Disney books $5-bln loss in Q2

Disney reported a loss of nearly $5 billion for the second quarter as national lockdowns kept its theme parks closed.

Curtis Tate reported the news for USA Today:

The Walt Disney Company lost nearly $5 billion April, May and June, while its theme parks were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a presentation Disney executives made Tuesday.

It cost the company $3.5 billion just to close the parks during the third quarter, on top of the $1 billion it cost to shut them down the second half of March.

In all, the company posted a loss of nearly $5 billion for the third quarter, including a $2 billion loss in its parks, experiences and products segment.

R.T. Watson from the Wall Street Journal noted:

Investors appeared to be more interested in the strong results from Disney+, which reported strong subscriber growth and next month will premiere the long-postponed live-action remake of “Mulan.” Disney shares rose about 5% in after-hours trading following the earnings release.

The shares have rallied more than 36% from their pandemic low in late March, according to FactSet, but are still off about 19% this year.

Lauren Feiner and Sarah Whitten from CNBC wrote:

Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international segment was the only one to report an increase in year-over-year revenue. Disney said it now has 100 million paid subscribers across its streaming services, which include Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. More than half of those subscriptions are for Disney+, which boasted 57.5 million subscribers as of the end of the quarter, less than a year after launch.

As of Monday, Disney+ reached 60.5 million paid subscribers, Chapek said on the company’s earnings call, hitting its goal of 60 million to 90 million subscriptions by 2024, four years early.