Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Seems with Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar, Disney is owns just about everything relevant to today's blockbusters. Take into account it's theme parks, network, and merchandise, it's like it's an unstoppable entertainment juggernaut. Don't get me wrong, I like what it has to offer (live a little over an hour away in FL), but it seems like lately all the money is going to the mouse.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Some of their other ventures aren't faring so hot, though. ESPN is losing viewers and money hand over fist. I don't think ABC is doing all that well, either.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I watched Civil War on Friday and went to California Adventure yesterday. I'm all in on Disney! But really, they've been knocking it out of the park. Even without Star Wars/Marvel, their animation has stepped it up a notch and I find their output better then Pixar's in the last 5 or 6 years too.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

ABC is doing alright, it's ESPN that's causing problems for them. Their movies and theme parks are killing it right now, though. And Shanghai Disney opens in a few weeks.

In terms of movies, it only takes a couple flops to turn your fortunes upsidedown. Universal was on top of the world last year. But Disney is on a solid roll right now, Finest Hours aside.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

A wealthy company gets richer -rolleyes-

ABC sucks. I go out of my way not to watch that network.

The Force Awakens was overrated and even though everybody hates him I wished George Lucas had the rights.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Overrated? Yes. Still a good movie w/ the obvious narrative flaws it played in.

I'm not even a SW fan but I feel that Kennedy has moved this in positive direction w/ the property than Lucas did in a long time.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

You left out Disney proper which has been putting out better stuff than Pixar for multiple years now.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Pixar is still good but Disney's own animation studio has been upping their game for quite a while. They've definitely been on a hot streak and I'm not sure I see it dying out anytime soon. Plus they've had decent success adapting some of their animated classics as live action films lately. People keep claiming superhero fatigue yet here we are eight years later and the Marvel brand is still going strong. Star Wars will likely be a strong money maker for quite a while too.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I started claiming super hero fatigue well before Iron Man came out, I was a little off on that one :lol:

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Don't kid yourself. Cable providers pay more for ESPN than any other Network by far. The loss of subscribers is not an ESPN problem it is a Cable problem. The subscriber loss is from Cordcutters is deep and the kind of weak economy makes people trim down on bills - like by going down a tier on their cable bill. And lots of those cordcutters are simply picking up Espn online through TV Apps (Sling) or from ISPs (ATT)

Also even with the loss of subscriber numbers they were able to trim operating costs (lay off staff and cut out on air talent) and post a profit.

That said Disney (along with Under Armor, Google, Apple, Netflix and Nike) stock has made me a lot of money in my retirement portfolio. In the past few months I've sold Disney high and bought back in on the recent dip and I am in for the long haul.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

The concern, from what I gathered, has to do with the mix of cord cutters, decrease in viewership and rising costs associated with the NFL specifically.

They've made me a lot of money as well, but I've just been playing options with them. ESPN is the only thing preventing it from jumping a lot higher, though as a lot of advisers have stated -- at this point, that's already factored in to the price. IMO, the "ESPN risk" is severely overplayed, but that's for other investors to decide.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I think a lot of people thought that during that string of Catwoman, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, etc.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I think as long as College Football exists, ESPN will have a home. Forgot to mention Disney Animation after Pixar, that too.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Yup it is already factored into the price - I still think Espn being an anchor is overhyped. Now let's get away from the boring stock talk and get back to prasing the House of Mouse.

Thank God Roy E got Eisner voted out.

Otherwise we'd have a continuation of straight to video crap. Cinderella 12: Revenge of the Mice would be going into the vault right now.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I actually found the recent shake-up, where the heir apparent to the CEO throne left after they questioned if he was actually right for the role, to be a smart move.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Quite a while or since they gave the position to Lassiter? Because success with Disney animation have really been since they put Lassiter in charge. I don't think anyone saw the popularity of turning their animated classics into live action franchises.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Like Mars Needs Moms, John Carter and The Lone Ranger? They seem to be immune.

Although the latter two may not be considered that bad when you add foreign box office. I don't know where the bar is today for determining a flop.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

If you can't make money off the NFL, you're doing it wrong.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

ABC couldn't and they dropped MNF

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

https://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/67267304.jpg

I think they are on a role, but at some point they'll have a lull where another studio will benefit.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I think that's the benefit of owning all these properties. If Star Wars hits a lull they have Marvel to pick up the slack. If Disney animation hits a downslide, Pixar is right there to pick them up.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Right now Disney has hitched their star to a lot of pop culture iconography they are riding like a total wave and, sooner or later, that wave is gonna crest. No that I mind. For the most part, I love what's coming out of Disney right now. Just saw the Jungle Book in 3D and it was terrific. Much netter than I thought it would be. Despite my love Disney classic animation, I'm not a fan of the animated original.

Also, like it or not, ESPN has issues. A lot of the recent changes there are typical corporate indicators of behind the scenes problems. Cable pays more for iESPN because that's what they agreed to. Disney demanded and they acquiesced.

And, according to a TVWeek report just a few weeks ago, a survey of ESPN viewers indicated that nearly 90% of them would not be willing to pay even $8/month for ESPN ala carte… less than a third of what Disney would have to charge (to remain profitable) if they made ESPN available ala carte.

One of the most common complaints I read about cable are channels people don't want and sports channels typically make the list right after shopping channels. I doubt sports are as golden and untouchable as many sports fans like to think. They can't see the forest for trees.

The Emperor has no clothes.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Yeah, but that could be 5+yrs from now, and by then I'd expect they'd adapt to the changing market... Marvel will be done w it's major characters, SW will be done with ep9... they probably won't be as big, but they'll retool and still be big players. Pixar, Disney animation (w Frozen and Zootopia franchises), and their live action Disney movies should still be going strong.

Disney has set themselves up w potential Billion dollar movies in every quarter for years to come, so yeah... they are pretty much unbeatable for the foreseeable future.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I'd like to see a link to that survey. Can't find anything online except for articles in January talking about cable subscribers dropping ESPN if it'd save $8 per month on their cable bill, which was 56% of all subscribers, which isn't that bad, since a majority of cable subscribers probably don't watch one single channel or group of channels, period.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Just wait until the those two Star Wars lands open in Disneyland and Walt Disney World to go along with more SW movie blockbusters. Mo money, mo money...

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I'd like to see that data too. There are 4 major sports leagues in the US and they are all multi-billion dollar corporations. They are huge. The problem with ESPN isn't that people aren't watching sports, it's that they aren't watching ESPN as much as they used to.

There are a few reasons for that:

1 - Increased competition from networks like Fox Sports and NBC Sports, plus individual league networks such as the NFL Network, MLB Network and NBA TV. All these products are relatively new.

2 - ESPN doesn't show as many games as people think. They get one football game a week. I believe one or two NBA games a week during the regular season. And 2 baseball games a week. I don't believe they get any playoff games. They do get a lot of college games though, but I think the more popular bowl games are saved for network TV.

3- They fill their programming time with non-stop "analysis". And people don't need that anymore. Not with the ability to get the same or better coverage from places around the internet.

ESPN itself doesn't offer anything special anymore. Despite that, it's still the most watched cable channel by a fair margin.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

The difference between #1 ESPN and #2 TBS is less than 150,000 viewers. Amazing that it's worth as much as it is.

DIS took a huge hit last night after missing on earnings, primarily from their Networks division.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

True but when you factor in ESPN2 the gap becomes wider. There aren't any ratings numbers available for ESPN 8: The Ocho.

And the funny thing is that TBS probably saw a rise in viewership because they picked up a bunch of NBA and NCAA games.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

I suspect it's mostly this. But not because others are doing it, it's because it can be done in an hour or two. As such, they end up repeating themselves multiple times a day.

With the major sports games being split up so many ways, the profits for all sports networks were going to level out. Disney realized that and invested elsewhere.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

FWIW, I notice that the games on MNF have become less prestigous since moving to ESPN. I remember when I was a kid that was always the big game of the week/end of weekend. Now that mantle seems to have passed to Sunday Night Football on NBC. In fact, I am always amazed how that network always seems to manage to get the good game, since they are allegedly booked over a year in advance.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

The NFL has fkex scheduling in 2nd half of the season, so SNF can usually cherry pick the best games with a few exceptions.

Re: Is the Mouse Unbeatable?
 

Honestly, Disney makes more with their theme parks in a week than their movies make in their entire runs, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over Disney suddenly collapsing. ;)