Disney Had a Much Better Summer Than Spring

Disney+ added 4.4 million subscribers this summer, bringing its total to 122.7 million subs. Adding in Disney+ Hotstar, which is basically the inexpensive Disney+ in India, the truly global Disney+ number grows to 158.6 million subs.

It’s marked growth from the prior quarter, when Disney+ added just 700,000 subs. At the time, the company said it expected Disney+ subs to grow “modestly” this summer. It certainly achieved at least that. Disney now says it expects a “modest decline” in October-to-December Disney+ core (not Hotstar) subs vs. the summer haul.

Hulu now has 52 million subscribers after adding 900,000 subs over the three-month period. ESPN+ now has 25.6 million subscribers, with growth of 700,000 subs since the end of June. Next quarter we’ll see what having an NFL game exclusively on ESPN+ does for the streamer’s subscribers.

Last quarter (April-June), Disney finally turned a profit at its overall direct-to-consumer (streaming) business — one quarter ahead of schedule. It did it again from July to September, this time to the tune of $321 million. The improvement was enough to make Disney’s DTC streaming businesses officially profitable for the entire fiscal year.

Disney’s adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.14 and revenue of $22.57 billion both topped Wall Street’s expectations, which were $1.10 of EPS on $22.44 billion in revenue. The company’s overall revenue rose 6 percent from the June quarter.

Of note, advertising revenue from streaming rose 14 percent quarter to quarter.

“Bluey” continued to be the standout show on Disney+. On Hulu, Season 4 of “Only Murders in the Building” charted on the Nielsen streaming sheets, as did reruns of Fox animated comedies “Bob’s Burgers,” “Family Guy,” and “Futurama.”

But who wants to talk (too much) about streaming with these box office numbers?

At the movies, Disney super-served both kids and adults in the quarter. There was plenty of carryover into fiscal Q4 for the juggernaut that was “Inside Out 2,” the biggest G or PG movie ever ($1.69 billion worldwide). The sequel to 2015’s “Inside Out” was also a monster hit on PVOD in the quarter. And for the grownups there was “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which became the highest-grossing R-rated film in box office history with $1.3 billion. (Neither record is adjusted for inflation.)

“Alien: Romulus,” which made $350 million globally, also performed nicely in the quarter — particularly overseas.

“This was a pivotal and successful year for The Walt Disney Company, and thanks to the significant progress we’ve made, we have emerged from a period of considerable challenges and disruption well positioned for growth and optimistic about our future,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement accompanying the financials. “Our solid performance in the fiscal fourth quarter reflected the success of our strategic efforts to improve quality, innovation, efficiency, and value creation. In Q4 we saw one of the best quarters in the history of our film studio, improved profitability in our streaming businesses, a record-breaking 60 Emmy Awards for the company, the continued power of live sports, and the unveiling of an impressive collection of new projects coming to our Experiences segment. As a result of our strategies and our focus on managing our businesses for both the near- and long-term, we are differentiating ourselves from traditional competitors, leveraging the deepest and broadest set of entertainment assets in the industry to drive attractive returns and further advance our goals.”