The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923 and is now run by CEO Robert Iger with assistance from boards and department heads. Disney has many subsidiaries including ABC, Radio Disney, and Hollywood Records. They have acquired companies like Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar to build franchises through films. Disney makes money through parks and resorts, media networks, and studio entertainment. They utilize a scalable business model to create brands and properties that generate revenue through various streams.

2. The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923.
Since then it has passed through multiple owners
and CEO’s and is now run by CEO Robert Iger,
with assistance from his board of directors and the
heads of multiple departments in order to continue
to run their Scalable Dream Factory (See P1(B)-
operating model )

3. Robert “Bob” Iger –
Current Chairman of
the Board of Directors
of the Walt Disney
Company

4. Disney also have companies dealing in Music, Radio, Video Games,
Television and Publishing, including ABC Television Studios,
Radio Disney and Hollywood Records. They recently purchased
Lucas Film and Marvel Film Studios, using these to continue to
build upon their heavily branded franchise. Disney also has key
features of the Disney Brand, Disney Live Action, Disney Feature
Animation, Pixar and Lucas Film. With the Lucas Film brand,
Disney acquired the Lucas Film subsidiaries including Skywalker
Sound and Industrial Light and Magic. At the end of 2013, the
Walt Disney Company reported taking in a total of $11.57 billion in
the fourth quarter for an overall profit of $1.39 billion. As of May
2014, the Walt Disney Company was worth approximately $143
billion. This is earned through three different methods. 27% of
Disney profit came from their Parks and Resorts, 24% from their
Studio Entertainment and 17% from their Media Networks.

5. These days, Disney utilises Digital Marketing to help improve their profit and
audience. They use Social Media, which is a web based platform that allows Disney
to reach a broader audience, making their marketing and products more targeted,
fun and up-to-date. With the acquisitions of new companies and different products,
Disney is using Digital Marketing as a crucial form of marketing, reaching new and
different audiences than they did in the past, including now an older audience with
the acquisition of Marvel Studios and Lucas Film.

7. The way that Disney makes money is by using a scalable dream factory. This means
that using their four main studios/branches (Disney Live Action, Disney Feature
animation, Pixar and Lucasfilm) to create the “Scalable Dream Factory”. This is
where Disney builds brands around their movies and characters. They then use
Distribution Fees to force cinemas and broadcasting networks to pay to broadcast
their products. They also receive payments from Book Publishers and Toy Makers
etc. to use the Disney brands, movies and characters in order to create items to sell
to the public for their own profit, with Disney receiving different percentages of
profit from these companies. Their theme parks encourage these brands to allow the
other companies to want to pay to utilise the Disney brand. These brands enable
Disney to cover multiple methods of profit, making them one of the largest
entertainment conglomerates in the world. This business model is scalable, which
means that the brands fuel many value propositions and generate diverse revenue
streams.

8. Disney
Company
Media
Networks
Cable TV
Broadcasting
Parks and
Resorts
Domestic
International
Studio
Entertainment
Theatrical
Distribution
Home
Distribution
TV and On
Demand
Distribution
Consumer
Products
Licensing and
Publishing
Retail and
Other
Interactive
media
Games
Other Content

10. DISNEY LIVE ACTION- THE
“MCU”The Disney Live Action division has been responsible for some of the biggest box-office
smashes over the last 6 years. After the acquisitions of Marvel Entertainment and Marvel
Studios, Disney has been a nigh-on unstoppable force in the modern box office, with their
ever-expanding and audience-attracting MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), with some of
their movie credits consisting of:
 The Avengers ($1,519,479,547) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1,404,705,868)
 Captain America: The First Avenger ($370,569,776), The Winter Soldier ($714,401,889)
and Civil War ($1,151,426,164)
 The Iron Man Trilogy (1: $582,443,126 2: $623,561,331 3: $1,215,392,272)
 Thor ($449,326,618) and Thor: The Dark World ($644,600,394)
 Guardians of the Galaxy ($771,172,112)
 Ant-Man ($518,602,163)
 As well as up-coming properties (Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and
Spider-Man: Homecoming)

11.  Finding Nemo was released on May 30th 2003 and soon went on to become
Disney’s most successful Feature Animation from 1995-2016 (although the sequel
Finding Dory is currently in 2nd position at the time of writing prior to the closure
of the box-office or DVD sales).
 According to the-numbers.com, Finding Nemo earned an Inflation-adjusted gross
of $518,148,559 at the worldwide box office.
 Finding Nemo is also one of the most highly merchandised films/franchises by
Disney, with products from Finding Nemo/Finding Dory including Mugs,
backpacks, stationary , stuffed toys and clothing.

12. PIXAR- TOY STORY
 Toy Storiy was released on November 22nd 1995 and is the 7th highest grossing
animated film of all time, inspiring 3 sequels (Toy Story 2: November 19th 1999,
Toy Story 3: June 18th 2010 and Toy Story 4: June 15th 2018).
 Altogether, the Toy Story franchise has earned an Inflation-adjusted gross of
$1,218,268,312 (prior to the release of Toy Story 4 in 2018) at the worldwide box
office.
 Since the release of the first Toy Story in 1995, the franchise and the characters
associated have been utilized for a number of Disney short films centered around
the original stories. Toy Story is also one of the most impressively marketed
franchises in the world today, with the lasting effects of Toy Story 3 still being felt
6 years later with the continuing market position of Toy Story Merchandise.

13. LUCASFILM- STAR WARS
 The most notable franchise emanating from the Lucasfilm element of the Disney
“Scalable Dream Factory” is Star Wars. Beginning in 1977, Star Wars has
spanned 7 movies to date, with a very heavily criticised Christmas special, 2 more
planned movies, multiple planned“Spin-Offs” movies, a spin off animated movie, 2
spin off animated TV Series and multiple video games.
 Over a span of the 7 main films, Star Wars has taken in huge grosses from the
world wide box office, from $534,171,960 (Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back) to
$2,058,662,225 (Episode 7: The Force Awakens)
 As will be expanded upon in later units, Star Wars has become a juggenaut in pop
culture since its first appearance in 1977 with many believing that the original
trilogy is one of if not the originator and the backbone for which modern popular
culture to evolve. Star Wars is certainly one of Disney’s most valuable products
and without doubt Star Wars will create a very large amount of profit for the
Disney company over the next 5 years at least.

16. Made before
Disney bought
Marvel.
Only Distributed by
Marvel Entertainment,
not made with Disney
or Marvel Studios

19. It is very possible that if you combined the earnings
of all of these studios that Disney owns, that the
Walt Disney Company as a whole could be at the
top of this chart. And with the upcoming releases
of what are anticipated to be box office smashes
like Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity
War Part 1&2, Star Wars Episodes 7,8,9,Rogue One
and the Han Solo Spin-off and The Jungle Book, it
is possible that all of these Disney owned products
could claw their way to dominance over the coming
years.

21. DISNEY’S COMPETITORS
In the film industry, there are 5 main competitors, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox,
Universal and Columbia/Sony. In recent years, the film industry has also seen a rise in
“Minimajor” Studios, including (in the UK) Entertainment, StudioCanal, eOne and Lionsgate.
These provide a healthy contribution for Disney in all areas of their product production, with
many studios now gaining rights to hugely popular franchises such as Warner Bros’ DC Comics
properties (versus Disney’s Marvel Comics properties), Paramount’s Dreamworks properties
(versus Disney’s Pixar and animated film properties) and box office smashes from studios
including Avatar (20th Century Fox)(which is the highest grossing film of all time with Disney’s
Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 3rd), Titanic (Paramount)(2nd Highest Grossing Film of all
time), The Fast and Furious Franchise (Universal Studios), The James Bond Franchise
(Columbia/Sony), The Hunger Games Quadrilogy (Lionsgate) and the Twilight Saga (eOne). Not
only are Disney facing competition from these films and franchises in the film industry, they are
also facing competition in Merchandise (from Twilight and The Hunger Games, both of which
are huge merchandise machines with large amounts of merchandise and promotion) and more
recently in the Theme Park market, after Universal opened their majorly successful Universal
Studios Theme Park near to Disneyland in Orlando, Florida. While this park cannot make
Universal a threat to Disney in this market (as Disney have more parks around the world in
France, Japan etc) it does make Universal a competitor against Disney.