2019: The Big Year for the Walt Disney Company

With almost 20 movie releases, acquiring Fox, and a new streaming service, Disney soars in 2019.

After acquiring the TV and film assests of 21^st Century Fox for 71.3 billion dollars, The Walt Disney Company now has an even bigger market share value. It now owns The Simpsons, Titanic, FX Searchlight movie studios, the FX and National Geographic TV channels. Disney that has always been associated with family friendly content now is getting its hands on much more adultaimed stories. Disney also has the 30 percent of Hulu shares that Foz previously owned, making it the streaming service´s bigger owner with 60 percent of total shares. The remaining 40 percent is shared between NBCUniversal (30%) and Warner Media (10%).

Before the FOX acquisition, Disney was releasing 11 movies in 2019. However, it turned out with 19 premieres of movies such as Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, Dumbo, Aladdin and The Lion King live actions, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Tolkien, and still waiting for Frozen 2 and Star Wars: Episode IX. Five of these movies have grossed alone more than 1 billion dollars (Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Capitain Marvel, Aladdin, Toy Story 4). No studio has ever accomplished this feat. And with the remaining releases, the company is expecting an over 11 billion dollar haul for the year.

The much anticipated Disney + streaming service is also leveraging Disney stocks, becoming the second cheapest streming service in the market – only behind the Apple TV+ $4.99 per month. The $6.99-per-month service will launch November 12^th, 2019 including everyone´s favorite Marvel, Pixar, Disney Studios, Lucas Films movies, Disney Channel´s oldies, but goldies, National Geographic documentaries and many new series and films produced for the platform. Disney is connecting all its assets to Disney+ to drive subscriptions and give the service a fast start. This reinforces how much priority the company is giving to the “direct-to-consumer” business.

According to Disney´s CEO, Bob Iger, the company has spent the last five years transforming itself on focusing the resources and creativity on delivering extraordinary direct-to-consumer experiences. The outcome of this effort is sure positive with a 34% growth on the company´s revenue comparing to 2018. The studio entertainment segment revenue went 52% up because of the strong box office performances throughout the year. Revenue from parks and resorts rose 8% up, while media networks had a 22% growth. 

2019 was big year for the Walt Disney Company and it still isn´t over yet. Be sure to stay tuned for the outcomes of Disney+ and 2020 news.