are great, others not so much.

Now get ready for this shocker: Disney is there to make money. I am opening a paintball field because I want to make money, I won't get rich, but I will make money by giving players what they want.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Now get ready for this shocker: Disney is there to make money. I am opening a paintball field because I want to make money, I won't get rich, but I will make money by giving players what they want.

you must have missed this great post on page one.

There are many, many dumb things Disney could do to their parks that would make them a buttload of money. Build a DVC over the site of Cinderella Castle. Sell off all of the WDW land not currently developed. Close down several rides in every park while continuing to charge full ticket price (arguably in DHS they've already done this).

There are a LOT of adult guests that care about the more sophisticated and cultural theme of World Showcase, and enjoy being able to go somewhere on property that doesn't feel like an over-toonified Fantasyland. At some point, by intruding on treasured parts of WDW in search of a quick buck, Disney's going to shoot themselves in the foot with their core audience.

Just because it makes them money doesn't mean that it's smart, or that we have to like it.

 

[AMartin767]

Now get ready for this shocker: Disney is there to make money. I am opening a paintball field because I want to make money, I won't get rich, but I will make money by giving players what they want.

You're right! They are there to make money. In the long run, if they keep making the same decisions they are currently making, it will hurt them financially.

 

[googilycub]

You're right! They are there to make money. In the long run, if they keep making the same decisions they are currently making, it will hurt them financially.

You keep telling yourself that.....

 

[lazyboy97o]

You keep telling yourself that.....

Exactly! Big companies never fall from the top! Don't you love flying on Pan Am or the great deals at Woolworths? And it's amazing how the Japanese have never been able to compete with the Big Three of Detroit!

 

[AMartin767]

I KNOW it's an updated version of Maelstrom but I'd rather have a cute Frozen movie than a random little boat ride

Please tell us, what was so "random" about it?

 

[AMartin767]

Exactly! Big companies never fall from the top! Don't you love flying on Pan Am or the great deals at Woolworths? And it's amazing how the Japanese have never been able to compete with the Big Three of Detroit!

B I N G O... BINGO!

 

[Victor Kelly]

Disney is not going to fall just because everyone is Frozen crazy right now. Stock prices are holding and increasing. Nobody has to like the changes they are making, if you don't like it, you dont have to go. I hate how pricey they are, so we only go every few years instead of every year.

Suck it up buttercup.

 

[Cesar R M]

Disney is not going to fall just because everyone is Frozen crazy right now. Stock prices are holding and increasing. Nobody has to like the changes they are making, if you don't like it, you dont have to go. I hate how pricey they are, so we only go every few years instead of every year.

Suck it up buttercup.

I'm pretty sure that @ParentsOf4 made a fine statement of why the stock prices are holding and increasing.
And they have mostly to do with price hikes and stockbuy back.

 

[wdisney9000]

Now get ready for this shocker: Disney is there to make money. I am opening a paintball field because I want to make money, I won't get rich, but I will make money by giving players what they want.

Shocker: EVERY BUSINESS is out to make money. Why do people keep pointing this out as if others don't AUTOMATICALLY understand this? The discussion should start farther down the road than such a sophomoric approach and be focused more in terms of the methods which separate one business from the next in terms of sustainability AND profit.

Are you going to do anything for your business that would enhance the paintball players experience? Are you going to attempt anything that would separate you from any present or future competition and give the players something MORE than they want? Do you care about your business AND your customers future? If not, good luck.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Disney is not going to fall just because everyone is Frozen crazy right now. Stock prices are holding and increasing. Nobody has to like the changes they are making, if you don't like it, you dont have to go. I hate how pricey they are, so we only go every few years instead of every year.

Suck it up buttercup.

Talk about missing the point.

 

[englanddg]

Shocker: EVERY BUSINESS is out to make money. Why do people keep pointing this out as if others don't AUTOMATICALLY understand this? The discussion should start farther down the road than such a sophomoric approach and be focused more in terms of the methods which separate one business from the next in terms of sustainability AND profit.

Are you going to do anything for your business that would enhance the paintball players experience? Are you going to attempt anything that would separate you from any present of future competition and give the players something MORE than they want? Do you care about your business AND your customers future? If not, good luck.

Well, Disney hasn't made any money on anything until Frozen in a while, so they really should capitalize on it. Strike while the iron is hot, you know...

(Skuze me while I go toss my cookies)

 

[ParentsOf4]

I'm pretty sure that @ParentsOf4 made a fine statement of why the stock prices are holding and increasing.
And they have mostly to do with price hikes and stockbuy back.

As everyone should have learned from Enron, never use stock price to judge a company's performance:

Disney's high stock price is based largely on 1 billion shares of stock repurchases since Iger took charge in 2005. Disney currently has about 1.7 billion shares outstanding, so 1 billion in buybacks is a pretty big chunk.

However, the company had a great financial year. Company-wide gross margin was 26.6%, its best in 25 years. For anyone who is unsure of the math, that's 1989.

Frozen was a big part of that success.

However, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire was a Disney/ABC juggernaut at its peak and we all know how that ended.

The question is whether Frozen will end up another Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. Answering that requires gauging the public's reaction to continued Frozen offerings, which is rather like predicting the weather.

 

[wdisney9000]

You keep telling yourself that.....

Trite is the new clever

 

[wdisney9000]

Disney's high stock price is based largely on 1 billion shares of stock repurchases since Iger took charge in 2005.

Do you just have a hotkey function for this phrase to make your life easier?'

Sadly, no matter how many times you say it AND back it up with visual aides, people revert to the simplicity of "It's Disney, Yay!"

 

[Victor Kelly]

Talk about missing the point.

Perhaps you missed the point buttercup. Maybe you should read the numbers, maybe you would see the point.

 

[Victor Kelly]

Shocker: EVERY BUSINESS is out to make money. Why do people keep pointing this out as if others don't AUTOMATICALLY understand this? The discussion should start farther down the road than such a sophomoric approach and be focused more in terms of the methods which separate one business from the next in terms of sustainability AND profit.

Are you going to do anything for your business that would enhance the paintball players experience? Are you going to attempt anything that would separate you from any present or future competition and give the players something MORE than they want? Do you care about your business AND your customers future? If not, good luck.

Perhaps you should learn more about what you are spouting about before you start asking questions. Since I have been playing for over 30 years, ran fields, ran 3000 plus player scenario games, and have also played in multiple games that had multiple thousands of people, I have a more firm grasp of paintball field operations than you think you have of Disney operations.

Businesses are about making money, otherwise they would not be around. Comparing Disney to Enron is flat out idiotic. Where is Disney misleading it's stock holders? I think they have a very firm grasp on what they are doing despite all the negative waaa waaa waaa on these boards. Jesus, do you people have nothing positive to say in your lives? Maybe some of ya need to eat a Snickers bar because you are acting like spoiled divas.

Wish to converse more, PM me.

 

[GoofGoof]

While today's "short term gains" approach with the theme parks has the potential to hurt the company down the road it's a little extreme to start quoting companies that went out of business like PanAm or Enron that were fundamentaly flawed. TWDC has good fundamentals...very good. They are making money from almost all aspects of the business. Enron was essentially a giant fraud using complex accounting rules and market manipulation to manufacture earnings that weren't real. It's a far stretch to get from TWDC today to that.

While the stock repurchases seem extreme, TWDC is a cash machine. They are buying shares back using roughly 20% of free cash flows. The other 80% is available to reinvest in new business, acquisitions or capex. They could have went with something like a 90/10 mix instead, but 20% returned to shareholders is really not unusual for a company in Disney's financial position. I really hope that large stock buybacks don't spell doom for theme parks in the future or Orlando is going to be a pretty empty place. Over the last 10 years Comcast's stock buybacks reduced their outstanding shares by almost 50%. We will still have SeaWorld

 

[lazyboy97o]

Perhaps you missed the point buttercup. Maybe you should read the numbers, maybe you would see the point.

Perhaps you should learn more about what you are spouting about before you start asking questions. Since I have been playing for over 30 years, ran fields, ran 3000 plus player scenario games, and have also played in multiple games that had multiple thousands of people, I have a more firm grasp of paintball field operations than you think you have of Disney operations.

Businesses are about making money, otherwise they would not be around. Comparing Disney to Enron is flat out idiotic. Where is Disney misleading it's stock holders? I think they have a very firm grasp on what they are doing despite all the negative waaa waaa waaa on these boards. Jesus, do you people have nothing positive to say in your lives? Maybe some of ya need to eat a Snickers bar because you are acting like spoiled divas.

Wish to converse more, PM me.

See buttercup, you are still missing the point. You're trying to make this about so many different things. You're trying to play this game of showing off about stuff that is completely unrelated. Nobody has said too much Frozen will sink the entire company. Nobody has said Disney is like Enron. The discussion has been far more nuanced than do whatever to make money, a strategy that always kills regardless of years of experience and is not at all one that wins over customers.

 

[lazyboy97o]

While today's "short term gains" approach with the theme parks has the potential to hurt the company down the road it's a little extreme to start quoting companies that went out of business like PanAm or Enron that were fundamentaly flawed. TWDC has good fundamentals...very good. They are making money from almost all aspects of the business. Enron was essentially a giant fraud using complex accounting rules and market manipulation to manufacture earnings that weren't real. It's a far stretch to get from TWDC today to that.

While the stock repurchases seem extreme, TWDC is a cash machine. They are buying shares back using roughly 20% of free cash flows. The other 80% is available to reinvest in new business, acquisitions or capex. They could have went with something like a 90/10 mix instead, but 20% returned to shareholders is really not unusual for a company in Disney's financial position. I really hope that large stock buybacks don't spell doom for theme parks in the future or Orlando is going to be a pretty empty place. Over the last 10 years Comcast's stock buybacks reduced their outstanding shares by almost 50%. We will still have SeaWorld

Large companies become flawed and problematic over time. Often for years those decisions are short term winners that end up killing long term health. It's a lesson that needs to be remembered, not a description of an ongoing downfall. Great decisions for the now can and do destroy industry leaders.

Enron was only mentioned to counter the silly, constant calls to measure success only by stock price. It is a clear example of how stock price is not a metric of the gods.