Disney's Income Falls as Coronavirus Takes Hold

By Erich Schwartzel 

Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday laid bare for investors just how badly the company has been ravaged by the novel coronavirus that has shut down its film and TV productions and closed its theme parks around the world.

The world's largest entertainment company said it lost $1.4 billion due to the pandemic in the three months ended March 28.

Overall operating income for the company fell 37% to $2.4 billion. Revenue for the quarter rose 21% to $18 billion.

The ramifications of the pandemic will likely be even more pronounced in the current quarter, since only the final few weeks of the company's second fiscal quarter were hit by widespread shutdowns beyond those that started earlier in Asia. Analysts have downgraded Disney stock, eyeing a future defined by the highly contagious virus, even as stay-at-home orders are lifted and businesses reopen.

In the quarter reported Tuesday, the pandemic's primary impact was on the theme-parks division, since international operations like Shanghai Disney Resort closed before the mid-March closures of Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the U.S.

Operating income at the division that includes Disney parks fell 58% in the quarter to $639 million. Revenue fell 10% to $5.5 billion.

Disney said it estimates the coronavirus eliminated about $1 billion in operating income for the division in the quarter.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2020 16:50 ET (20:50 GMT)

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