A Brief Overview of the Walt Disney Company

Disney is one of the most well-known companies in the world. With slogans like The happiest place on Earth or Where dreams come true, Disney can convey a sense of magic, joy, and pure happiness to the entire world. This theme of happiness appeals to its consumer base whether it's Disney's parks, media networks, television networks, or movies. Disney offers a wide range of services and products that appeal to both children and adults alike. The Walt Disney Company has been a part of my life since I was born. I grew up watching Disney movies such as The Lion King and Aladdin. I also grew up watching Disney channel. Nowadays, I love Disney for its big blockbuster movies and its parks, of course. Disney has had such a huge impact on not only my life, but on the lives of millions.

The Walt Disney Company is a multinational mass media and entertainment industry with its headquarters located in Burbank, California. The company contains several different segments that make up its industry. The first segment includes media networks such as ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel, and Freeform. Media Networks generate the most sales for Disney with a 6.14-billion-dollar revenue and 2.08-billion-dollar operating income in the first quarter of 2018. This accounts for forty-two percent of Disney's sales and forty-nine percent for its operating income for the first quarter of 2018 (Noonan). Television is Disney's biggest moneymaker. In fact, The main ESPN channel is Disney's biggest sales driver and likely accounted for around half of the $23.7 billion in sales that the media networks segment recorded over the past year (Noonan). While it is widely believed that Disney makes most of its money on either its parks or the big screen, this is clearly not the case. The small screen has given Disney the most financial earning success compared to the rest of the company.

The second segment includes Disney's studio entertainment. This segment refers to Disney's blockbuster movies. These studios include but are not limited to Lucasfilm, Walt Disney animation, Marvel, and Pixar. Walt Disney animation has been active the longest with its first film the 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. More recently, some of their works include Tangled in 2010, and Moana and Zootopia in 2016. However, they are most known for Frozen which is the highest grossing animated film as of 2018 (Walt Disney Studios). Pixar is Disney's other animated studio. Disney bought Pixar in 2006. Pixar has created some of the most beloved animated films which include Toy Story and The Incredibles. Its films have won countless awards and have seen very high box office numbers over the years. In fact, Pixar has grossed more than $11 billion at the worldwide box office to date (Walt Disney Studios). Lucasfilm is a relatively new addition to Disney's studio entertainment. Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney in 2012. Lucasfilm is of course known for Star Wars which is one of the most popular movie franchises of all time. Since being acquired by Disney, Lucasfilm has global gross earnings of about six billion dollars. However, for just Episode VII and Episode VIII, Lucasfilm had a total gross of just over three billion dollars at the global box office. With the star wars franchise, Lucasfilm can create some very successful blockbuster movies. Marvel is primarily known as the superhero studio for Disney. Marvel has dominated the superhero movie genre for the past ten years and have been very financially successful at the worldwide box office. Since being bought by Disney, Marvel has grossed over 15 billion dollars on movies alone. Almost four billion dollars was made at the box office in 2018 alone with the movies Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, and Ant Man and the Wasp (The numbers).

The third segment of Disney includes its parks Disneyworld and Disneyland. Disney's parks make the second most amount of money for Disney's global revenue. In 2017, Disney's parks and resorts accounted for 18.42 billion dollars of Disney's total global revenue of 55.14 billion dollars (Statista). In fact, Disney's theme park system is the most attended theme park system ever. In 2017, about 150 million people attended one of Disney's international parks and resorts with magic kingdom being the most popular with over 20 million visitors (Disneynews). Disney's family-friendly outlook on its parks and resorts makes it one of the most popular tourist destinations.

While Disney is involved in and dominates many different types of industries, it has many different competitors. Disney's competitors include Viacom, Time Warner, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., and the News Corporation. Warner Bros. is Disney's competitor when dealing with the superhero genre of movies. Warner Bros. owns DC comics which is Marvel's number one competitor. However, DC comics is nowhere near as successful as Marvel has been. Since 2013, DC has made only about 3.7 million dollars between five different movies (the-numbers). This is less than the amount Marvel made in the year 2018 alone. Marvel dominates the superhero movie genre over Warner Bros.

Another competitor of Marvel is DreamWorks studios. DreamWorks is Disney's competitor when it comes to animation. Unlike DC comics, DreamWorks isn't dominated by the studios Pixar and Disney Animation. In the world-wide box office for the past ten years, DreamWorks has made over nine billion dollars. Pixar has made over ten billion dollars and Disney Animation has made about five billion dollars (the-numbers). However, DreamWorks has made twenty different movies in the last ten years while Pixar has made thirteen and Disney Animation has made eight. Overall, Disney has more success in earnings than DreamWorks.

Disney is one of the world's biggest and most successful publicly traded companies. It owns many different businesses in different types of industries that are not only successful but are often number one in their respective industrial fields. As a result, Disney continues to grow not only financially, but in popularity as well. Disney is so successful because they always strive to satisfy their customers with every single service and product they sell. This is why Disney is not only loved by me, but by millions of people of all ages.

Works Cited

Box Office History for DC Extended Universe Movies. The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/DC-Extended-Universe#tab=summary, Accessed September 25, 2018.

Box Office History for Disney-Pixar Movies. The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/movies/production-company/Pixar, Accessed September 25, 2018.

Box Office History for DreamWorks Animation Movies. The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/movies/production-company/DreamWorks-Animation, Accessed September 25, 2018.

Box Office History for Lucasfilm Movies. The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/movies/production-company/Lucasfilm, Accessed September 25, 2018.

Box Office History for Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies. The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Marvel-Cinematic-Universe#tab=summary. Accessed September 25, 2018.

Box Office History for Walt Disney Animation Studios Movies. The Numbers - Where Data and Movies Meet, www.the-numbers.com/movies/production-company/Walt-Disney-Animation-Studios, Accessed September 25, 2018.

Fuller, Steve. Topic: Disney. Statista, www.statista.com/topics/1824/disney/, Accessed September 26, 2018.

Noonan, Keith. How The Walt Disney Company Makes Most of Its Money. The Motley Fool, www.fool.com/investing/2018/06/01/how-the-walt-disney-company-makes-most-of-its-mone.aspx. Accessed September 24, 2018.

Walt Disney Studios, www.waltdisneystudios.com/about/. Accessed September 24, 2018.

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