Sad

Disney lays off 28K employees as theme parks remain closed/barely open

Snacks / Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The opposite of magical... Disney is laying off 28K employees across its Parks and Experiences division — around 67% are part-time workers. Disney’s parks in Florida, Paris, and Shanghai have reopened with limited capacity, but its major CA parks are still shut. That's a massive hit to the entire biz.

  • Parks & Experiences accounted for ~40% of Disney's sales in 2019. Last quarter, that division's sales plunged 85% and Disney lost over $3B.
  • Even though some parks have reopened, the limited foot traffic and Candy Apple sales aren't enough to make up for Disney's massive losses.

And then there's "popcorn Disney"... While we don't have the official numbers yet for the $300M budget "Mulan," we do know that Disney postponed almost all of its movies scheduled for release in 2020. Marvel blockbuster “Black Widow" was pushed back to May 2021. That's another big hit to Disney's wallet.

There's a light at the end of Splash Mountain... While Disney's parks and movies divisions are struggling, its streaming and cable network segments are thriving. Disney's streaming networks (Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu) now enjoy over 100M subscribers, and Disney's ESPN is finally back with live sports to watch. That means more subscription and ad revenue to soothe Mickey's woes. That's why Disney stock is up since its (brutal) earnings in August.

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