Disney had a good second quarter — better than last year, and better than people were expecting.
Revenue at the company rose to $14.9 billion, a 3% increase compared to a year earlier. Wall Street’s expectations had been slightly lower.
The company’s parks, experiences, products division led the way with $6.2 billion in revenue. The film unit took a 15% hit compared to a year prior, falling to $2.1 billion.
Missing from Disney’s second quarter this fiscal year are multiple blockbuster hits like “Black Panther,” which raked in $1.3 billion last year, and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which opened over the holidays. “Avengers: Endgame’s” massive windfall came after the second quarter closed.
But the latest figures do include returns from “Captain Marvel,” another film in that franchise. The film has made more than $1.1 billion at the global box office since opening in March.
“We’re very pleased with our Q2 results and thrilled with the record-breaking success of ‘Avengers: Endgame,’” Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Iger said in a statement on Wednesday. The company’s stock rose 2% in after hours trading, but then retreated and was slightly in the red on Thursday.
Disney has had a good spring. Since the company last reported earnings, it unveiled its new streaming service, called Disney+, to rave reviews last month at the company’s investor day in Los Angeles.
Iger and his executive team wasted no time at that event playing up the content that is going to be exclusive to the service when it is released later this year. The announcement sent Disney stocks soaring to a 10-year high in April.
At the end of last month, Marvel Studio’s “Avengers: Endgame” had the biggest global opening in history: It earned an unprecedented $1.2 billion worldwide in just its opening weekend. The film has made more than $2.2 billion so far, making it the second highest-grossing film of all time.
The company is already talking about how its streaming service will complement that kind of box office success. On Wednesday, Disney announced that “Endgame” will stream exclusively on Disney+ starting December 11.
Disney also just completed its $71 billion purchase of most of 21st Century Fox’s assets in March, which brought new brands and intellectual property into the Disney fold, including the X-Men, National Geographic, FX and “Avatar.”
And the company hopes to keep its momentum going into the summer.
Disney’s parks and resorts division will open its largest expansion ever with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge on May 31 at Disneyland in California.
And a CGI reboot of the 1994 animated classic “The Lion King” is coming to theaters on July 19. Analysts believe that “The Lion King” could become one of the highest-grossing films of the year.
