Eisner: Next year, we will be opening a great new E-ticket attraction at Epcot, called Mission: Space, which will give guests the thrill of space travel, from the rush of lift-off to the sense of weightlessness. Also among the major theme park projects in the works are a "Bug's Life"-themed adventure area called Flik's Fun Fair, coming in the fall to Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, where we will also be bringing the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in 2004. And, in the middle of the decade, we will be adding one more entire theme park -- Hong Kong Disneyland. This will be modeled closely after the original in Anaheim and will be at the doorstep of the world's most populous nation -- China. Clearly, the potential of this project is enormous.
Iger: The area of the company that arguably serves as our greatest incubator of entertainment is The Walt Disney Studios, where our films are created. Every year, between Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Dimension, some 50 movies are released by our company. Last year, they achieved worldwide box office revenues of $2.5 billion. And, more important, our films earned a solid return on our investment to produce them.
In addition, the studio produces an extremely profitable made-for-video product, called Disney Video Premieres. Last year, we released "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure," which sold a remarkable 10 million VHS and DVD units worldwide. This year, we will have "Cinderella II: Dreams Come True," which will be released next week and, later in the year, "101 Dalmatians, Too."
Eisner: With regard to the theatrical film business, one of its virtues is that you can pretty safely predict a floor of performance, but the potential ceiling is practically unlimited. With films from "The Lion King" to "Tarzan" to "Sixth Sense" to "Pearl Harbor" to "Monsters, Inc.," we were assured a reasonable level of success. But, when these films broke out into the box office stratosphere, the upside was tremendous.
Of course, in order to achieve this kind of box office success, it certainly helps to create high quality films. Last week, the quality of our movies was attested to when Walt Disney Company films garnered 24 Oscar nominations ... more than any other entertainment company. And, with the nomination of "In the Bedroom" for Best Picture, Miramax tied the all-time record of having a Best Picture nomination for ten consecutive years.
As for 2002, we feel we have a great range of projects in the wings. And, some of those projects have the added advantage of the Disney name, as we have already seen this year with the successful release of "Snow Dogs."
This past weekend, we released the Peter Pan sequel, "Return to Neverland," which grossed $16.1 million. This is all the more impressive when you consider that the film was produced at a much lower cost than our traditional feature animated films.
Looking forward, on March 29, we are releasing the Disney live-action film, "The Rookie," which stars Dennis Quaid.
Iger: This summer, we have the next film by the extraordinary director, M. Night Shyamalan, who brought us "Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable." This film is called "Signs" and stars Mel Gibson.
Also for the summer, we have a great Disney film, which brings to life the famous Country Bears that you've probably gotten to know at our theme parks. Along the same lines, further down the road, we have films based on "The Haunted Mansion" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" attractions, the latter of which will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
From Miramax and Touchstone, later this year, we will have a true epic helmed by one of Hollywood's greatest directors, Martin Scorcese -- "Gangs of New York." And, from Dimension, there will be the sequel to the wonderful family film, "Spy Kids."
Eisner: Finally, of course, no discussion of Disney content would be complete without a look at Walt Disney Feature Animation, which continues to embody the heart and soul of our company. We are extremely well-positioned in the areas of traditional 2-D animation and 3-D animation. With regard to the latter, we have enjoyed an unprecedented string of success working with our partners at Pixar on "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story 2" and last year's smash, "Monsters, Inc." During this time, we also produced on our own the landmark film, "Dinosaur," and we now are developing a 3-D animated version of the classic tale "Chicken Little" ... and a 3-D Mickey Mouse film.
Iger: This holiday season, we will be offering a remarkable film that merges the best of 3-D and 2-D, called "Treasure Planet." It is based on the Robert Louis Stevenson book, "Treasure Island," but, as the title implies, it takes the classic tale into the stars.
Eisner: This summer, we have a spectacular -- and I stand by this term, "spectacular" -- film, called "Lilo & Stitch," which takes us to the lush tropical world of Hawaii and introduces two great new characters -- Lilo, a very adorable little girl, and Stitch, a somewhat out-of-control mutant alien. You remember, he was introduced earlier and also honored us on the cover of the annual report.
To build awareness for this film and clearly establish it as the next to inherit the mantle of classic Disney animation, we have put together a particularly innovative marketing campaign that I'd like to preview for you now. It consists of a series of mini-trailers. Here are two, the second one is still a bit rough, with pencil test images, but they should give you a good idea of what we're up to.
Iger: Needless to say, we could stand up here into the evening to talk about all the initiatives underway and all the great entertainment product that is being created at The Walt Disney Company. But, we only paid for your parking for a few hours. So, we hope that this at least provides you with a useful overview of your company, which, as you can see, is driven by content, while also guided by the strong financial underpinnings that Tom described. It is this combination that we believe will produce tremendous results over the long-run.
And, the long-run is what we are all about.
Eisner: Consider what has happened during the last number of years to strengthen Disney and position it for the future.
We built three new theme parks ... we acquired Cap Cities/ABC and have expanded its assets, most notably ESPN ... we have grown the Disney Channel domestically from 12 million subscribers to nearly 80 million, and have established 12 international Disney Channels ... we have launched such strong media assets as Radio Disney, SoapNet, Toon Disney and ABC Family ... we have built a major and consistently high-margin business with Disney Video Premieres ... and most important, we have continued to create new characters and franchises that further enrich the Disney library.
As a result, the company has assets that are far more valuable and generate more cash flow than five years ago, placing us in a stronger position in the global marketplace and generating more inherent value for you, the shareholders.
This continues to be a company you can count on. After all, for most of the 20th century, people were drawn to Disney and all it stands for. We fully intend for that to continue to be the case in the 21st.
Thank you very much.
--Posted February 19, 2002
Source: Walt Disney Company Press Release