Star Wars Customer Experience Lifts Disney to Record Performance

Star Wars seems to everywhere these days and, for Walt Disney Company, it helped spark the brand’s greatest single fiscal quarter performance. It was a perfect example of an engaging, elevated customer experience.
Specifically, first-quarter revenue rose 14%, to $15.24 billon. What’s more, net income jumped 32%.

“We had tremendous performance across our portfolio of businesses,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said during the company’s first-quarter conference call on Feb. 9, according to Seeking Alpha. “With the incredible success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, our studio delivered $1 billion in quarterly operating income for the first time in history. Our parks and resorts also made history, with nearly $1 billion in operating income. And our consumer products and Interactive business set another record, with $860 million in OI. Our results clearly show that our long-term strategic focus and investments in brands and franchises are driving remarkable value in these businesses, greatly increasing their impact on the company and further diversifying our future growth. Over the past 10 years, we’ve built an enviable collection of vibrant, valued, and admired brands. We’ve also created, acquired, or re-envisioned several of the world’s most valuable franchises and we're fully leveraging these assets across our portfolio of businesses and around the globe.”

Iger noted the “phenomenal resurgence of the Star Wars franchise. And there is no better way to propel this franchise into the future than producing quality products. It’s been absolutely thrilling to see the reaction to our first Star Wars feature film, The Force Awakens. Audiences and critics alike really love this movie. It's the only film in history to ever reach $900 million in domestic box office; and as you may have heard, it crossed $2 billion in global box office over the weekend, more than doubling the worldwide box office for the last Star Wars release a decade ago.”

Iger said Disney plans to keep fans engaged in the Star Wars universe and further expand the franchise with the release of Rogue One this coming December.

“It’s a compelling and original stand-alone story about a band of rebels attempting to steal the plans for the Death Star, set just prior to the events in the first Star Wars movie, Episode 4: A New Hope,” he explained. “Filming of Rogue One is virtually completed and we absolutely love what we’ve seen so far. This is the first of a set of planned stand-alone stories and we’re already in pre-production on our next one, for release in May of 2018. And on the Parks front, later this year we will break ground on spectacular new Star Wars theme lands in Disneyland and Walt Disney World.”

Recent Content

Membership and Pricing

Videos and podcasts

Membership and Pricing