That question hangs over Walt Disney Co. as it prepares to report fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday.
That question hangs over Walt Disney Co. as it prepares to report fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday. ESPN headlines several near-term headaches for what has recently been a not-so-magic kingdom. Already grappling with writers’ and actors’ strikes that have paralyzed production in Hollywood, Disney has also stumbled through recent high-profile box-office misses — among them “The Little Mermaid” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” — the loss of streaming subscribers over the past two quarters and a steep decline in linear-TV advertising that is roiling the industry.
The company’s direct-to-consumer segment, which includes Disney+, is of particular concern. It lost $1.7 billion in fiscal 2021 and more than $4 billion in fiscal 2022, and it is expected to lose nearly $3 billion this year, according to Gimme Credit analyst Dave Novosel. Disney finds itself in a dogfight with Netflix Inc. NFLX , Apple Inc. AAPL , Amazon.com Inc. AMZN , Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. WBD , Comcast Corp. CMCSA and others.