Disney beat its own timeframe to reach streaming profits in an upbeat June quarter that also saw a big contribution from Inside Out 2. For well over a year, the company’s promised a streaming swing to the black in the 2024 fiscal fourth quarter but nailed it earlier, reporting $47 million in DTC operating income in Q3 (vs a $512 million loss the year before). Disney+ and Hulu actually lost $19 million (on $5.
8 billion in revenue) but that was more than offset by ESPN +. Disney+ and Hulu should turn profitable and combined streaming income grow in the current September quarter. Yesterday, Disney announced price hikes across most streaming plans starting in October .
There’s been a sea change in how the industry looks at streaming, a pivot to profits over subscriber growth. Disney+ ended the quarter with 118.3 million core subscribers (domestic and international, excluding Hotstar) vs 117.
6 million the year earlier. Hulu had 46.7 million SVOD subs (vs 45.
8 million), and 4.4 million for Hulu + Live TV. Notably, Inside Out 2 led a booming box office that spread the joy.
The blockbuster opened June 14 for an explosive last two weeks of the quarter and the Pixar pic, now the top-grossing animated film of all time , has $1.56 billion in worldwide box office. It also helped drive 1.
3 million Disney+ signups to watch the original 2015 Inside Out , which has nabbed 100 million views globally. Inside Out 2 boosted content and licensing profits, which helped triple earnings at the en.