How Much Does Disney Make A Day?

Are you a Disney fan? Have you ever thought to yourself “how much does Disney make a day?” Prior to the Covid-19 global pandemic, the amount of money that Disney made each day was staggering. In this post we will discuss the figures prior to the coronavirus pandemic and what happened when it caused the Disney theme parks to close.

What Businesses are Disney in?

There is more to the Walt Disney Co than theme parks They describe their business as “global entertainment on a global basis” which covers a lot of different possibilities. Here are some of the businesses that Disney are involved in right now:

• Broadcast TV networks
• Resorts
• Theme parks
• Cruise line
• Live entertainment
• Digital streaming including Disney +

Of course, Disney have been making movies for a very long time and they will receive royalties for these films as well. Disney has many competitors such as Netflix, Hilton, Sony Corp, ViacomCBS, Apple, Comcast and more.

One Revenue Stream Dries Up and Another Increases

The Covid-19 pandemic hit the Walt Disney Co hard. They had to close their theme parks and their resorts once the pandemic took hold. This had a dramatic financial impact on their experiences, parks and products businesses as you can imagine.

There are many employees associated with the Disney parks and resorts. Most of them have been unable to work during the coronavirus pandemic and the company has plans to lay off around 32 thousand of their employees in these businesses.

It is not all bad news for Disney though. Since introducing their Disney + service in November of 2019, they have increased their number of paid subscribers to almost 95 million. Right now, their “linear networks” are responsible for 90% of their operating revenue. The remaining 10% comes from licensing and sales of content.

The Business Segments of the Walt Disney Co

There are two main business segments for the Walt Disney Co. These are:

1. DPEP – Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
2. DMED – Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution

Let’s take a closer look at these 2 business segments.

DPEP

Disney has a number of theme parks located around the world. These are the locations:

• California, USA
• Florida, USA
• Hawaii, USA
• Hing Kong, China
• Paris, France
• Shanghai, China

Within the DPEP segment there is also a vacation club and a cruise line. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of their operating revenue came from admissions to the theme parks. In addition to this, there were food and beverage sales, merchandise sales, vacation stays and resort stays. They also generated revenue from licensing and royalties which were included in DPEP.

DMED

There are three main components of the Disney DMED segment:

1. Linear Networks
2. Content Sales and Licensing
3. Direct to Consumer

The Linear Networks segment includes many different broadcasting properties that are usually cable networks. Examples of these are:

• ABC Television Network
• Disney
• National Geographic
• ESPN

Disney’s Linear Networks is responsible for around 90% of the company’s operating income. It also accounts for nearly 50% of total revenue for the company.

Their Content Sales and Licensing department is responsible for selling television and movie content to TV stations as well as online services that operate a subscription-based video on demand service.

In addition to this, they are responsible for home entertainment distributing (Blu-ray and DVD for example), theatrical distribution, music distribution, live event licensing and staging and more. This segment contributes to around 10% of Disney’s operating income and over 10% of their total revenue.

Finally, in the DMED segment there is the Direct to Consumer department. They have responsibility for the various streaming services that Disney provides including:

• Disney +
• ESPN +
• Disney + Hotstar
• Star +
• Hulu

The Direct to Consumer segment has not always performed well for Disney. In fact, at one point they had an operating loss of over $1 billion. They have improved on this significantly recently and now have the operating loss down to around $460 million. In terms of total revenue for Disney, the Direct to Customer segment contributes around 20%.

How much does Disney make a Day?

In order to answer the question “how much does Disney make in a day?” we need to look back to the financial year of 2019. The figures after this were severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. For the 2020 financial year, the Walt Disney Co lost more than $2.8 million.

There were record revenues for Disney in 2019. They received revenue of over $69.5 billion in this year. This equates to around $5.8 billion per month. Assuming a 30 day month, the daily figure for revenue back in 2019 was $193 million.

What you need to bear in mind here is that this was revenue and not profit. There are estimates which claim that Disney has daily operating costs of around $6 million. If this is the case, then the money they make a day will be less than $187 million.