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Bob Iger Thought He Was Leaving on Top. Now, He’s Fighting for Disney’s Life.

Author

Michael Beach
April 16, 2020

Short retirement: On Monday, Bob Iger announced that he is returning full-time to the CEO role at Disney after less than 50 days of retirement.

Why he is coming back: Disney’s business model is uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19 changes such as closed movie theatres and theme parks along with canceled sporting events.

Big question #1: How does Disney make money today?

Disney 2019 revenue by segment according to LightShed Partners:
1) Theme Parks – 38%
2) Media Networks (ESPN, etc.) – 36%
3) Movie Studios – 16%
4) Other – 10%

Disney share of the domestic box office by year:
1) 2010 – 14%
2) 2011 – 12%
3) 2012 – 14%
4) 2013 – 16%
5) 2014 – 16%
6) 2015 – 21%
7) 2016 – 26%
8) 2017 – 22%
9) 2018 – 26%
10) 2019 – 35%

Quick math on Disney Theme Parks Revenue:
1) $26.2B in 2019 revenue
2) $2.2B per month
3) $73M per day
4) 175M+ annual visitors
5) $150 in revenue per visitor

Big question #2: How does Disney plan on making money in the future?

Disney has made huge investments in the successful launch of Disney+, which will be a future revenue driver.

Total Disney+ subscribers:
1) Feb-2020 – 28.6M
2) Apr-2020 – 50.0M

Going global: Disney+ has started expanding beyond the U.S. with 8M+ subscribers coming from India alone.

Quick math on replacing lost theme park revenue with Disney+ subscribers:
1) $2.2B in lost monthly revenue from theme park closures
2) $6 per month (best case) in Disney+ revenue
3) 364M Disney+ subscribers needed to match theme park revenue

Estimated losses from Disney+ between 2019-20:
1) 2019 – $4.1B
2) 2020 – $4.9B

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