A televised special featuring Nintendo’s Mario Kart 8 will air on Disney XD in December, continuing the network’s foray into eSports coverage.
The program will pit teenage teams against one another in a Mario Kart 8 racing tournament, with popular YouTube stars providing commentary and player coaching.
Mario Kart 8: Clash of Karts is the second major eSports special spearheaded by Disney this year, following up on a similar program centered around the Nintendo World Championships in October. Filmed live at the Nintendo World Championships 2015 event in June, Disney XD’s program followed 16 competitors as they competed for top honors in Super Metroid, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, and other Nintendo-published games.
“Our first experiment earlier in the year was a formal event that was like a decathlon of eSports,” Disney XD general manager Marc Buhaj said in an interview with Fortune. “We wanted to focus on a single game with this special and have a more intimate event.”
“eSports is something that’s blossoming, but it’s still early days,” Buhaj continued. “How it’ll be covered for the kids’ audience is still something that remains to be seen.”
Fortune reports that Disney XD recently renewed its gaming-inspired scripted comedy series Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything for a second season. The network is also airing Gaming Show (In My Parents’ Garage), a teen-oriented talk show that features game reviews and “Let’s Play”-styled gameplay segments.
“With eSports we’re seeing the growth of a new business,” Buhaj explained. “We need to make sure that our game shows are appropriate to the folks watching. If we see a gaming opportunity that pops up, we’ll look at it.”
Mario Kart 8: Clash of Karts stars YouTube personalities AtomicMari, Strawburry 17, SethBling, and Andre of Black Nerd Comedy. The one-hour special will air at 8 p.m. EST on Saturday, December 5th.
From the unprecedented advanced ticket sales to a promotional blitz that has ranged from lowbrow (debuting a trailer in the middle of Monday Night Football) to the highest-brow (see: an exhibition at the Louvre), ‘Star Wars: Force Awakens’ has established itself as the most hotly anticipated movie in years. This anticipation extends beyond fans of the franchise, too: Wall Street analysts will be watching closely to see if the film manages to rake in billions and boost the bottom line of its corporate owner, The Walt Disney Company. But for all that Disney stands to gain, there’s one entity that needs Star Wars’ success even more than Disney does: the entertainment industry as a whole.
According to two new research notes — one from Nomura, the other from Wedbush — Disney’s financial situation is stronger than some observers might expect, given the drop in ESPN subscribers, while the situation at the domestic box office is less robust. Despite ‘The Martian’ earning $200 million since its October debut and better-than-expected windfalls from ‘Creed and ‘The Peanuts Movie,’ fourth quarter box office results are down 5.8% quarter to date. However, says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, December movie releases — and ‘Star Wars’ in particular — should turn this downward trend around.
“We expect the majority of fourth quarter strength to come from December, as Star Wars estimates continue to rise,” Pachter wrote on Monday. “Star Wars will be released one week before Christmas, giving movie-goers a reason for multiple trips to the theater in December. While the quarter is so far trending well below our estimates for box office to end up 10- to 15% over last year, we think moviegoers may be holding off on visits until December.”
Meanwhile, over in Disney land (not to be confused with theme park Disneyland), Wall Street analysts have been a-flutter ever since CEO Bob Iger indicated in August thatthere may be an impending acceleration in cord-cutting. This, of course, could have a ripple effect on Disney’s overall financial situation, hitting ESPN revenue hard and putting even more pressure on ‘Star Wars’ to outperform in order to make up for that loss of revenue. But so far, this vision has not come to fruition. In fact, according to a recently-released 10-K, Disney’s fiscal 2015 performance was strong across nearly all of its business segments.
As the company reported when it released its fourth quarter 2015 earnings results, Disney’s full-year 2015 revenue came in at $52.5 billion, up 7% year-over-year. While ESPN subscribers did decrease 3% to 92 million, the Mickey Mouse company offset the loss of subscriber revenue by increasing affiliate rates. Elsewhere in the company, studio revenue was up 1% year-over-year, parks and resorts revenue was up 7% year-over-year and consumer products revenue surged 13% between 2014 and 2015.
“Though fiscal 2014 presented a difficult comparison for studio results, the 10-K revealed that the fiscal 2015 theatrical performance of ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Big Hero 6′ compared favorably to the prior year theatrical results of ‘Frozen’ and ‘Planes: Fire and Rescue,’” Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente wrote on Monday. “In fact, the 5% decrease in theatrical distribution was largely down to adverse foreign currency swings and the lack of DreamWorks titles this year versus four in 2014.”
DiClemente also noted that the 13% growth in consumer products revenue is impressive because it compares “against a year that included merchandise sales growth based on ‘Frozen,’ ‘Planes,’ and ‘Spider-Man’ releases,” but was possible thanks to ongoing ‘Frozen’ merchandise sales as well as sales from ‘Avengers’ and ‘Star Wars classic’ products. “Importantly,” DiClemente added, “this growth came despite deferring the revenue recognition of merchandise sales associated with new Star Wars IP until the first quarter fiscal 2016 theatrical release of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’”
In other words: Disney will happily take the money that is sure to come pouring in starting on the evening of December 17 — but just don’t say that its business depends on it.
Disney Channel’s premiere of The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar last week drew the biggest primetime cable numbers of 2015 in the kids 2-5 demo. The 44-minute pilot episode of the Lion King spinoff series set to premiere next year also was the No. 2 show overall in the target demo and the most-watched animated program across all kid-targeted cable nets with 5.4 million total viewers
Set to premiere early next year, Disney Junior’s The Lion Guard series introduces Kion, the second-born cub of Simba and Nala from The Lion King, who is destined to become leader of the Lion Guard, a team of animals comprised of the Pride Lands’ fiercest, bravest, fastest, strongest and keenest of sight. Many characters from the 1994 Disney classic appeared in the spinoff movie that premiered November 22, including Mufasa and Pumbaa, voiced by James Earl Jones and Ernie Sabella, who reprised their original roles. Rob Lowe andGabrielle Union voiced Simba and Nala, respectively.
Entertainment is a weird business, but it’s a business like any other. Having a valuable stock price is as important, if not more so, than making a great movie. Most of the time these two objectives work together. Well-performing movies lead to a more valuable company. However, this all means that new movie announcements are planned out well in advance in order to achieve the best return, and when leaks happen it throws the whole plan out of whack. When that leak comes from one of the stars of the movie, that’s when lawyers get very upset.
Such was the situation several years ago when Tom Hanks was asked by a reporter if Toy Story 4 was going to happen. It sounds like he was taken a bit by surprise and in the moment did what many of us would do, he told the truth. In this case “the truth” as far as he knew it at the time, was to say “yeah, I think so.” Hardly the strongest confirmation the world has ever heard. Still, it was apparently enough to set off alarm bells at Disney’s legal office. Hanks told The Graham Norton Showwhat happened next…
I got a call from the Disney lawyers the next day. They said, ‘You, contractually, are not allowed to discuss a Toy Story 4. It will affect the stock market price of the Disney common stock.’
Hanks was apologetic for spilling the beans, but he wasn’t that apologetic. He seems to have felt obligated to point out to the lawyers that he was Woody and they were not. He’s also Tom Hanks so we’re sure he said it in the friendliest way possible. Although hearing Tom Hanks tell you to go to hell with a big smile on his face might be even more terrifying.
It’s actually fitting that Hanks told the story to Graham Norton, as it appears the comment in question was also given to the BBC. Back in 2011 Hanks was asked theToy Story 4 question by the BBC Breakfast News and the response he gave them sounds very much like the one he describes here. While he confirms it, it’s pretty clear he wasn’t really expecting the question, as he was promoting his film Larry Crowne at the time. Check out the entire Graham Norton interview, with the Disney lawyer story, below.
To be fair to Disney as a company, they have plans for these sorts of announcements and Tom Hanks was not part of that plan. In fact, this news came out incredibly early thanks to him. Toy Story 4 was only officially announced about a year ago so the Hanks leak was severely premature. Still, he’s Woody dammit, what are you going to do?
Pictured (from left), 4-year-old Luke Carusillo, Lenny Schwartz, 16, and Kyle Jadatz, 16.
Two Long Island teens hope to raise enough money to pay for a trip to Disney World for a 4-year-old boy suffering from a terminal brain tumor.
Lenny Schwartz and Kyle Jadatz, both 16, dedicated their hockey match Sunday to little Luke Carusillo as part of a Make-A-Wish Foundation fund-raiser.
At the game, Luke dropped the puck to start the match between the Long Island Royals and the Connecticut Oilers in Kings Park, L.I.
“He’s very excited,” Luke’s dad, Ralph Carusillo, said shortly before the match. “It’s been unbelievable. It’s more than I can even explain.”
Lenny and Kyle worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to find a way to help Luke.
“We are trying to show people that you don’t have to do stuff for yourself all the time,” Kyle said. “Doing stuff for others can be just as good.”
COURTESY
At the game, Luke dropped the puck to start the match between the Long Island Royals and the Connecticut Oilers in Kingspark, N.Y.
The teens have already raised $4,000 of the needed $7,000 to pay for the family trip to Disney World. “It’s an opportunity to make a 4-year-old’s wish come true,” Lenny said.
The AAA Ice Hockey organization game included a “Chuck a Duck” contest. Fans who participated bought rubber ducks with identifying numbers on the bottom.
During the intermission after the second period, they tossed them as close as possible to the faceoff spot. The owner of the closest duck won half of the collected funds.
Those looking to help can visit www.suffolk.wish.org
The most popular destination this Thanksgiving may not have been mum and pop’s house, but rather Miami Beach or Disney World, according to a telling visualisation of airline search data.
It’s a well-known fact that air traffic spikes on Thanksgiving weekend. But data journalists at The Upshot were curious to learn whether US flight patterns on Thanksgiving actually differed from the average week. To find out, they trawled through Google Flight’s database of 3.6 million round-trip searches for the two weeks surrounding Thanksgiving. They compared the results against a “typical” two weeks of travel, adjusted for the population sizes of the origin and destination cities.
Screenshot from The Upshot’s flight search data visualisation. Red indicates popular origins while blue indicates popular destinations. The width of the route reveals the increase in air travel demand on Thanksgiving. Check out the full animation here.
The result? An awful lot of people — way more than usual — were looking to go to Miami, Orlando, Vegas and Honolulu this week. Huh! Apparently, the image of an extended family gathered round the dinner table might be more a little more accurate if we replace dinner table with “beach front bar” or “roulette wheel.” We’re also a nation of procrastinators, as revealed by the fact that the most searched flight time this year was noon on Thanksgiving itself.
Of course, these are just search results, not actual booked tickets. Maybe, after briefly indulging in fantasies of white sand beaches, most of us did end up going home at the last minute. Er….did you?
The Spencer and Campbell families were more than just next door neighbors in Oklahoma. They became very close, and the Spencers had the chance to show the Campbells their appreciation for their support this Thanksgiving at the Walt Disney World in Florida.
One notable instance of Amy and Jeff Campbells’ support occurred after Lt. Jack Spencer, 43, a Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Air Force, volunteered to serve in Afghanistan, leaving his wife, Mindi, and their two daughters, Emilee and Abigail, behind in Oklahoma.
With a husband serving in a dangerous zone, Mindi Spencer, 37, was prepared get a call relaying bad news. However, she never prepared for something happening at home.
Her 9-year-old daughter, Emilee, was riding an ATV in Texas while on vacation with a friend in July of 2012 when the vehicle flipped. Emily sustained serious injuries that included a crushed foot.
“As details start coming in we find out that Emilee’s in pretty serious trouble,” Mindi said.
Walt Disney World
Oklahoma family celebrated a real “circle of life” moment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Festival of the Lion King show with “Good Morning America Weekend” meteorologist Rob Marciano.more +
With Jack was 7,500 miles away, Mindi rushed next door “in a panic,” according to Amy Campbell, 37, and was helped by her neighbors.
“They took care of everything. Without question,” Mindi said of the Campbells. “It was just, ‘We’ve got this. You take care of what’s important to you.’”
Jack made it home and was able to see Emilee in the hospital. After visiting her, he went home for a change of clothes and saw Jeff, 45, pitching in again.
“We pull in the driveway and he’s mowing the yard and I remember I got out and said, ‘Jeff you don’t need to be doing this,’” Jack recalled. “And he’s like, ‘You’ve got plenty of things to worry about. Don’t worry about this.’”
Jeff Campbell said he and his wife always had a key to the Spencers’ home. Anytime the other couple left, the Campbells could “Just go to take care of things. Just make sure it was right.”
When Jack returned to Afghanistan, Emilee had come home but then her condition took a turn for the worse and she was rushed back to the hospital. Jack’s friend Jeff was there for his family again.
“Soon as we got to the hospital, Jeff picks up Emilee and carried her in and doesn’t let her go until we’re inside the hospital and all settled in,” Mindi said.
Jack said there’s nothing he could do to repay his friends.
“There’s no way I could ever thank them,” he said.
Even though the Spencers moved away to Georgia in 2013, they never forgot their former neighbors. With the help of Walt Disney World, they were able to arrange a special thank you for the Campbells.
Walt Disney World
Oklahoma family celebrated a real “circle of life” moment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Festival of the Lion King show with “Good Morning America Weekend” meteorologist Rob Marciano.more +
While at Disney World earlier this month, the Campbells attended a show of “Festival of the Lion King,” after which they were invited back to the theater for a special meeting with the cast.
Backstage, “Good Morning America” meteorologist Rob Marciano asked the family if they were having “an incredible vacation” at Disney World. They replied that they were.
“Well that’s one of the reasons why you’re here. But really, this is why you’re here,” Marciano said.
That’s when the Spencers came out to reunite with the Campbells, after which both families retreated to Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Conservation Station to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast.
Jack was absent from the reunion because he had been in a serious car accident and wasn’t able to make the trip. He still wanted to convey his gratitude to his friends so he did it in a video message that the Campbells were able to watch.
“To good friends that are there when you need them,” Marciano said, proposing a toast. “Happy Thanksgiving everybody.”
SHOPPERS in a city mall have been driven up the wall by an innocent Disney Christmas song – with consumers rallying for an end to the merry jingle.
Goofy’s version of the Bing Crosby classic White Christmas featured on the album Now That’s What I Call Disney.
The song has the same words and tune as the Bing Crosby classic but is otherwise unrecognisable, with Goofy delivering the lines in his familiar drawl. The cheery tune tormented visitors for two full days at Ocean Terminal, before staff finally quietened the Disney dog’s ditty.
A source at the shopping mall said: “Customers came into our store and complained about how awful the Christmas music was. “It sounded old fashioned – it was just strange. A couple of customers actually came in and when they heard the music walked straight back out again – I think it was driving them away.”
The source added: “It was playing for two days. After complaints were made about the song, the shopping centre has now opted for a more cheerful option of songs.”
Martin Gray, from Leith, who uses the gym at Ocean Terminal frequently, told the News he had cowered at Goofy’s version of the Christmas classic.
He said: “I love Christmas albums – Dean Martin, Nat King Cole – but wandering through a deserted Ocean Terminal to PureGym before the shops opened, and hearing this weird voice mangling White Christmas was freaky.
“It was like something you’d hear in a horror film, before the killer clown jumps out at you. I was back there today and they were playing Mistletoe and Wine or something – bliss.
“Well, by comparison.”
Ocean Terminal did not wish to comment on their choice of Christmas songs.
Christmas songs have always divided opinion and it was no different on the streets of Edinburgh yesterday.
Ashley Barras, 18, an employee at BHS in the city, said she enjoys the sound of “happy” Christmas tunes. She said: “I love it when they play Christmas songs at work.
“It really puts me in the festive mood – especially when it’s the happy and cheerful classics.
“I don’t know how I’d feel about Disney music being played though.”
Shirley Robb, 34, who was shopping in the city centre with her friends, said she thinks Christmas music is often played too early in the year. She said: “I love Christmas music, it wouldn’t be Christmas without it, but I don’t think the music should be played any earlier than December.
“For a lot of people it isn’t the fact the songs are annoying – it just makes them panic at how close it actually is and how little time they have left to shop.”
Meanwhile, Sam Webber, 24, said he hates silly Christmas songs while shopping.
“My dad is from Germany so at this time of year we often listen to traditional German Christmas music,” Sam added. “I hate all of that cheesy stuff.”
Pixar’s new dino movie will have many ways to pay off for Disney.
IMAGE SOURCE: PIXAR.
Disney‘s (NYSE:DIS) latest full-length animation release has been lighting up the local multiplex since Wednesday. The Good Dinosaur might not be able to wrestle away top honors for the holiday weekend fromThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, but it’s going to linger well into the season as Disney features tend to do this time of year.
It’s true that initial reviews are mixed. We’re down to just 79% of the critics tracked by Rotten Tomatoes recommending the movie, making this only the third time in Pixar’s history — spanning a dozen flicks — that an original release doesn’t have at least 90% of the critics on board.
This doesn’t mean that Disney isn’t going to make a killing. The media giant is going to rake in a ton of dough at the box office, but we all know that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Disney’s monetization magic. Let’s go over the three logical outlets for the House of Mouse to take things to a higher level.
Consumer products
Movie-themed merchandise is now readily available. You didn’t think that Disney would wait for it to be a hit to roll out Arlo toys, Spot plush figures, and Butch hoodies — did you? The merchandise is being featured prominently at your local shopping mall’s Disney Store, and it’s there for the buying at most stores stocking licensed wares.
This is really just the beginning, of course. Disney has active partnerships with hundreds of consumer giants, and licensing deals to get The Good Dinosaur on everything from breakfast cereals to adhesive bandages if the property fares well in its theatrical run (as it probably will).
Theme parks
Disney has many areas at its theme parks that pay homage to prehistoric times. In Florida alone you have an entire themed land — DinoLand U.S.A. — at Animal Kingdom. Epcot’s Universe of Energy features a moving theater that glides through a massive dinosaur scene. There’s also the T-REX Cafe at Disney Springs where patrons dine surrounded by animatronic dinos.
The dinosaur fun isn’t limited to Florida. The railroad at the original Disneyland in California and Tokyo Disneyland go through the Primeval World prehistoric display that was originally part of Disney’s exhibits for the 1964 World’s Fair.
If the film is successful and the characters prove endearing, it wouldn’t be surprising to see themed tweaks to some of the lands and attractions.
Media networks
Most movie studios don’t have the massive reach that Disney does on the small screen. Between ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel, and the soon-to-be-rebranded ABC Family, the media giant has ways to reach mainstream masses long after the movies run their course.
Disney spent billions to snap up Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm because it can cash in on a successful property better than anyone else. It will get a chance to prove that again with The Good Dinosaur in the coming days.
born cub of Simba and Nala from The Lion King, who is destined to become leader of the Lion Guard, a team of animals comprised of the Pride Lands’ fiercest, bravest, fastest, strongest and keenest of sight. Many characters from the 1994 Disney classic appeared in the spinoff movie that premiered November 22, including Mufasa and Pumbaa, voiced by James Earl Jones and Ernie Sabella, who reprised their original roles. Rob Lowe andGabrielle Union voiced Simba and Nala, respectively.
