It shouldn’t have come as a surprise for many to have witnessed Avengers: Endgame breaking blockbuster records on its premiere day, April 29, 2019. It is, after all, a finalé to a series of 21 movies— all part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and produced by Marvel Studios within a ten years span.
True enough, the Disney blockbuster did not disappoint having smashed the box office opening weekend earning $350 million domestically and, for the first time, surpassing the $1 billion mark, at $1.2 billion worldwide. This data beats previous records of last years’ Avengers: Infinity War, which took in $257.6 million domestically and $640.5 million worldwide.
Other records Endgame looks to be overtaking are highest domestic total by Disney Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $936 million, and highest worldwide total with Avatar at $2.79 billion. Avatar was distributed in 2009 by 20th Century Fox which is now a Disney property.
Disney has seen a definite surge in their stock prices following the success of Captain Marvel that grossed at $1.1 billion worldwide in March, and their announcement of Disney Plus on April 12. Despite not quite reaching the heights of January 1987’s 31% stock gains, Disney saw it’s second-highest gain in April at 25.5%.
Disney Plus, Disney’s upcoming streaming service, will launch in November and will be having all MCU movies available including Avengers: Endgame. Having a vast library of superhero blockbusters is a significant draw despite competing with quite established streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Subscription to Disney Plus will cost $6.99 a month.
JP Morgan analyst Alexia Quadrani states that the “business continues to perform very well with several notable catalysts ahead that we believe may continue to drive outperformance.” Further saying that “these catalysts could include upside to the studio segment as well as Marvel’s reveal of a longer-term slate expected by mid-summer, upside to attendance at parks following the largest expansion in the company’s history, and better revenue growth at Media Networks.”
For the fiscal year 2018, the conglomerate accounted for their revenue in four segments with Media Networks raking in the most at $24.5 billion (41.2%), followed by Parks and Resorts with $20.3 billion (34.1%).
Studio Entertainment with $9.9 billion (16.6%), and Consumer Product and Interactive Media with $4.5 billion (7.9%), complete the smaller half of last year’s revenues. With more blockbusters from Disney before the year ends and the launch of Disney Plus, we can expect to see these percentages level out for the fiscal year 2019.
With the partial acquisition of stakes in the Hulu streaming service and the recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the future certainly looks bright for Disney.
Citing “a better than anticipated performance of Avengers: Endgame” J.P. Morgan is keen on raising its estimates for Disney’s third-quarter earnings to $1.80 a share from $1.73.
If there’s any indication for a brighter future with Disney, we can only look at the journey the Marvel Cinematic Universe had to take to reach the success it has had with Endgame. It just may be a testament to Disney’s penchant for sharing wealth through careful planning and hard work.
