Despite its theme parks being closed, Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) reported a surprise profit for its third quarter, driven, in large part, by the company’s Disney+ streaming service.
The entertainment giant announced a better-than-expected third-quarter profit. Disney shares rose as much as 5.6% in after-market trading on the news. In announcing the third quarter results, Disney said that its live-action movie “Mulan” will go straight to Disney+ and that it will launch a new Star international service as the pandemic threatens its more traditional businesses.
The Disney+ service will market “Mulan” as a pay-per-view priced event at a cost of $30 U.S., starting on September 4. The movie will also go to theaters where conditions allow.
For the quarter ended June 27, Disney earned 8 cents a share. That was far better than the 63-cent loss analysts had predicted. Revenue slumped 42% to $11.8 billion U.S., below estimates.
The company’s TV business — led by ESPN and ABC — fared better than expected, in part because Disney deferred payments for sports programming during the COVID-19 shutdown.
The streaming service Disney+ closed the company’s fiscal third quarter with 57.5 million customers and has since grown to 60.5 million paid subscribers. Elsewhere at Disney, the company’s theme-park division posted a $1.96 billion U.S. loss after being closed for much of the spring. Most of Disney’s theme parks have now reopened. The exceptions are California and Hong Kong, which closed again last month due to rising COVID-19 cases.