Disney (DIS) to Stream Marvel Studios' Latest on Disney Plus
The Walt Disney DIS is benefiting from the growing popularity of Disney+ due to its strong content portfolio and a much cheaper bundle offering compared with its peers.
Recently, Disney announced that it would begin the exclusive streaming of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness exclusively on Disney+, starting Jun 22.
The movie has been directed by Sam Raimi, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Oslen, Rachel McAdamas and John Krasinski, among others, and was released on May 6 in theaters worldwide.
Per a Deadline article, Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness has crossed $800M globally in the third weekend of May, out of which $342.1 million comprises domestic box-office earnings, while $461.1 million comprises the international.
The Walt Disney Company Price and Consensus
The Walt Disney Company price-consensus-chart | The Walt Disney Company Quote
Quality Content Drives Disney+ Prospects
Disney has been taking care of consumers’ preferences and stakeholders’ expectations of the ist streaming platform Disney+, by creating more inclusive content enjoyed by audiences of all ages. The robust content portfolio has been a key catalyst in Disney+’s subscriber growth.
Last year in November, Disney announced its plans to spend approximately $33 billion on content in fiscal 2022, to support its Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) services, which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
Disney has an impressive lineup of movies slated to be released in the near term, several of which will be streamed simultaneously on Disney+ along with their theatrical releases.
Over the next 12-month period, Disney+ will be exclusively streaming several fresh contents such as Ms. Marvel (Jun 8), Baymax! (Jun 29), I Am Groot (Aug 10),Andor (Aug 31), live-action remake Pinocchio (Sep 8) and Willow (Nov 30), among others.
Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming releases, such as Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Marvels, will be streamed on Disney+. It also plans to launch a new Marvel series on Disney+ in fiscal 2022.
The strong content line up for Disney+ is expected to attract more paid subscribers to the platform, thereby increasing the top line. In February, Disney announced that it expects to reach between 230 million and 20 million Disney+ subscribers by the end of September 2024.
The rapidly-growing subscriber base should strengthen Disney’s position in the increasingly saturated streaming space dominated by the likes of Netflix NFLX, Paramount Global’s PARA Paramount+ and Apple’s AAPL AppleTV+.
In the last reported quarter, Disney’s streaming services exceeded a total subscription of 205 million, a quarterly net increase of 9.2 million driven by Disney+. As of Apr 2, 2022, Disney+ had 137.7 million paid subscribers. The rapidly-growing subscriber base strengthens this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s position in the very saturated streaming space.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
However, the company has lost 29.8% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks Media Conglomeratesindustry's decline of 23.8%. Meanwhile, the Consumer Discretionarysector has tumbled 27.5% year to date.
Notably, Netflix is on unsettled grounds. Per Antenna data, in the first quarter of 2022, Netflix witnessed 3.6 million subscription cancellations, indicating that the streaming giant is inching closer to losing its top spot in the streaming battle.
However, Netflix recently had one of its biggest releases, the fourth season of Stranger Things. With the Stranger Things second season finale scheduled to be released in July, Netflix anticipates consumers to keep their subscription through the month.
Paramount+ exclusively released a live-action TV series Halo in addition to the second season of Star Trek: Picard, an original spinoff of the iconic series. It’s also the home to Star Trek: Discovery, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years, and Rugrats and iCarly reboots. The subscriber count of Paramount+ has reached almost 40 million, gaining 6.8 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2022.
Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV+, is gaining recognition, with Ted Lasso and, most recently, CODA winning three Academy Awards. This is expected to boost Apple TV Plus’s viewership.
Though Apple has not provided AppleTV+ subscriber numbers, it is estimated that the streaming platform, will reach nearly 36 million subscribers by the end of 2026.
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