With parks closed and ships docked, Disney's quarterly profits in this segment swooned by 58%
ago in a galaxy far, far away—February, to be precise—Bob Iger quit as head of a wildly successful company. Disney ruled the box office, with seven of the ten biggest hits of 2019. It had just launched a streaming service, Disney+, to take on Netflix. And it had completed a $69bn debt-fuelled acquisition of 21st Century Fox. In Mr Iger’s 14 years in charge, the firm’s share price quintupled.
Covid-19 has infected all big media groups. Cinemas are shut; advertising is down; shooting is disrupted and there are no live sports to televise. But few have suffered as badly as Disney . Netflix is thriving as locked-down consumers sign up.and Comcast are stabilised by their dull yet dependable cable and mobile businesses. Disney has been whacked for the same reason that for years it thrived: under Mr Iger, the world’s best-known media company grew into far more than a media company.
The Fox deal apart, Disney’s biggest expansion under Mr Iger was in theme parks and resorts. Capital spending on these was $4.1bn last year—more than Disney paid for Lucasfilm in 2012. Six parks and four cruise ships helped generate a third of Disney’s operating profit in 2019, nearly double the share a decade ago. Bob Chapek, who replaced Mr Iger asin February, ran the division. Yet this business is especially vulnerable to social distancing.
Disney’s Shanghai park, at least, will re-open on May 11th, at below 30% capacity. Visitors are banned from hugging Mickey Mouse and must wear face-masks. The Disney shop sells those in packs of four, featuring Mickey or
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