Further delaying Scarlett Johansson ’s Black Widow would have meant further delaying the next batch of Disney+ MCU television shows. Scarlett Johansson made headlines yesterday via a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles arguing that Disney’s choice to release Black Widow in theaters and via Disney+’s Premier Access ($30 to lease) broke a long-standing contract and commitment to an exclusive theatrical release. She is claiming, I would argue correctly, that the Premier Access route detracted from the film’s global box office ($161 million domestic and around $327 million worldwide as of yesterday) and thus detracted from promised box office-specific bonuses. The suit does not explicitly blame Marvel, implying that Kevin Feige and friends were not entirely thrilled with the day-and-date release (and are allegedly not thrilled that this ended up in a lawsuit). I’m frankly a little shocked that Disney and Johansson (apparently) didn’t hash this out before the film’s theatrical release. …
The Walt Disney Company Becomes The Latest Entity To Require All U.S. Staff Members To Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin On Friday Disney said it will now require all salaried and non-union staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Any non-vaccinated workers will need to be fully protected in the next 60 days or will risk losing their jobs. This will include any employees that are currently working from home. Individuals will not be able to access any Disney site until verification of the vaccinations is seen. Those staff members that are union workers are also presently expected to also have to follow the requirements after discussions with their union representatives. The Walt Disney Co. DIS is certainly not the first or only institution to mandate vaccinations recently. This week Netflix NFLX stated that all cast and crew on every production under their banner must have received their shots to work . In a statement, the company said, “At The Walt Disney Company, the safety and well-being of our employees during the …
Could This Be Disney’s Next Big Thing?
Walt Disney ( NYSE:DIS ) has built a massive business catering to guests in its parks, resorts, and on its cruise line. Is there an opportunity to expand on its destination and travel business even more? On a Fool Live episode recorded on July 14 , Fool contributors Toby Bordelon and Brian Withers discuss what the entertainment juggernaut may be able to do with its National Geographic brand married with its superior guest services. Brian Withers: Disney is also known for its superior guest services and giving guests at its parks and cruise lines a really wonderful, experience. [Do] you see other opportunities for Disney to double down on that and maybe go into new markets? Toby Bordelon: Yeah. One thing that's interesting is the travel space, especially family, friendly travel. They're a very good big player in that already. They have Disney Cruise lines. They have obviously the theme parks, which are huge, and they have resorts. Resorts focused around the …
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How to Buy Walt Disney for the Cost of a Penny Stock
Walt Disney ( NYSE:DIS ) theme parks are open to the public again, everyone you know is queuing up Black Widow on Disney+, and Disney Cruise Line will finally resume sailing again from Florida in early August. Those are good signs for the Mickey Mouse company and for its shareholders. Even so, Disney stock hasn't taken off this summer. It pulled back after gains earlier in the year, and the stock price has been hovering in the $170 to $180 range since early June. The optimistic investor with cash on hand might see this as a buying opportunity -- to get in on Disney stock now before the company fully regains its stride in a post-pandemic world. But even investors who are strapped for cash have the opportunity to add Disney to their portfolios. The solution is fractional investing , which is just what it sounds like: Buying fractions of stock instead of whole units. Image source: Getty Images. Disney for one-tenth the price Let's say your budget for buying Disney …
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This Might Be a Great Time to Buy Disney Stock
Disney 's ( NYSE:DIS ) business was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Shutting down several of its services for months on end cost the company billions of dollars in lost revenue and profits. Thanks to human genius, several effective vaccines have been developed against COVID-19, and nearly 4 billion doses have been administered worldwide. That allowed economies to start reopening and removing restrictions on businesses. Still, the delta variant of the virus is causing a surge in infections and has investors worried it could derail the pace of reopenings. The pause in reopening optimism could be a great opportunity for long-term investors to buy Disney stock. Image source: Getty Images. Disney is about to get back 40% of its operating income The rise in cases, tragic as it may be, is unlikely to cause further shutdowns in the economies that Disney operates in. Large percentages of the population are vaccinated in the U.S., Europe, and China, and Japan is catching up …
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Mask Up: Disney World Goes Back to Face Coverings
I guess that's why we can't have nice things in the Sunshine State. Facing its highest COVID-19 case counts since the January peak, Florida politicians and businesses are starting to tighten up on mask requirements. Walt Disney ( NYSE:DIS ) will be requiring all guests at its Disney World resort in Florida to wear masks in indoor settings starting Friday. I suggested on Sunday that Disney could roll out requirements for face coverings before the end of summer. It turns out I didn't even have to wait until the end of the week. Image source: Getty Images. Running for cover No one's going to be happy with this move. Disney ended indoor mask requirements for fully vaccinated guests on June 15, in accordance with updated guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, by not requiring proof of vaccinations the decision also freed up those who have not taken the shots to slide through the turnstiles unchecked. It's not just that Disney …
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Scarlett Johansson Is Taking Disney to Court Over Same-Day Video Streaming
Scarlett Johansson has filed a lawsuit against Walt Disney ( NYSE:DIS ) , accusing the entertainment giant of breaching the terms of her contract for the most recent Marvel movie, Black Widow . This plot twist will help shape the future of the film industry as we know it. If the forgettable Trolls 2 could change Hollywood history , so can a long-awaited blockbuster under the Marvel banner. What's going on? The superstar, who plays Black Widow in Disney's Marvel movies, claims that the House of Mouse violated the terms of her contract when Black Widow was presented on the Disney+ streaming service on the same day as the silver-screen premiere. As reported by The Wall Street Journal , that decision reduced Johansson's payments for Black Widow by $50 million or more. The contract was written with large bonuses based on traditional box-office results, with no consideration given to alternative channels such as Disney+. The actor says that she and her …
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Disney+ Hotstar Is Getting Its First Price Hike
Walt Disney 's ( NYSE:DIS ) streaming service in India, Disney+ Hotstar, has been a huge success. An estimated 38 million households have signed up for the service as of the end of June, accounting for more than one-third of global Disney+ subscribers. When it launched last April, Disney+ Hotstar was priced well below Disney+ in other regions. Now, Disney is changing its pricing tiers, and it could mean more revenue. The company has already made several price hikes for its services in other markets. Image source: Walt Disney. Disney+ Hotstar's new pricing Disney currently offers two tiers of Disney+ Hotstar in India: Disney+ Hotstar VIP and Disney+ Hotstar Premium. VIP includes all of the Hotstar content and Disney's film franchises, but there's no top-tier licensed content like HBO or Showtime series. Additionally, Disney+ originals are only available in dubbed languages, and there are limited advertisements. Subscribers pay 399 rupees per year for the service. …
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Disney Is the Biggest Reason You Shouldn’t Buy AMC Stock
The pandemic has devastated movie theaters' box office receipts, with domestic ticket sales down 81.4% in 2020, according to the website Box Office Mojo. And with tens of millions of new subscribers to streaming services around the world and some movies being released in theaters and on streaming at the same time, the box office might never be the same. Despite the devastation from the pandemic, AMC Entertainment Holdings ( NYSE:AMC ) continues to be one of the hottest stocks on the market in 2021. It's a favorite of meme traders, and some are betting on a short squeeze , but fundamentally the company is in real trouble. And at the end of the day, fundamentals drive an entertainment company's stock price . That's why Disney 's ( NYSE:DIS ) recent successes show just how much trouble AMC Entertainment is in over the long term. Image source: Getty Images. Disney drives the box office The reason Disney is so important is that blockbusters are more vital than …
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Here’s the Main Reason Disney+ Added 16 Million Subscribers in Q4
The Walt Disney Company ( NYSE:DIS ) just completed a volatile fiscal year in 2020. Several of its profitable businesses were forced by local governments to shut their doors to customers and are only slowly reopening. Through it all, its streaming services thrived. Overall, Disney has over 120 million subscribers to its three streaming services, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Chief among them is Disney+ -- launched on Nov. 12, 2019, it went from zero to over 73 million subscribers in 12 months. Image source: Disney. Focus on Disney+ The House of Mouse started the most recent quarter with 57.5 million Disney+ subscribers and ended with 73.7 million -- a gain of 16.2 million. To put that into context, Netflix ( NASDAQ:NFLX ) added 2.2 million subscribers in its most recent quarter. Admittedly, that is not an apples-to-apples comparison, as Netflix is a more mature service, but it does highlight the success that Disney+ achieved in the quarter. The success can be …
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