The head of the Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday the recent global economic turmoil hasn't yet shaken any of the company's core businesses — including its theme parks — as the media-entertainment giant posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings amid what it called "turbulent times."
"During the past few days, we have not seen any change in the pace of activity at our parks and resorts, advertising or consumer-products businesses," Disney Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said during a conference call to discuss financial results for the company's fiscal third quarter.
The commentary came after Burbank, Calif.-based Disney reported that its profit for the quarter climbed 11 percent to nearly $1.5 billion, up from a little more than $1.3 billion a year ago. The gains were driven by the company's television networks and theme parks, which offset a slump at its movie studio.
Total revenue climbed 7 percent to $10.7 billion.
Excluding one-time charges, Disney said it earned 78 cents a share during the three-month period that ended July 2, topping Wall Street forecasts.
At Disney's theme-park division, often viewed as a bellwether for the broader economy, operating profit rose 9 percent to $519 million on revenue that was up 12 percent to $3.2 billion. Disney credited higher prices at its U.S. resorts — both for hotel rooms and theme-park tickets — and the first full quarter of operation for the Disney Dream, the $900 million cruise ship that began sailing out of Port Canaveral earlier this year. The theme parks were also helped by a favorable shift of the busy Easter travel period, which fell later in 2011 than it did a year ago.
Combined attendance at Walt Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. inched up 1 percent for the quarter, after stripping out the effect of the Easter shift. Disneyland drove the increase, as Iger said the resort posted record third-quarter attendance thanks to new attractions at Disney California Adventure.
Per-capita guest spending between the coasts jumped 8 percent, rising across all categories, including tickets, merchandise and food-and-beverage sales.
Domestic-hotel occupancy slipped one percentage point to 81 percent. But per-room spending — which includes the average nightly room rate — leapt 14 percent. Disney said it willingly sacrificed some volume in favor of charging higher rates, as it continued pulling back from the broad discounts it used during the global recession.
Iger would not, however, rule out returning to widespread discounting should the U.S. economy slip back into recession.
"At some point we might. We'll take a look at what impact a weakening economy has on us," he said. "We'll take a look at holiday bookings as the year progresses. It's way too early to predict, … [but] my gut, based on the trends we've seen this past year, is it's not something that we'll necessarily have to do quickly."
Disney said U.S. hotel bookings for the current quarter are running 2 percent behind last year's pace, but that room rates are up by a mid-single-digit percentage.
Overseas, Disney reported higher attendance and spending at Hong Kong Disneyland. But results declined at Disneyland Paris and especially at Tokyo Disneyland, which was forced to temporarily shut down following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
At Disney's largest division — media networks, which includes the powerhouse ESPN cable-sports channel — operating income jumped 11 percent to $2.1 billion on revenue that was up 5 percent to $4.9 billion. Disney said the increase was chiefly due to higher contract rates for ESPN, but also because of improving advertising revenue at ABC and lower programming costs.
Operating profit at Disney's movie studio tumbled 60 percent to $49 million on revenue that was essentially flat at $1.6 billion. Recent releases "Cars 2" and "Thor" failed to match year-ago performances of "Toy Story 3" and "Iron Man 2."
Although the film studio performed below expectations, Disney said sales of "Cars 2" merchandise — along with higher licensing revenue from its Marvel Entertainment properties — drove improvements in its consumer-products business, where operating income rose 32 percent to $155 million on revenue that was up 13 percent to $685 million.
Losses widened to $86 million at Disney's struggling interactive-media segment, though revenue grew 27 percent to $251 million. Disney blamed the decline on the inclusion of its recently acquired Playdom online-games business, though it said sales of console video games improved.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-earnings-20110809,0,7452945,print.story
"During the past few days, we have not seen any change in the pace of activity at our parks and resorts, advertising or consumer-products businesses," Disney Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said during a conference call to discuss financial results for the company's fiscal third quarter.
The commentary came after Burbank, Calif.-based Disney reported that its profit for the quarter climbed 11 percent to nearly $1.5 billion, up from a little more than $1.3 billion a year ago. The gains were driven by the company's television networks and theme parks, which offset a slump at its movie studio.
Total revenue climbed 7 percent to $10.7 billion.
Excluding one-time charges, Disney said it earned 78 cents a share during the three-month period that ended July 2, topping Wall Street forecasts.
At Disney's theme-park division, often viewed as a bellwether for the broader economy, operating profit rose 9 percent to $519 million on revenue that was up 12 percent to $3.2 billion. Disney credited higher prices at its U.S. resorts — both for hotel rooms and theme-park tickets — and the first full quarter of operation for the Disney Dream, the $900 million cruise ship that began sailing out of Port Canaveral earlier this year. The theme parks were also helped by a favorable shift of the busy Easter travel period, which fell later in 2011 than it did a year ago.
Combined attendance at Walt Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. inched up 1 percent for the quarter, after stripping out the effect of the Easter shift. Disneyland drove the increase, as Iger said the resort posted record third-quarter attendance thanks to new attractions at Disney California Adventure.
Per-capita guest spending between the coasts jumped 8 percent, rising across all categories, including tickets, merchandise and food-and-beverage sales.
Domestic-hotel occupancy slipped one percentage point to 81 percent. But per-room spending — which includes the average nightly room rate — leapt 14 percent. Disney said it willingly sacrificed some volume in favor of charging higher rates, as it continued pulling back from the broad discounts it used during the global recession.
Iger would not, however, rule out returning to widespread discounting should the U.S. economy slip back into recession.
"At some point we might. We'll take a look at what impact a weakening economy has on us," he said. "We'll take a look at holiday bookings as the year progresses. It's way too early to predict, … [but] my gut, based on the trends we've seen this past year, is it's not something that we'll necessarily have to do quickly."
Disney said U.S. hotel bookings for the current quarter are running 2 percent behind last year's pace, but that room rates are up by a mid-single-digit percentage.
Overseas, Disney reported higher attendance and spending at Hong Kong Disneyland. But results declined at Disneyland Paris and especially at Tokyo Disneyland, which was forced to temporarily shut down following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
At Disney's largest division — media networks, which includes the powerhouse ESPN cable-sports channel — operating income jumped 11 percent to $2.1 billion on revenue that was up 5 percent to $4.9 billion. Disney said the increase was chiefly due to higher contract rates for ESPN, but also because of improving advertising revenue at ABC and lower programming costs.
Operating profit at Disney's movie studio tumbled 60 percent to $49 million on revenue that was essentially flat at $1.6 billion. Recent releases "Cars 2" and "Thor" failed to match year-ago performances of "Toy Story 3" and "Iron Man 2."
Although the film studio performed below expectations, Disney said sales of "Cars 2" merchandise — along with higher licensing revenue from its Marvel Entertainment properties — drove improvements in its consumer-products business, where operating income rose 32 percent to $155 million on revenue that was up 13 percent to $685 million.
Losses widened to $86 million at Disney's struggling interactive-media segment, though revenue grew 27 percent to $251 million. Disney blamed the decline on the inclusion of its recently acquired Playdom online-games business, though it said sales of console video games improved.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-earnings-20110809,0,7452945,print.story
