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Minnie Mouse played a big role in just about everyone’s childhood. But, who’s to say that some Disney childhood memories can’t be part of your day-to-day routine now — specifically in the beauty department?
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Walt Disney Co. has had a big film success with the revitalization of the “Star Wars” franchise but faces investor concerns over subscriber losses at its cable networks, in particular at ESPN.
Disney DIS, +0.22% will report first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Here’s what investors can expect:
Earnings: Disney is expected to report earnings of $1.45 per share for the first quarter, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet. That would be a 14% bump compared with the $1.27 a share Disney reported during the same period a year ago, when the company blew past the $1.07 FactSet consensus. Disney hasn’t missed Wall Street’s expectation on earnings since the second quarter of 2011.
Revenue: Analysts tracked by FactSet expect Disney to post $14.8 billion in revenue, an increase of more than 10% compared with the $13.4 billion in revenue it reported in the same quarter last year. Disney’s cable networks are its biggest category for revenue. Analysts expect that area to contribute $4.5 billion, followed by $4.3 billion from its parks and resorts segment and $2.3 billion at its film studio, with the rest coming from its host of other categories.
Estimize estimates revenue at $14.9 billion, just above the FactSet consensus. Disney missed the revenue consensus on FactSet in the two most recent quarters and in three of the last 10 quarters.
Share price: Disney shares rose 11.5% over the course of last year, but have started 2016 on a dismal note as cord-cutting fears continue to loom over the industry. Shares of Disney are down more than 10% so far this year. Analysts following the stock and tracked by FactSet on average have a 12-month price target of $113.03, about 20% above current levels, and an overweight rating.
Other issues: “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has earned $899 million at the domestic box office and $1.1 billion internationally and is all but certain to bolster Disney earnings. Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente said in a recent note the film’s strong performance is a good indicator for future home-entertainment sales in the company’s third quarter.
Sales in consumer products are still battling tough year-over-year comparisons thanks to “Frozen” products. DiClemente said Disney’s Force Friday sales, which were deferred until the release of the film, along with other “Star Wars” sales should help offset headwinds.
The big worry remains ESPN. In a regulatory filing in late November, Disney said it was losing ESPN subscribers by the millions. Earlier this year, Kanna Venkateshwar, an analyst at Barclays, said he expected Disney to underperform the sector as demand for the network deemed “the worldwide leader in sports” continues to waver.
“ESPN accounts for a disproportionate share of Disney’s cash flow and the gap between [operating cash flow], 7%, and EBIT growth, 17%, over the last two years likely already points to this pressure from subscriber losses,” he wrote.
To boot, many analysts believe ESPN paid too much for too many rights to air a number of games from a number of sports leagues. BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield said that could result in disappointing profitability going into 2017.
“ESPN now appears poised to become Disney’s most troubled business as consumer behavior shifts rapidly,” Greenfield wrote in his industry predictions for 2016.
Sarah Ingle has taken Disney princess impersonations to an entirely new level. The 25-year-old from Denver, Colorado, has spent more than $14,000 on custom-made costumes for the nine princesses she transforms herself into: Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, Rapunzel, Merida from Brave, and Elsa and Anna from Frozen.
Sarah, who works as a marketing manager during the day, owns 17 different outfits and 16 different wigs for her princess transformations, which take three hours each to achieve.
“It takes a lot of time to get into the outfits because they have lots of layers that tie up at the back,” Sarah told Hotspot Media. “Then I have a different wig and makeup look for each princess. I have to contour my face when I play Aurora from Sleeping Beauty because my face is much rounder than hers. And as I have hazel eyes, I have to wear blue contact lenses for the Little Mermaid and Elsa from Frozen.”
Regarding her intricate outfits, Sarah says, “Each dress can take up to six months to make and I source many different materials from all over the world, including silk and organza before drawing my final designs. I’m very fortunate to have a full time job that pays for the beautiful dresses and material because I’m so passionate about looking the best that I can for the performances.”
The impersonator also naturally has Disney princess-like features, which helps her pull off each look. “I was born with really big eyes, and people were always telling me that I looked like a cartoon doll or Disney princess. I suppose that my big eyes just help me to appear more cartoon-like, which is great for what I do.”
Sarah’s gotten so good at her transformations that she and her boyfriend started a business called Princess Ever After, where people can hire princesses for their events (her boyfriend occasionally accompanies her as a prince). She charges about $145 to make a princess appearance at birthday parties and events, but she also visits children at hospitals and volunteers (in costume, of course) as well.
“I’ll never forget the day that I was asked to perform for a little girl who was celebrating the beginning of a break from her cancer treatments,” she says. “Seeing her face light up as she sang along with me was just incredible and it was just the most amazing day.”
Though Sarah has already made a career of dressing like princesses, she says her goal is still one day to be a “real” one. “It would certainly be a dream to be a real Disney princess — I’d love to be Ariel. Maybe one day I can go for an audition and they’ll give me my dream job.”
Daniel Gerson, who co-wrote Disney/Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” movies and “Big Hero 6,” died at his home on Saturday. He was 49.
According to a family statement, Gerson had been battling brain cancer.
The screenwriter frequently collaborated with Robert L. Baird. Together the duo co-wrote “Monsters, Inc.” and its prequel, “Monsters University,” as well as “Big Hero 6,” which won the Oscar last year for animated feature. Gerson was also the voice of maintenance monsters Needleman and Smitty in “Monsters, Inc.” and Desk Sergeant Sergeant in “Big Hero 6.”
Gerson and Baird have been credited with assistance on Pixar’s “Inside Out” and “Up,” as well as “Chicken Little.”
Born in New York, Gerson attended Cornell University, where he majored in English, and later obtained an MFA from the graduate film school at NYU. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to begin his writing career, getting his start as a staff writer on the NBC comedy “Something So Right.” He later transitioned to animated films for Disney/Pixar, where his films grossed over $2 billion worldwide.
He is survived by his wife, two children and parents.
Donations in Gerson’s memory can be made here at UCLA’s Brain Tumor Program.
It was a big win for “Inside Out” and Disney on Saturday night at the International Animated Film Society’s Annie Awards ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Overall, Disney and its various companies received 17 Annies, the animation industry’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out” scored 10 Annies, including best animated feature film, direction, voice-over and music – winning nearly every category in which it was nominated.
The overwhelming number of awards makes the movie the odds-on favorite this year to win an Oscar in the animation category.
“Inside Out” director Pete Docter lavished praise on those involved in the movie when he received his award. But he also talked about why he is in animation.
“I have a theory that people like me don’t just do it because we’re passionate about it and love what we do. We do it because we have to do it,” he said.
Don Hahn, another Disney veteran, was recognized with the June Foray Award for having a significant impact on the art and industry of animation. Hahn produced “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast,” among other Disney films.
“The Simpsons” also received an Annie for best television series. Creator and producer Matt Groening accepted the award.
Shakira asked Disney animators to give bigger hips to Gazelle, the cartoon character she voices in the upcoming movie Zootopia.
“It looked to me like she needed more hips [and] I asked them to give her more,” Shakira told Spain’s El Pais newspaper in an interview coinciding with the premiere of the movie in Barcelona, the Colombian pop star’s adopted home town. “And they did it!”
Shakira noted that she and the midriff-baring, blond-maned Gazelle have “things in common.”
“A lot of the details are mine,” she said. “The color of the eyes, the hair, even the clothes.”
The singer said that after seeing a drawing of Gazelle, she “didn’t think twice” about accepting the part.
She called her role in Zootopia “super fun” and different than anything she had done before, adding that she had been offered similar projects in the past but had turned them down.
Shakira revealed that she is writing new songs and plans to return focusing on her career in March. She gave birth to her second son, Sasha, just over a year ago.
“I live for music and in some way music lives in me,” she told El Pais. “…I am made of this and for this. My every fiber. If I don’t sing and dance, I suffocate.”
Zootopia’s U.S. release is set for March 4. Shakira’s song “Try Everything” is featured on the movie’s soundtrack.
The battle for theme-park supremacy in Central Florida is getting more intense. Universal Orlando parent Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)(NASDAQ:CMCSK) confirmed a major land purchase on Wednesday during its quarterly earnings call.
Comcast didn’t elaborate on the asset transaction beyond the $130 million price tag and the size of the land — a whopping 475 acres. It does seem to confirm the report two months ago when a Universal Orlando lobbyist told country commissioners that Comcast had negotiated an option to purchase parcels of land totaling 474 acres a couple of miles south of its existing resort.
Comcast said on Wednesday that it’s not in a hurry to put the land to use. This is a “strategic acquisition,” just as Universal Orlando’s former parent company also once held tracts of land that it eventually let go.
Don’t bet on Universal Orlando flipping the land this time around. After all, this is the same Comcast that, in 2004, made an unsolicited $54 billion buyout offer for Disney (NYSE:DIS) — that the House of Mouse obviously shot down.
Development on the newly purchased acreage will be slow and calculated, but it will happen. Comcast doesn’t have a choice. It’s been feverishly developing its original site.
It won’t have much of an easel left to paint on by the time that its fifth on-site hotel opens this summer, and the arrival of the Volcano Bay water park next year. If Comcast wants to build more theme parks, hotels, and stand-alone attractions, it’s going to need more land. It has that now.
Comcast may be talking down the purchase now, but it’s probably going to be developed a lot sooner than the media giant is letting on. Comcast has momentum.
Its theme parks are growing faster than Disney’s. It just checked in with a 15% year-over-year surge in adjusted theme park revenue in its latest quarter. Comcast isn’t breaking down that growth by resort, but you can be sure that Disney will be posting a single-digit percentage advance when it reports quarterly results on Tuesday.
A dozen years after being rebuffed by Disney with its unsolicited takeover proposal, Comcast has become its own Disney. It has interests in movie studios, broadcast networks, and theme parks.
Comcast’s brand isn’t as resilient as Disney. Just ask an Xfinity cable subscriber how they feel about Comcast. However, on the theme park front, Comcast is taking advantage of a methodically slow Disney to gain ground on the theme park darling.
It’s doing a good job with Universal Orlando now, and something tells me that we’ll have something in the works in Comcast’s new land before Disney’s Star Wars Land sees the light of day.
Disney On Ice presents Frozen’s 10-performance run at Fresno’s Selland Arena has produced the largest gross box office sales for arena-based events in the last 12 years at the downtown venue.
SMG, Selland’s operator, said the 10 performances Jan. 27 though Feb. 1 drew more than 36,000 in overall attendance. Disney On Ice presents Frozen is produced by Feld Entertainment, which also brings the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Disney Live! productions to Selland under a longterm contract with SMG.
“On behalf of SMG and the City of Fresno, I would like to thank Feld Entertainment for its record- setting engagement,” said William C. Overfelt, general manager of the Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center.
The engagement was presented by Stonyfield YoKids Organic Yogurt.
Walt Disney Co. said it has begun accepting applications for its third Disney Accelerator, a program designed to accelerate the growth of startup companies from around the world.
Disney (NYSE: DIS) said it will select 10 startup companies for a three-month mentorship and investment program that will immerse them in the media and entertainment business. The program begins this summer and concludes with a Demo Day in October. Applications are due April 10.
Disney will select 10 startup companies for a three-month mentorship and investment program that will immerse them in the media and entertainment business.
“The past two years of the Disney Accelerator have led to incredible innovation and success between The Walt Disney Co. and our participating startups, helping to establish the Disney Accelerator as the premier media and entertainment accelerator,” Kevin Mayer, Disney’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement. “We look forward to further shaping the future of our industry through this unique program.”
The Los Angeles-based program is open to both early and venture-backed technology startups that wish to make an impact on the future of media and entertainment. The Disney Accelerator provides participating companies investment capital, access to working space at Disney’s creative campus and mentor support and guidance from Disney executives, entrepreneurs, investors and other business leaders from the entertainment and technology communities.
Startups that have participated in the program since it began in 2014 have included companies with technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, wearables, messaging and virtual reality.
Among them was Boulder, Colo.-based Sphero, which developed the Star Wars BB-8 droid in collaboration with Lucasfilm during the program. Since completing the program, Sphero raised an additional $45 million in venture capital, bringing their total financing to $80 million.
Another alumni was Los Angeles-based Naritiv, the first media company born on Snapchat, which recently secured $3 million in Series A funding. Naritiv’s total network on Snapchat currently generates more than 16 billion views per month.
Participants in 2015 included Emotiv, the developer of the Insight wireless headset, which measures brain fitness and emotions, and StatMuse, which recently launched a public beta of its interactive sports stats platform powered by natural language search. StatMuse is currently providing ESPN with statistical content for the NBA season and closed $10 million in Series A financing in January.
In a move that Disney says could advance entertainment as well as advertising, the media powerhouse has filed a patent application for a “projection assembly for use with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV),” according to a copy of the filing.
Disney has signaled for some time that managers intend to use drones to create large Disney characters during night-time entertainment displays at the company’s Florida and California theme parks. In documents filed with the Federal Aviation Administration last month, Disney indicated as many as 50 drones could be in the air at one time.
But how Disney’s imagineers planned to pull it off has remained a mystery. The patent application provides a few more clues.
The assembly will have the ability to project still photographs or video images, according to the application. The assembly contains a rear-projection screen that is a “sheet of porous material such as polypropylene mesh’ that will allow airflow through ” while also having adequate opaqueness to function as an RP screen.”
Also included is a wide angle reflector, such as a parabolic mirror, Disney said in its application. This is designed to reflect light from the projector onto the “rear surface of the rear-projection screen and this will generate a displayed image.”
Disney said the projection assembly “is configured to provide a way of radically expanding the palette of the aerial display” to include “all manner of imagery and effects.” In addition to “pure entertainment uses, Disney wrote the projection assembly has the potential to “open new frontiers for aerial advertising capabilities and for other applications such as rapid dissemination of emergency information to large numbers of people.”
Last month, Disney filed a request for an exception to FAA rules to enable it to fly drones at Walt Disney World. Right now, FAA rules prohibit drones from flying over the parks. In 2014, Disney managers filed for three drone-related patents, according to a story in Marketwatch.
In that first drone patent application, Disney managers indicated they saw potential in using drones for entertainment. “The inventors recognized,” Disney wrote then, “that presently there are no mechanisms for creating very large aerial displays, such as a display that is reusable/repeatable, dynamic, and interactive. To address that need, Disney’s R&D department is working to create a multi-drone aerial display system and a ground control station that could choreograph repeatable movements.”