The COVID-19 pandemic has basically thrown the entire working world for a loop from thriving corporate businesses to individuals with successful jobs; or even just mediocre jobs, if we’re being honest.
Tuesday is the day that The Walt Disney Company’s quarterly earnings call takes place [at 4:30 p.m. Eastern] and while just about everyone knows the numbers will be bleak, what really matters the most is how Disney plans to recover from the huge hit they’ve taken over the last several months.
Their now reopened theme parks were closed for the entirety of their third fiscal quarter. Although Disney Springs and the four major theme parks are now open, none of them are running at full capacity due to health and safety guidelines that have been put into place. Neither one of their water parks have reopened as we’re rapidly heading toward the back-to-school season. All of this along with the extra staff required to ensure that guests are following the new health and safety protocols is not costing the company any less money when compared to how things used to be and I’m not sure how things will recover.
Although it seems like Disney+ was practically made for the current social-distancing environment we’re living in, that portion of their business is not profitable just yet and makes up a very small percentage of the company’s overall earnings. Movie productions have been postponed, rescheduled, and even put on hold during all of this craziness, too.
According to an article on Barron’s, “analysts expect Disney to report an adjusted loss of 61 cents per share” – a huge loss compared to the 60 cent per-share profit reported in the company’s fiscal second quarter. Wall Street is reportedly “expecting Disney’s fiscal third-quarter revenues to drop 39% year over year to $12.9 billion.” They also expect “that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, fell to a $50 million loss from a $4.6 billion profit last year.”
Most of us have seen the rumors flying around recently about one upcoming project or another being cancelled and a few being closed. All of this has got me wondering how they’re going to manage not only their financial recovery, but how they’re going to keep park-goers happy at the same time. Disney fans have been taking to the Rumors and News forum over on DISboards.com and to social media to express their unhappiness over having to pay full price for theme park tickets when all of the experiences that were once available are not currently running.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about what you think might happen in the future while we’re sitting here with no official dates for the return of so many things such as Disney Cruise Line sailings or Adventures by Disney trips. Please let me know in the comments section below or join the discussion over on our Facebook page.