DISNEY RESEARCH PAGE

  The Walt Disney production company started in 1923 by a man called Walt Disney and his bother Roy;

 They began in a small office space located in LA  and began by making small, short, live action films that were known as ALICE COMEDIES.

Fast forward 4 months, Disney began to grow bigger and took on more staff is essentially required more space, moving their facilities into a much bigger studio called, ‘Disney BROS. Studio’. During the next 14 years, Disney would go onto creating the much-loved favourite cartoon animation characters; Micky Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and many more.

Disney's first film in 1937 was Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs which quickly became a worldwide success, making Disney a revenue of around $418 million from their production price of $1.49 million.

Disney then used the profits made from Snow White to then fund their new studios to expand further and continue to create new forms of animation that would change the film industry forever. Disney's studio, used currently to this day, is located in Burbank California, and was designed primarily by Kem Weber with extremely specific instructions from Walt Disney himself. The studio contains the main animation building with multiple studios adjacent surrounding it, these include the ink and paint departments, camera and editing departments and other various specific buildings all of which enable Disney to do create their amazing entertainment.

 

 Currently, Disney studios are distributed across the world: 

-Walt Disney feature Animation: Florida, created in 1989 and responsible for Tarzan/The Little Mermaid/The Lion King/Aladdin/Beauty and the Beast/ Mulan etc. 

-Disney Animation Australia, created in 1988 and responsible for Bami II/Jungle Book 2/Lion King 2 

-Disney Animation Canada, created in 1996 and responsible for The Goofy movie/ Little Mermaid 2/Pocahontas 2 

-Disney Animation France, founded in 1986-2007 and was responsible for many feature films. 

-Disney Animation Japan, recognized for ‘101 dalmatians’ 

Bob Chapek is Disney's current CEO, started on 25th Feb 2020. 

Beginning his career as marketing director for the company's Buena Vista Home Entertainment division, during the very influential time of the transition to the digital age and Chapek was heavily credited for the smooth and successful transition of the company and particularly in releasing properties on DVD and Blue Ray. Chapek then went onto becoming President of distribution for Disney, gaining him a lot of experience and status in the company and the film industry as a whole. Just two years later, Chapek was appointed his next big position int the company as the president of Disney consumer products in 2011, giving him a rounded experience of Disney's different revenues from the home entertainment to merchandise and onto his next role as chairman of Parks and Resorts and soon would go onto make his final and current role as CEO of Disney which during the current global position was through the Covid-19 pandemic, which then had its tolls on the successes of Chapek's role and position. 

Disney as a whole, are not plastered by the media as always casting the same actors yet one could argue the need to up their diversity and versatility when casting different representations. They do however spend an immense amount of money on the production, marketing, distribution and exhibition of their films, not to mention their technology, meaning they need that guarantee on the ‘worthiness’ and publicity that they will achieve by casting A-lister celebrities in their films into to make sure they create a wide spread of marketing and advertisement solely from the cast involved. Especially in today's entertainment industry and the amount of money spent on the entire process, they need to meet the standards to create enough revenue from the sales and popularity of the film which is also dependent on the cast. Disney are able cast such exclusive names, such as the likes of Scarlett Johansen,  

to continue the Disney Company name through heir revenues such as: Entertainment, production companies, streaming platforms and merchandising etc. However, Disney are famously known to ‘make’ break-through actors in the industry by casting them into the Marvel Universe and ultimately keep them as that specific character from the well-known comics. 

Disney is currently the biggest scale institution in the world with a market cap of $238.9 billion (about $740 per person in the US) and the impact of its worldwide status as being the ‘largest media powerhouse in the world’ reaps extremely beneficial outcomes for the company. Because Disney is what is known as a ‘conglomerate,’ they produce and distribute their own content (vertical integration) making it 100% just Disney getting all the profits as they are so large that they do not need to collaborate with other companies for financial, technological, or marketing help and can risk the failure of a film because their revenues are so large and so widespread. Disney's revenues allow them to take in so much profit and to also fund all their projects. Disney's different forms of revenue are: 

• Studio Entertainment 

• Media Network 

• Parks and Resorts 

• Consumer Products                      

• Interactive 

 Because Disney have the rights of all their content, ownership becomes extremely beneficial as it allows content to reach a much larger audience worldwide, with more services such as Disney Plus and products with greater distribution at cheaper costs because of their profit from the many revenues which therefore creates the consolidation of power. From these revenues, Disney uses the tent pole strategy which consist of using the profit made from a ‘safe’ project that has success guarantee and fund projects that are much riskier and with less guarantee than a well-known Comic or blockbuster. Another example of the benefits Disney has as being a large and well-known institution is the larger audiences met through global advertisement, A-lister casts, variety of locations and the technology used to create an immersive cinematic experience which then boosts box office sales and gets audiences to the cinema.