Disney’s third quarter numbers, for the three months to 27 June, showed growth in both sales and profits but it also warned over the future growth of subscriber numbers in its media networks business, which includes the sports network ESPN and ABC.
According to Sky News, profits rose 11 per cent to a record quarterly figure of $2.48bn (£1.6bn) while revenues climbed 5 per cent to $13.1bn (£8.4bn) during the period.
The company said its movie studio boosted earnings once again, with the debut of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” proving the continued strength of the Marvel superhero brand despite it achieving slightly weaker box office sales than earlier releases.
Disney said its parks and resorts business was hurt by weakness in the euro, which damaged revenue at Disneyland Paris – recently subjected to an EU pricing probe.
It also cited higher operating costs at the Paris park and at Disneyland in California alongside lower customer numbers at its Hong Kong resort.
Operating profits for the division still rose 9 per cent to $922m (£593m) but revenue missed the expectations of analysts – apparently contributing to the share sell-off.
Sales of consumer products, including ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Frozen’ merchandise rose 27 per cent on a year earlier.
The company’s shares, which had risen almost 30 per cent over the year to date, lost 6.5 per cent of their value in late trading following the release of the results and Disney’s conference call with analysts.
