Optimism among Walt Disney Company DIS shareholders may have faded as the conglomerate's stock recently hit 10-year lows.
Disney, under the helm of CEO Bob Iger, has also struggled at the box office in 2023, but one movie gave the studio a rare win both in cinemas and on its streaming platform.
What Happened: Over the years, Disney has put a higher emphasis on its direct-to-consumer business, which includes its Disney+ streaming platform.
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The focus on streaming may have hurt the company’s box office performance in 2023 with the year to mark the first non-pandemic one for Disney to not have a $1 billion grossing movie since 2014.
However, one of its films had a strong box office showing for the year and just hit a milestone on Disney+.
Pixar's "Elemental" was released in theaters in June. It had a disappointing open of $29.6 million, but eventually gained $154.3 million in domestic gross and $486.7 million worldwide.
When “Elemental” hit Disney+ on Sept. 13, it amassed 26.4 million views in its first five days, according to Deadline.
The animated film had the highest premiere week on the platform since “Turning Red,” which hit Disney+ in March 2022. “Turning Red” did not have a domestic theatrical release.
“Elemental” now ranks as a top 10 movie premiere on the platform all-time.
Why It’s Important: “Elemental” ended up hitting over five times its domestic opening weekend. This marked the second-biggest multiple for total domestic compared to opening weekend since “Toy Story” in 1995.
“Elemental” is the ninth highest grossing movie in the world for 2023 with a strong $332.4 million in international gross.
While Disney has dominated the box office for years with hit franchises from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and Disney Animation, it has had the tough challenge of balancing content for theaters and streaming.
With “Elemental,” Disney secured a rare double win, hitting theater box office and streaming viewership.
The strong performance from “Elemental” comes after Disney announced a $1.99 per month promotion for a basic streaming package with ads.
The Disney+ promotion coincided with the launch of “Elemental,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Ahsoka,” the latest Star Wars Disney+ series that has, so far, received strong viewership.
In 2022, Disney had four of the top 10 grossing movies domestically and worldwide, and three of the top four grossing movies domestically for the year.
So far in 2023, Disney has four of the top 10 grossing movies domestically and has four of the top grossing movies worldwide.
The company’s highest grossing movie for the year is “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3,” which has $359 million domestically and $845.6 million worldwide, ranking fourth for both.
Disney reported direct-to-consumer revenue of $5.5 billion in the third quarter, which was up 9% year-over-year. The company also improved its net loss for the segment with a $512 million loss, an improvement of 52% year-over-year.
DIS Price Action: Disney shares trade at $85.02 versus a 52-week trading range of $79.75 to $118.18. Disney's shares are down 4% year-to-date in 2023 and down 22% over the last year.
Image: Shutterstock
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