Posted: 04 May 2015 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | 3
|
|
|
QUOTE:
That specific arm is incredibly, and increasingly profitable (according to Disney shareholder reports) |
|
|
---------------------------- You must be reading different shareholder reports to me.
QUOTE:
Since acquiring Marvel in 2008, Disney's stock has nearly tripled. |
|
|
Disney bouncing back from the financial crisis in 2008 has less to do with Marvel than it does with the fact that we were bouncing back from a financial crisis, especially given Disney did not acquire Marvel until the third quarter of 2009.
Some facts: the actual performance of its share price over that time has more than quadrupled ($26 in late August 2009 to $111 today). Disney's profits are dominated by its Media Networks and Parks & Resorts segments (the likes of ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel, DisneyWorld, DisneyLand, etc drive its earnings). Studio Enterntainment (of which Marvel Studios is just a part) is a distant third. The publishing side of Marvel comics is not very significant -- to put it into context, going by Q1 2015, the Media Networks segment makes profits that are three times as big as Studio Entertinament. Studio Entertainment makes earnings that are twice as big as Consumer Products (Disney's 4th biggest segment out of 5 segments). Marvel comics is a small part of Consumer Products (this segment includes all retail, all merchandising licensing). In the Q1 segment, Spider-Man merchandising got a mention in the Consumer Products section along with Frozen merchandising, as did growth in their retail stores. Marvel Comics publishing got no mention.
Edited to add: which is not to say that Marvel as a whole is not importnt to Disney -- clearly it is. Marvel characters feed into its parks, its films, its licensing. But the published comics in themselves are not significant beyond maintaining copyrights and farming new properties.
Edited by Peter Martin on 04 May 2015 at 12:51pm
|