Disney

Earlier today Disney released their latest earnings report. The company beat expectations across the board, revenue is better than expected, theme parks also performed better and Disney+ subscriber growth beat what analysts projected.

Disney+ added a total of 14.4 million new subscribers, analysts had expected 10 million new subscribers. All Disney owned streaming services combined, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN, now have more subscribers than Netflix, 221 million vs 220 million. Disney+ alone now has 44.5 million subscribers in the US and 152.1 million worldwide. 58.4 million of those are subscribers of Hotstar in India.

Disney also announced new subscription fees for Disney+. Beginning on December 8th Disney will offer an ad-supported tier for Disney+ in the US for $7.99. The ad-free tier will then be $10.99, an increase of $3.

Disney’s earnings call follows Hasbro’s earnings report from July, Hasbro is also doing well, revenue is up and partner brands revenue growth was once more driven by Marvel and Star Wars, but as usual Hasbro would not provide any specifics here.

The official Disney earnings report
CNBC article

We stopped by the Disney Parks booth to check out their latest offerings. Click through for a gallery from our visit to their booth!

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Subscriber growth for Disney’s streaming platform has stalled considerably in recent months. Disney+ has about 130 million subscribers worldwide, but Disney would like to increase that number to 240-260 million in the next two years. To achieve this more than ambitious goal Disney is now changing its strategy. An ad-supported subscription model will be added to Disney+ in late 2022 in the US, other territories will most likely follow in 2023. No further details are known at this moment, i.e. how much this ad-supported subscription will cost and if there will be any limitations. If you are not a subscriber yet… would an ad-supported subscription at a lower price convince you otherwise? Or would Disney need to add a lot more original and new content first for you to reconsider? As things are now Disney has a few tentpole series or movies every few months, but little else to keep fans of Star Wars and Marvel (one major target demographic of the service) entertained with new content. Maybe Disney needs to invest even more in new programming (and a broader variety of programming) to reach the lofty subscriber goals.

Our friends at Jedi News have posted details about the new Droid Factory exclusive SK-620, available in 3 sizes and exclusive to Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Click through for their full report.

The Galactic Starcruiser officially opens its gates for visitors on March 1st. But in the week before that Disney invited various news outlets, YouTubers and other influencers to a stay at the Star Wars hotel, so the shill access quality media can post their (glowing?) reviews in time. One of those outlets invited was local Floridian news site Click Orlando and they posted videos and images from the Starcruiser ahead of the Disney Embargo which ends this Friday. Of course Disney had the videos / article taken down within a few hours, but you know the saying, once something is out on the internet, it’s here to stay and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. So you can find one of the videos leaked by Click Orlando on Reddit now. Click through for more!

UPDATE: video tour of the Starcruiser cabin and restroom added!

The leaked video shows you Gaia performing her song

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An image from an unknown source is surfing around the internet this morning. It’s the next Disney Droid Factory four-pack based on characters from The Mandalorian. If this is your image, please let us know so we can attribute credit!

Website AllEars.net has uploaded the welcome message Disney sends out to people who booked a stay at the Galactic Starcruiser on Twitter. The video is two minutes long and features a female employee of the fictional cruise line telling customers what to expect onboard the space ship. Click here or on the screenshot below to watch the video on Twitter! Then click through for a short discussion!

Click to watch the 2-minute video on Twitter

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Entertainment Weekly posted an ad article about Disney’s upcoming Star Wars Hotel on their website yesterday and for the first time you get to see the captain of the Galactic Starcruiser! Meet Captain Keevan, the one who will command the imaginary space ship in the Star Wars galaxy and keep you safe from the First Order! Click through for more.

Captain Keevan. She has a hat. Source: Entertainment Weekly

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One could say the Star Wars ship is not exactly sailing in smooth waters at the moment. While many fans are certainly eagerly anticipating the Book of Boba Fett show by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, other things either seriously annoy fans or get ridiculed. The current Star Wars HasLab is not exactly going as planned, it may or may not limp over the finish line, maybe barely getting funded. This project seriously angered collectors and Hasbro / Lucasfilm were basically forced to make a late addition to the campaign to somehow salvage it. The Star Wars Haslab got some really negative PR. And then there’s the fact that Star Wars lost yet another director – and basically canceled yet another movie – not too long ago. But that is nothing compared to what is concurrently happening elsewhere in the Disney Star Wars galaxy. As you may remember the brand new Star Wars Hotel, the “Galactic Starcruiser” will open in March 2022. For a mere $6,000 (for a family of four) you can spend 2 nights and 2 days (only count to 2, not 1, not 3) at the hotel. Since the world we live in is what it is, it’s already booked out in advance for a few months (there are more than 20 million millionaires in the US after all, Disney’s new target demographic apparently). So what is going wrong here? Well, Disney released a “first look” video for the Star Wars Hotel on YouTube earlier this week and the reaction was less than favorable. Actually, the reaction was savage. Apart from the usual access media (think IGN & co) virtually ALL major and even minor Star Wars YouTube channels roasted Disney for the video which was the textbook definition of “cringe”. So what did Disney do as a reaction? Well, what do you think? Click through for more!

Still image from the Starcruiser first look video

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ShopDisney has the latest Galaxy’s Edge The Black Series set up for pre-order. Click below for each pre-order page. Thanks to JTA reader Matt for the alert! Use SHIPMAGIC for free shipping on orders over $75.

• Droid Depot (K-7R1, CB-23, Pit Droid, Babu Frik, Battle Droid)
• The First Order (First Order AT-AT Driver, R5 Astromech Droid, Mouse Droid, General Hux)
• Galactic Creatures (Mynock, Porgs, Bogling, Kowakian Monkey Lizards)

This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

ShopDisney has also added this year’s Holiday Edition figure: R5-D33R. Click here to order!

This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

ShopDisney has an all-new Holiday-themed Droid Factory 4-Pack available. Click here for the order page. Thanks to JTA reader Mark for the alert!

JTA reader Aaron H sends us an image of the latest Disney Droid Factory Halloween Droid: R6-W1CH found at his local Disney Park.

Disney is always working on new tech to improve the experience of theme park visitors. One of these new technologies is an actual retractable, illuminated lightsaber that activates just like you know it from the movies at the push of a button. Guests who will book a stay at the Galactic Starcruiser hotel (scheduled opening is in 2022) will actually get a chance to wield these brand new lightsabers in something like a lightsaber dojo. It is not yet known if an actual toy will be made with that tech that can be bought anywhere or if this is something you’ll only see in parks for the time being. Click through to see a short clip of the new lightsaber in action and find out how it all works!

She is just happy to see you… before she’ll cut you down with her brand new, fully retractable lightsaber!

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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

ShopDisney.com has launched their Star Wars Day shop with new merchandise and deals. Click through to check out their offerings. They have a lobby set up to mitigate traffic issues, so be prepared to wait in the virtual lobby for about 10-15 minutes. Happy Hunting!

This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

ShopDisney.com has also added the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge First Order Short-Range Evacuation Vehicle (with 3.75″ astromech droid).

One of my favorite Disneyland blogs, Endor Express, shared some wonderful photos of the new Galaxy’s Edge trading post in Downtown Disney, Anaheim.  Will you be going to the outpost any time soon? What exclusive items would you like to buy the most? Let us know in the comments!

Images courtesy of endorexpress.net

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Construction for the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience (aka the Star Wars hotel) is underway in Orlando, Florida. The Disney Food Blog released an article about the construction a short while ago and they feature photos taken on location by Jeff Vahle, the President of Walt Disney World Resort. Check out this one photo of the bunk beds posted on Vahle’s Instagram. Click through for one more photo of the room!

Photo: Jeff Vahle via his Instagram

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This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

ShopDisney.com has the next wave of Star Wars Toybox figures. Click below for the order pages for Darth Vader (19), Stormtrooper (20), and General Grievous (21).

This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

You can now pick up the 2020 edition Droid Factory Holiday droid at ShopDisney.com. Thanks to JTA reader Mark for the alert!

About one year ago Disney seemed invincible. They dominated the worldwide box office, their theme parks, despite some hiccups because of price hikes, earned them a lot of money, Disney+  launched with much fanfare and everything seemed fine. And then everything changed in 2020. And now Disney has to lay off 28,000 people from their Parks, Experiences and Products division, or about 1/4 of all employees there. Click through for more.

Mickey has seen better days (scene from South Park)

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JTA reader and friend Scot G. pointed out to me yesterday that the back of the Jango Fett Toybox figure shows two upcoming releases which look to be the standard Episode IV Stormtrooper and the Mandalorian!

This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, JTA may receive a commission if you click and make a purchase.

ShopDisney has put the Elite Series R5-P8 and Toybox Jango Fett figures up for order on their site. Thanks to JTA reader Scot for the alert!

MyDisneyShop.com has the upcoming BB-BOO20 Droid Factory figure available for order as of this post!

While Hong Kong is far away it may be of interest that Disney will have to close their Disneyland in Hong Kong once again. It had only re-opened about a month ago, but a surge of new Covid-19 cases in the city, 52 on Sunday, to be precise, resulted in renewed social distancing measures ordered by the local government. Disney will have to close the theme park on July 15th. Meanwhile, re-opening plans for Disneyland in Anaheim, which was meant to re-open in July (just like Disney World in Florida) were postponed indefinitely, actually, California announced a new lockdown on Monday. That leaves Disney World in Orlando for those mouse enthusiasts who like to live dangerously.
Disney depends a lot on revenue from their theme park division, it was 26 billion USD in 2019, which is almost 44% of total revenue. And without any meaningful revenue from movies or cruises, Disney doesn’t have too many sources of revenue left, licensing, merchandise, TV networks, and Disney+, although the streaming service won’t generate any profits for years to come.
It may actually be a long time before theme parks open again across the world or can operate at full capacity, which makes revenue based on merchandising and licensing all the more important, even though it’s only a modest source of revenue usually for Disney. Disney will release their numbers for the quarter in early August. Analysts believe net loss for the quarter may be about $1.4 billion USD. That’s a lot of Star Wars figures Hasbro would need to sell extra to make up for the missing theme park profits…

Mickey, Minnie and friends will have to wait for visitors