Annual Meeting of Shareholders

This week, the Walt Disney Company had their Annual Meeting of Shareholders in St. Louis, Missouri and while some people may find listening to a meeting like this a little boring or tedious, we here at Nerds feel just the opposite. Many of us on the team were tuned in listening to all the details and were able to report quickly on a few of the bigger bits of information, like the opening dates of Star War’s Galaxy’s Edge, or info on the upcoming streaming service, Disney +. While those are important and very exciting items, we would be remiss if we didn’t tell you some of the other things gleaned from this meeting.

Big Numbers

This past year, The Walt Disney Company’s revenue was up 8% to $59.4 billion! Net income rose 40% to $12.6 billion. Earnings per share rose to an all-time high of $8.37.

$7.3 billion of that revenue came in from the box office with big hits like Ralph Breaks the Internet and Oscar winners like Bao and Black Panther. It was only the second time in the company’s history to make over $7 billion in box office sales and remains the only company to do so.

Revenue increases are attributed to the commitment to creativity, story-telling and the overall talent and dedication of over 200,000 cast members around the world.

Disney Aspire

One of the newer things to come to Walt Disney Company cast members is the new Disney Aspire. Disney Aspire is a college tuition program offering free tuition for hourly CMs. So far, they have pledged $150 Million to fund it over the next five years and will continue to pledge $25 million each year after that. 40% of cast members are currently enrolled in this program and it continues to grow and develop. What a great move by WDC to give back to those that give so much!

Speaking of cast members, did you know that WDC employs over 10,000 veterans? They spend millions annually working with Veteran-owned businesses. It is a program Bob Iger is very proud of and looks forward to its continuation and growth.

In other contributions, WDC contributed $100 million to children’s hospitals around the world. The first phase of this initiative will be unveiled in April in Texas at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Reducing the impact

In order to reduce the environmental impact around the world, several changes have been made including banning straws and plastic stirrers in all locations. By banning these, they have reduced the waste by over 200 million of these plastic pieces each year. They are currently working on getting rid of more plastic waste as well as developing a way to use the plastic bottles recycled at the parks and resorts by turning them into consumer products.

The new solar panel facility is now online at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and provides enough clean energy to power 2 of the parks, reducing 60,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the process! That is roughly equivalent to taking 10,000 cars off the road.

While Parks & Resorts have the most opportunity to reduce the company’s environmental footprint, all of the company is actively engaged in reducing the impact around the world.

New Acquisitions – 21^st Century Fox

The Walt Disney Company has almost finished the proceedings in acquiring 21^st Century Fox and with that, they now add even more content and intellectual properties to the ever-expanding Disney family, including more of James Cameron’s Avatar which will have several new films coming to the Avatar story and will correlate to more experiences in Animal Kingdom’s Pandora: World of Avatar in the years to come.

Breaking open the Vault

As reported in an earlier post on Disney +, the new streaming service coming later this year is sure to please Disney movie fans young and old alike. There will be original programming, old favorites and more like National Geographic programming (due to the acquisition of 21^st Century Fox). Plus guys, they are breaking open the vault! Everything is reportedly going to be available! (Goodbye to those ridiculously overpriced VHS copies on eBay!) I will be very interested to see if they rotate movies often, so what may be available one month won’t be another. Only time will tell but I know for myself, DISNEY TAKE MY MONEY! I am so excited for this service and can’t wait until it is launched. They will be showcasing the Disney + service on April 11, in Los Angeles on Investor Day, so I am sure we are going to get a lot more information about this new service then.

In other movie news, there are some great films coming our way over the next year like Captain Marvel, the live action Aladdin, and The Lion King. Also on the slate is Tim Burton’s Dumbo, Toy Story 4, Star Wars Episode 9 and Avengers End Game! So much to see! We also learned that Maleficent: Mistress of Evil will be released almost a year earlier than initially reported, with an October 2019 release. As I really loved Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, I cannot wait to see this continuation of the story. One thing really exciting to hear was how all of these movies will be available on Disney + within a year of launch! From the days of what seemed like waiting forever for a ‘current’ release to come to cable, this is really awesome news.

ESPN

ESPN remains the undisputed leaders in sports and according to Bob Iger, no one serves sports fans better than ESPN. ESPN + gained over 2 million subscribers in less than a year and continues to grow at a record pace. ESPN is adding new content, original programming and a rapidly expanding mix of sporting events.

The Force Is With Us

We also reported HERE that the opening dates were revealed for the most ambitious expansion ever, Star War’s Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Hollywood Studios. Within minutes of this being announced, pages were overloaded with guests trying to book trips to coincide with these openings. Nerd Jimmy was successful in booking a trip for that time for his family and I know a few others here at Nerds are considering joining in the fun. I will be seeing Disneyland’s version in August at D23 Expo, so be sure to stay tuned for updates as we get closer to opening dates and visits by the Nerds team.

If you want to get in on the opening day action, contact Jimmy at Once Upon a Time Travel and get prepared to channel the Force!

In addition to the above-mentioned park expansions, lots of other new park things are in the works like:

• Tron roller coaster in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando (the most popular ride at Shanghai Disney)
• A new Marvel-themed land at California Adventure in Disneyland Resort in Anaheim
• Transformation of Epcot, including new rides, experiences and shows
• Zootopia-themed land in Shanghai
• Opening a Marvel-themed hotel at Disneyland Paris
• Adding more Star Wars and Frozen content at Disneyland Paris
• Castle reimagining at Hong Kong
• Expanding Marvel presence and adding a new Frozen experience in Hong Kong
• Beauty and the Beast coming to Tokyo Disney
• Toy Story – themed hotel coming to Tokyo Disney
• A new hotel at Tokyo DisneySea
• 3 new cruise ships
• 2^nd private island in the Bahamas

All these together make for the largest expansion Parks & Resorts have ever gone through, all leading up to the Walt Disney Company’s centennial celebration in 2023. While details were not revealed on what the 100^th year will look like, we were assured that they are already hard at work to bring us an amazing year full of magic and delight.

In summary

The very bottom line on this Annual Meeting of Shareholders is that if you are a shareholder, you should be happy with where things are headed and if you are not a shareholder, then now is the perfect time to become one!

To listen to the meeting yourself, you can check out the entire broadcast here.

What do you think about all that was revealed in this meeting? Leave your comments below!