The Walt Disney Company

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The Walt Disney Company

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN US2546871060
founding October 16, 1923
Seat Burbank , California , United States
United StatesUnited States 
management Bob Chapek ( CEO )
Bob Iger (Chairman)
Number of employees 223,000 (2019)
sales $ 69.6 billion (2019)
Branch media
Website www.thewaltdisneycompany.com
As of September 28, 2019

The Walt Disney Company ( WDC ), commonly known colloquially as Disney , is an American media company . Disney became internationally known for the production of cartoons and entertainment films for children and young people. The group, founded in 1923 by the brothers Walt and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio , is based in Burbank, California .

With a turnover of 55.6 billion US dollars and a profit of 9.0 billion US dollars, the Walt Disney Company ranks 70th among the world's largest companies according to Forbes Global 2000 (as of 2019).

Company history

Foundation and beginnings (1923–1927)

Kingswell Building in Los Angeles, where the studio was located from 1923 to 1926

The founding of the company as “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios” in Los Angeles in 1923 was preceded by Walt Disney's company “Laugh-O-Gram”, with which he had already started his own business in 1920 in Kansas City (Missouri) . The small studio had mainly produced short cartoons - also under the title Laugh-o-Gram - as well as the short film Alice in Cartoonland and some commercials. However, the company had to close after a few years due to a lack of profit.

In Hollywood, Disney started his little company in his uncle's garage, built a drawing table for himself and borrowed a used camera. He offered his earlier films to various cinema chains and distribution companies , whereupon Charles Mintz from the MJ Winkler distributor in New York expressed interest in the Alice series some time later . Mintz commissioned a series for $ 1,500 a film. The signing of the contract with MJ Winkler on October 16, 1923 is regarded as the foundation of today's Disney Group. A large part of the starting capital of $ 500 was contributed by Walt Disney's brother Roy O. Disney .

Disney rented a small office on Kingswell Avenue and Vermont Avenue for $ 35 a month and in the years that followed until 1927 produced other Alice films, all of which consisted of real and drawn sequences . While at the beginning of the company he did almost all creative work himself - from direction , camera work , editing to animation himself - the studio was soon able to employ its own employees, including Disney's former business partner Ub Iwerks , who came to Hollywood in 1924 . The employees were paid $ 15 a week at the time, while the two Disney brothers paid themselves $ 35 a week and invested the remainder of the profit in the next projects.

In 1925, Walt Disney acquired studio space on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, where his company moved in January 1926 and has continued to grow from then on. From 1927 onwards, MJ Winkler no longer wanted to continue the Alice cartoons, but instead wanted a cartoon character for a new series of films. Disney and Ub Iwerks developed the character Oswald the Funny Rabbit , for which the rental company paid 2,250 dollars per film roll. However, when Disney wanted to negotiate a higher sum in New York, it turned out that the distributor had already poached some Disney employees and wanted to push the price down to 1,800 dollars; otherwise Charles Mintz, who, due to a common practice in the film industry at the time, also owned all the rights to “Oswald” the rabbit, wanted to continue producing the film series independently. The business relationship between Disney and MJ Winkler came to an end.

Mickey Mouse, "Golden Years" and full-length cartoons (1928–1940)

As the successor to "Oswald", Disney and Iwerks developed the new character Mickey Mouse in 1928 . The reserves of the two Disney brothers enabled them to produce the first Mickey Mouse films without a contractual partner. Initially, Pat Powers acted as distributor, who took over the distribution of the films for a ten percent stake and did not insist on a transfer of the rights. The first Mickey Mouse film Plane Crazy premiered on May 15, 1928, and Steamboat Willie , the first cartoon with sound , was premiered on November 18, 1928 . The sound films in particular experienced rapidly growing popularity and the favorable order situation enabled Disney to tackle further projects. In May 1929 the first film of the Silly Symphonies premiered, which was also well received by the audience.

After Powers and Disney could not agree on a new rental agreement in 1929, Disney signed a deal with Columbia Pictures in 1930 . In the course of this, Ub Iwerks left the Disney studios and founded his own studio with the support of Pat Powers. On December 16, 1929, the production company was renamed "Walt Disney Productions". In the early 1930s, the Disney studios had a total of 40 employees. At the time, Disney was spending $ 5,400 to make an animated short film; By the end of 1931 a film was already costing $ 13,500. Most of the costs were recovered, but the company hardly made any profit. The use of the Technicolor process from 1932 onwards increased the cost per film by another 10,000 dollars. In the same year, Disney changed distributors again after the contract expired. United Artists granted him an advance of $ 20,000 per film and a 60 percent share of the proceeds in a five-year contract. The film costs now totaled 50,000 dollars per film, but the great demand meant that the Disney cartoons could be sold at a profit.

Also in 1932 an animation school was set up in Disney's studio, where from then on draftsmen were trained and professors from art universities also gave lessons. There was a separate class for each level of animation, the training to become chief draftsman lasted up to 15 years. At around the same time, Webb Smith, while working for Disney, developed the storyboard , which has since found its way into the entire film industry. Disney landed a great success in 1933 with The Three Little Pigs , which grossed $ 125,000 in the first year and whose song Who's Afraid of the big bad Wolf became a hit. In the meantime, Mickey Mouse's success was no longer limited to cartoons, but extended to a large selection of merchandising products, which brought the company high revenues and made up around a third of its profit. In 1934, the Disney studios' profits were estimated to be $ 660,000. In 1935, 750 draftsmen were already working for the studio and Disney announced in the same year that another 300 employees were needed.

In 1934, Walt Disney decided that the studios could only survive if he increased their bandwidth. In Stockholm that same year, a full-length film consisting of eight cartoon cartoons premiered. This confirmed to Disney that you could also entertain people with a full-length cartoon. In 1935 the production of the first full-length cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began , which took up almost all of the studio's resources. The projected revenue was calculated at $ 1 million, which soon exceeded the budget of ultimately 1.75 million dollars. Contrary to critical voices, the film was an overwhelming success and grossed $ 8.5 million by the end of its first run. This encouraged Disney to plan two full-length cartoons per year from now on. Towards the end of the work on Snow White , the production of the next films Pinocchio and Bambi had already started.

Pinocchio's production cost ultimately surged to more than $ 2.5 million. When the film premiered on February 7, 1940, Disney had already taken out around $ 4.5 million in loans, because the construction of a new studio in Burbank had cost up to $ 3.8 million. Although Pinocchio received critical acclaim and two Oscars in the categories of “ Best Song ” and “ Best Music ”, the income fell far short of expectations. Europe, where almost half of it was supposed to be acquired, failed to be an important sales market due to the Second World War ; in Great Britain, for example, all sterling income was frozen in British accounts for the duration of the war. In the meantime, work was also being carried out on the subsequent film Fantasia , which, with a running time of 125 minutes, was to become the longest Disney cartoon and caused additional production costs of $ 2.3 million.

Precarious war and post-war years (1940–1950)

In May 1940 the studio finally moved from Hollywood to Burbank. Fantasia premiered on November 13, 1940 and was a financial failure. Disney barely received any bank loans. In order to still get money for new productions, the company was converted into a stock corporation. A total of 155,000 shares with a face value of $ 25 each were issued, but they quickly fell to $ 3. The tense situation also weighed on the mood within the workforce, which culminated in a week-long strike from March 1941. The next film, Dumbo , premiered on October 23, 1941 and, with a running time of 60 minutes, is Disney's shortest cartoon to date. Accordingly, it only cost $ 950,000. Bambi was released on August 13, 1942, causing the studio further losses. At about $ 2 million in production costs, the film initially only grossed 1.23 million. Only after the re-performance in 1947 did it make a profit.

Subsequently, only more projects with lower costs were realized in the 1940s. These included films with a Latin American theme after Walt Disney and a team of illustrators made a “goodwill trip” to South America in 1941 at President Roosevelt's request. B. Three Caballeros in Samba Fever (1943) and Three Caballeros (1944). Disney then produced numerous cartoons that were combined into a full-length film, such as Make Mine Music (1946) and Music, Dance and Rhythm (1948). In 1945 the studio owed $ 4 million.

Recurring success (1950–1966)

The studio had begun drafting the story of Cinderella in the 1930s and started producing it in 1943. The release of the film in 1950 brought the studio high revenues, as did the numerous documentaries and adventure films that were made during the 1950s . In addition to cartoons such as Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), television, which was emerging at this time, also became increasingly important for the production and marketing of the films. In 1955 the amusement park Disneyland was opened in Anaheim , California and since the previous year the television show of the same name ran on ABC , which was personally hosted by Walt Disney.

With the wide range of income from films, television series, music, merchandising and the amusement park, financial failures like Sleeping Beauty (1959), which did not even bring back half of its budget, posed no threat to the studio's continued existence. The successor 101 Dalmatians (1961), on the other hand, was again a success, and a large number of family films were also made in the 1960s , some of which also made use of a mixture of real and animated films, similar to the Disney films of the early years. The next cartoon, The Witch and the Wizard , was released on December 25, 1963 and was the last that Walt Disney witnessed its release . In 1964 Mary Poppins premiered, the most commercially successful real-life film from the Disney studios. In the same year work began on Das Dschungelbuch , which was released in theaters on October 18, 1967 and was a great success, especially in Germany.

Death of the company founder and the crisis years (1966–1988)

On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died and his brother Roy O. Disney became president and chairman of the board of the Disney group. Under him, Disney World in Florida was completed and opened in October 1971. A little later, Roy Disney also died, whereupon Donn Tatum succeeded him as CEO . Numerous veteran animators, including nearly all of Disney's Nine Old Men , retired or died throughout the 1970s . The number of cartoons that Disney was once best known for was declining. The share of feature films in the studios' turnover, which in 1955 was still 75%, decreased to 20% by the 1970s. Meanwhile, the Walt Disney Company's annual sales, from $ 100 million in 1966, tripled by 1973.

Most of the animated feature films of the 1970s did not hold up well at the box office. It became critical at the beginning of the 1980s when the group found itself in a crisis due to drastically falling profits and share prices. An improvement only followed in 1984 when Michael Eisner became the new chairman of the board, Frank Wells became general director and Jeffrey Katzenberg became creative director. The land area around Disney World Orlando , which Walt Disney had bought up decades before, also contributed to stabilization as security for donors.

In 1985 Taran and the Cauldron , based on the Chronicles of Prydain , was released and was the first Disney film to include computer effects . With a correspondingly large budget of $ 44 million, the film flopped , which almost led Michael Eisner to close the animation department. Walt Disney's nephew Roy E. Disney became head of the animation department in 1986 and was able to achieve his first success with Basil, the great mouse detective . Towards the end of the 1980s, a new division was added with the video cassette , which was able to increase the group's income again. Disney made $ 100 million from Cinderella in 1987 alone . In 1988 Oliver & Co. came into the cinemas and was a relatively big success. He grossed over $ 50 million in the United States, more than his two predecessors combined. Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg then decided to focus more on cartoons with musical interludes.

Disney Renaissance (1989-2000)

With the musical cartoon Ariel, the Mermaid , Disney successfully returned in 1989 to the format that had already distinguished its classics. The film grossed over $ 110 million in the United States alone, making it a phenomenal success. The so-called “Disney Renaissance” or the “golden nineties” began with Arielle . Subsequent musicals such as Beauty and the Beast (1991) or Aladdin (1992) were able to effortlessly build on their success, not only at the box office, but also at the annual Oscars and other film awards. The zenith of this phase followed in 1994 with The Lion King , which grossed almost 800 million dollars worldwide at the time and is still the most successful classic cartoon. But even after that, similar films such as Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) or Tarzan (1999) followed notable commercial successes, some of which were nominated for Oscars and received awards.

In addition to the cartoons, Disney expanded its range in the 1990s . So began a collaboration with Pixar , which produced initial successes in the field of pure computer animation and received recognition for films such as Toy Story (1995) or Das große Krabbeln (1997). Numerous sequels and offshoots were created as direct-to-video for the home film market, television series such as Arielle and Aladdin were produced on the basis of the cinema films after the great successes and real-life films such as 101 Dalmatians or From the jungle, in the jungle appeared in cinemas.

The new millennium (2000-present)

In November 2003, Roy E. Disney , nephew and son of the company's founder, and Stanley Gold left the company in a dispute with long-time CEO Michael Eisner . They accused Eisner that creativity and finances had suffered from his leadership style. In October 2005 Michael Eisner was ousted from his post and replaced by Bob Iger .

On February 11, 2004, Comcast made a purchase offer of $ 66 billion to Disney shareholders, which was withdrawn in late April 2004.

On August 11, 2008, it was announced that Walt Disney was opening a research location in the animation sector together with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich . This is the only Disney lab in Europe. Several business units of the Walt Disney Group are involved: Disney Animation and Live Action Studios, Interactive Games, Disney Interactive Media Group, ESPN and Pixar.

On December 31, 2009, shareholders of the comic book publisher Marvel approved the purchase of Marvel by Disney for $ 4.3 billion.

On October 30, 2012, it was announced that Disney is purchasing Lucasfilm for $ 4.05 billion.

Disney acquired Maker Studios for $ 500 million in March 2014 to bring its own content online.

In cooperation with the Lenovo group, the Walt Disney group intends to bring the virtual reality game set “ Star Wars : Jedi Challenges” to the market in December 2017, consisting of virtual reality glasses, a lightsaber and a tracking device.

On February 25, 2020 it was announced that the previous CEO Iger would step down after 15 years and that Bob Chapek would be appointed as his successor.

The streaming director of Disney Kevin Mayer switched to TikTok in May 2020, insiders suspect that this is the result of his not being appointed CEO. Some insiders thought he was the most likely successor.

In June 2020, Disney and the North American professional basketball league NBA agreed to play the outstanding games of the 2019/2020 season, which was interrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic , at Disney World Orlando (Florida).

timeline

Corporate structure

The WDC is one of the largest media groups in the world. The WDC includes a .:

In addition, WDC holds shares in numerous television stations, e. B. the American sports channel ESPN and 50% on the German channel Super RTL . The National Hockey League team of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim was also founded by the Disney group and managed from this until June 2005.

management

Board of Directors

Status 2/2020:

Chronology Disney Management

President Chief Executive Officers Chairmen of the Board Chief Operating Officers
First Vice
Walt Disney
(1923-1945) 		 
Roy O. Disney
(1929-1971)
Roy O. Disney
(1945-1968) 		Walt Disney
(1945-1960)
Roy O. Disney
(1964-1971)
Donn Tatum
(1968–1971) 		E. Cardon Walker
(1968-1976)
E. Cardon Walker
(1971-1980) 		Donn Tatum
(1971-1976) 		Donn Tatum
(1971-1980)
E. Cardon Walker
(1976-1983)
Ron Miller
(1980-1984) 		E. Cardon Walker
(1980-1983) 		Ron Miller
(1980-1983)
Ron Miller
(1983-1984) 		Raymond Watson
(1983-1984)
Frank Wells
(1984-1994) 		Michael Eisner
(1984-2005) 		Michael Eisner
(1984-2004) 		Roy E. Disney
(1984-2003) 		Frank Wells
(1984-1994)
Michael Ovitz
(1995–1997)
Michael Eisner
(1997-2000) 		Sanford Litvack
(1997-2000)
Robert A. Iger
(2000–2012) 		Robert A. Iger
(2000-2005)
George J. Mitchell
(2004-2006)
Robert A. Iger
(2005-2020)
John E. Pepper Jr.
(2007-2012)
Robert A. Iger
(2012-2021)
Thomas O. Staggs
(2015-2016)
Bob Chapek
(since 2020)

Business figures

In fiscal 2018, Walt Disney had sales of $ 59.4 billion with a profit of $ 12.6 billion. Since 2003, sales have more than doubled and profits more than nine-fold. The market value rose from $ 32.5 billion to $ 177.4 billion in the same period and was approximately $ 174 billion in October 2018.

year Sales
in billion US dollars 		Profit
in billions of dollars 		Assets
in billions of dollars 		Market value
in billion US dollars
2003 27.1 1.3 50.0 32.5
2004 30.8 2.4 53.9 46.3
2005 31.4 2.5 53.2 54.8
2006 33.7 3.4 60.0 ...
2007 35.5 4.7 60.9 ...
2008 37.8 4.4 62.5 63.3
2009 36.1 3.3 63.1 41.4
2010 38.1 4.0 69.2 58.6
2011 40.9 4.8 72.1 71.2
2012 42.3 5.7 74.9 76.3
2013 45.0 6.1 81.2 89.6
2014 48.8 7.5 84.2 137.6
2015 52.5 8.4 88.2 159.7
2016 55.6 9.4 92.0 168.3
2017 55.1 9.0 95.8 177.4
2018 59.4 12.6 98.6 174.0

Walt Disney Studio Entertainment

Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group

The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Inc. formerly Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group is responsible for the division Filmproduktion responsible. The prefix of the former company name (company) "Buena Vista" comes from the former Buena Vista Company , which in 1955 by Walt Disney was founded, and is derived from the Buena Vista Street in Burbank ( California ab) in which the original Walt Disney Studios were resident. The “Buena Vista” brand was abandoned in 2007 and replaced by “Walt Disney”.

Walt Disney Pictures

The Walt Disney Pictures logo

At that time, Disney films were synonymous with harmless, fantastic and funny entertainment films. This is mainly due to the films of the 1950s and 1960s and the cartoons . Children’s books were often filmed here or “adult novels” were prepared in a child-friendly manner (such as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ). However, the stories were sometimes placed in a different context than was the case with the original novels.

One of the artistically most interesting films from this production is the music film Fantasia (1940, director: James Algar ; continued as Fantasia 2000 ), in which an attempt is made to visualize examples of classical music for a young audience using the means of animation. The science fiction films of the Disney production such as The Black Hole were less successful, but Tron at least from today's perspective is considered an innovative film that for the first time visually implemented cyberspace .

In the recent past, the Walt Disney Company has distinguished itself primarily through the Pirates-of-the-Caribbean films . For the first time in the history of a film studio, an attraction in the in-house amusement park served as a template for a movie.

Lately, a lot of material that Disney has adapted as a cartoon has been re-filmed for real, with many based on the cartoon versions in terms of optics and content, such as Maleficent , Cinderella , The Jungle Book or Beauty and the Beast .

Pixar Animation Studios

The Pixar logo

In January 2006, Disney took over the animated film studio Pixar as part of a share swap. Disney had been cooperating with Pixar since 1991, and this cooperation resulted in some successful productions such as Finding Nemo and Die Monster AG . There were also critical tones from Steve Jobs , the CEO of Pixar, public, suggesting that you want to go your own way without Disney. In 2004, Pixar's contract with Disney was terminated. After the leadership change at Disney at the end of 2005, the relationship with Pixar relaxed again and culminated in the successful takeover bid in 2006, in which Pixar was worth the equivalent of 7.4 billion US dollars.

Disney Animation Studios

The Disney Animation Studios logo

Disney's animation departments, the starting point and heart of the group for many, reopened in 2007 after a four-year break.

At the end of 2003, the Disney Animation Studios were successively closed because Disney's own productions (e.g. The Treasure Planet ) had turned out to be no longer economically successful. In early 2007, the current management of Disney Animation Studios, including John Lasseter , Chief Creative Officer, announced the return of Disney to traditional 2D animation. As early as 2006, the first considerations were made to revive the cartoon division. At the end of 2009, Kiss the Frog, the first hand-drawn animation film since The Cows Are Going, was released in cinemas.

Disneynature

The logo of Disneynature

Disneynature was founded in 2008 to produce nature documentaries . Its headquarters are in Paris .

Marvel Studios

The Marvel Studios logo

On August 31, 2009, Disney announced that it would acquire Marvel Studios. The purchase price should be around $ 4 billion. The studio produces films based on the characters from Marvel Comics and competes with Warner Bros. , which owns the rights to the characters from DC Comics .

Lucasfilm

The Lucasfilm logo

The Walt Disney Company announced in October 2012 that it would buy George Lucas ' film production company Lucasfilm . The transaction cost the studio approximately $ 4.05 billion. Lucasfilm was 100 percent owned by Star Wars creator George Lucas. Kathleen Kennedy , co-director of Disney, is now the head of Lucasfilm. At the same time, Disney announced the seventh part of Star Wars for a start date in 2015. Kennedy is co-producer, Lucas is on board as a consultant.

20th Century Studios

The 20th Century Studios logo

With Disney's partial purchase of 21st Century Fox , the film studios came along

as individual studios to the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group . Fox 2000 Pictures is slated to be dissolved in 2020.

Former studios

ImageMovers Digital (repelled)

The production company ImageMovers , founded by Robert Zemeckis in 1998, used motion capture technology to produce the commercially successful films Der Polarexpress and The Legende von Beowulf , until it was bought by the Walt Disney Company in 2007 and renamed Image Movers Digital .

On March 12, 2010, ImageMovers Digital announced that it would cease operations in January 2011. According to Alan Bergman, then President of Walt Disney Studios, ImageMovers Digital no longer fit into the Walt Disney Company's business model. ImageMovers then arbitrarily negotiated a contract with Universal Studios and left the Disney group.

Hollywood Pictures (closed)

The Hollywood Pictures logo

Hollywood Pictures was a film studio founded in 1990 by the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group , which is part of the WDC. Michael Eisner created it to increase the annual film output on the one hand, and to separate the creative producers David Hoberman and Ricardo Mestres, who were competing under Touchstone , on the other . Mestres was appointed chairman of Hollywood Pictures, Hoberman of Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone. In 2007 Hollywood Pictures was closed.

Miramax Films (sold)

The Miramax Films logo

Miramax was an American film production and distribution company . Miramax was founded in 1979 by the brothers Harvey Weinstein (born 1952) and Bob Weinstein (born 1954). Miramax was originally founded to distribute films that were made outside of Hollywood : Foreign-language films and, above all, so-called independent films that did not find access to the rigid studio system in the 1980s and were considered commercially unattractive. The company became a Disney subsidiary in 1993 for $ 75 million. Miramax Films was sold to a group of investors around Ron Tutor in 2010.

Touchstone Pictures (inactive)

The Touchstone Pictures logo

In order to reach an adult audience, the studio founded the production company Touchstone Pictures in the 1980s , which initially enjoyed success with comedies such as The Incredible Abduction of Mad Mrs. Stone or Zoff in Beverly Hills , then lost its profile. Disney did not succeed in attempting to remake its own films such as Flubber , Freaky Friday or sequels such as Herbie: Fully Loaded - A great Beetle takes off . The studio has been inactive since 2016.

Other former studios

Studio from to reason
DisneyToon Studios 1990 2018 closed
The Muppets Studio 2007 2015 Incorporation into Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media , now Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
Dimension Films 1993 2005 sold
Caravan Pictures 1993 1999 closed

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is the rental and distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. In principle, she is responsible for all films that are produced as part of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group production branch. In addition, there are films from various smaller companies outside the Disney group, for which Disney acts as a commissioned distributor. The company served as until 2007 Buena Vista International known brand Buena Vista was largely abandoned of 2007.

Disney Music Group

In 1998, Disney founded a recording company called Buena Vista Music Group , which operates the following music labels :

In 2005 the EMI Group took over the distribution of the Buena Vista Music Group in Europe, South Africa and the Middle East.

The music group of the Disney group is now called Disney Music Group .

Disney Theatrical Group

Broadway productions are developed and marketed worldwide under the banner of Disney Theatrical Productions in the Disney Theatrical Group . Examples of this are the musicals The Lion King and Mary Poppins .

In addition, the offers Disney Theatrical Group under Disney on Ice and Marvel Universe Live! Performs live shows and makes adaptations and programs for schools of some of these productions.

Media Networks

  • ABC

  • ESPN

  • Disney Channel (2014)

ABC Network

ABC · ABC News · ABC News Now · Disney Hyperion

TV channel

FX · Freeform · Disney Channel · Disney Channel (Germany) · Disney XD · Disney Junior · Disney Cinemagic · ESPN (80%) · Lifetime Entertainment Services (50%) · A & E Television Networks (42.5%) · Super RTL (50%)

Radio and TV distribution

ABC News Radio · Radio Disney · Disney-ABC International TV · Disney-ABC Domestic Television · ESPN

TV production

ABC Studios · Greengrass Productions · Walt Disney Television Animation · Fox 21 Television Studios · Fox Studios

Disney plus (+)

Disney + (pronounced Disney Plus ) is an over-the-top - online video store - and Video-on-Demand Service from Disney. The start in the USA was on November 12, 2019. In Germany, the service started on March 24, 2020. Nine months after its start in the USA, the streaming service has 60.5 million subscribers worldwide (as of August 2020).

Internet

Disney Digital Network

Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Products

The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are responsible for the design, construction and organization of all theme parks and vacation resorts to Disney. This makes it one of the company's four main units.

The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division was founded in 1971 when the second Disney theme park, the Magic Kingdom, opened at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disney formed a team that specialized in the maintenance of this park. The team was also supposed to maintain the then 16-year-old Disneyland in California .

In March 2018, it was renamed Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Products and now also manages the worldwide publishing of Disney products.

Walt Disney Direct-To-Consumer and International

The Walt Disney Direct-To-Consumer and International department is part of the company. a. responsible for the international marketing of programs and for the streaming services such as the sports streming service ESPN + and Disney + , which will show film and series content from the Walt Disney Company.

criticism

Disney received the negative Public Eye Award in 2006 for its refusal to disclose the companies in China that make the toys for Disney. The company thus protects its suppliers from possible controls.

A government investigation in Canada in 2001 found extreme conditions at the Walt Disney supplier KTBA Inc. in Laguna Hills , California : Around 800 workers made headdresses and wands there, but received an hourly wage of only 1.35 US dollars - the legal minimum wage in California at that time was 6.25 US dollars. The factory also employed children between the ages of 7 and 15. The Walt Disney Company denied responsibility, but agreed to pay $ 903,000 in compensation for the workers in mid-December 2001.

In Bangladesh , too, critical circumstances prevailed in a supplier company until autumn 2002: the workers had to sew Disney shirts for 14 to 15 hours a day and were also beaten by their supervisors. As a reward, they received 5 US cents per Disney shirt, which the company sold for 17.99 US dollars per shirt. Organizations like the National Labor Committee began making the conditions public, and Disney stopped all subcontracting jobs. Public pressure meant that working conditions in the company suddenly improved.

In Hong Kong , too, in early 2001 a critical consumer group published a report on irregularities in Chinese factories that manufacture products for the Walt Disney Company. 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for many months. 16-year-old girls received 38 to 63 euros per month. This remuneration is below the statutory standard. The Hong Kong-based Chinese human rights organization Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) also documented numerous abuses in suppliers of the Disney Group in China from May to October 2005: The wages were below the legal minimum and the working hours were above the legally permitted level . The Disney group deliberately prevents effective public control of working conditions by keeping the names of the suppliers secret.

See also

literature

  • Dave Smith and Steven Clark: Disney. The first 100 years (OT: Disney - The First 100 Years ). Ehapa, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-7704-0417-3 .
  • Richard Holliss, Brian Sibley: The Disney Studio Story . Octopus, London 1988, ISBN 0-7064-3040-9 .
  • Klaus Strzyz, Andreas C. Knigge , Mike Barrier et al .: Inside Disney. Talks about the empire of the mouse . Ullstein, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-548-36551-5 .
  • Michael D. Eisner with Tony Schwartz: From Mickey Mouse to a global corporation. The Disney boss on his recipe for success . From the American by Bernhard Liesen and Erwin Unkrieg. Heyne, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-453-17263-9 .
  • James B. Stewart: Disney War . Börsenmedien AG, Kulmbach 2005, ISBN 3-938350-01-6 .

Web links

Commons : The Walt Disney Company  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Restated certificate of incorporation of The Walt Disney Company. (PDF) The World Disney Company, accessed April 22, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c Bob Chapek replaces Bob Iger at the Disney helm. In: DWDL.de . Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Disney employee. In: www.macrotrends.net. Retrieved June 3, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Business figures for the end of FY 2018/19. (PDF) In: www.thewaltdisneycompany.com. November 7, 2019, accessed January 6, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Daniel Miller: You can get tattoos and photocopies in the Los Feliz building where Walt Disney once made magic LA Times , article from March 25, 2016, accessed May 8, 2019
  6. ^ Stanley Gold's letter of resignation to Walt Disney board . In: The Guardian . December 2, 2003, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed December 6, 2018]).
  7. ↑ rtr / AP / dpa: The last heir leaves Walt Disney in a dispute . In: The world . December 1, 2003 ( welt.de [accessed December 6, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Robert Iger becomes Disney boss. Retrieved December 6, 2018 .
  9. ↑ n-tv news: Comcast is bidding for Walt Disney. Retrieved December 6, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Comcast withdraws offer for Disney. Retrieved December 6, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Mickey Mouse comes to ETH Zurich. (No longer available online.) ETH Zurich, August 11, 2008, archived from the original on February 1, 2009 ; accessed on April 22, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Marvel Shareholders Approve Disney Takeover. The New York Times, December 31, 2009, accessed April 22, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. The Walt Disney Company, October 30, 2012, accessed October 30, 2011 .
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  1. ↑ p. 67
  2. ↑ p. 73
  3. ↑ p. 74
  4. ↑ p. 77
  5. ↑ a b p. 79
  6. ↑ p. 80f.
  7. ↑ p. 86
  8. ↑ p. 91
  9. ↑ p. 98
  10. ↑ p. 100
  11. ↑ p. 102
  12. ↑ p. 110
  13. ↑ p. 111
  14. ↑ a b p. 112
  15. ↑ p. 109
  16. ↑ p. 113
  17. ↑ p. 121f.
  18. ↑ p. 177
  19. ↑ p. 182
  20. ↑ p. 178
  21. ↑ p. 191
  22. ↑ p. 11
  1. ↑ a b p. 141
  2. ↑ a b p. 63
  3. ↑ p. 67
  4. ↑ p. 68
  5. ↑ p. 76
  6. ↑ p. 78
  7. ↑ p. 82
  8. ↑ p. 97f.
  9. ↑ p. 13
  10. ↑ p. 7f.
  11. ↑ a b p. 138

Coordinates: 34 ° 9 ′ 24.7 "  N , 118 ° 19 ′ 30.2"  W.