Disney reports 2023 Q2 earnings after market close today. Revenue was $22.33B vs. $22.5B expected. EPS was $1.03 vs. $0.95 expected. Disney+ total subscriber count was 146.1M vs. 151.M expected. Disney’s streaming business has been losing money and its traditional media business has been losing revenue. Both were true for this report but the Disney+ loss decreases to $500M in Q2 from $1B+ from a year ago and the traditional media business is still generating $1.89B of profits for the quarter. Investors were quite nervous about this earnings report but it turned out to be not as bad as they expected. DIS 0.00%↑ stock was up slightly after the earnings release.
Disney’s park business was still strong in Q2 but the YoY top line growth was only 13% and the bottom line growth was 11% vs. 17% and 23% respectively in Q1. It’s worth noting that the domestic park revenue only went up 4% YoY and most of the revenue growth was from the China reopening, with the international park business growing 94% YoY. Chances are consumers are tapped out and the park business is not going to grow at a 20+% rate after the initial post-pandemic boom. Bob Iger has a pretty tough job right now but the job is gonna get tougher with the traditional media business shrinking, Disney+ losing money and subscribers, and its park business stagnant. He will need to consolidate/reinvigorate the traditional media business, make Disney+ profitable and grow the park business consistently. I hope he makes it work.