Disney reports significant quarterly loss due to COVID-19 pandemic

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5  -- The Walt Disney Company on Tuesday reported significant quarterly loss in its fiscal third quarter due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, reported Xinhua news agency.

Disney's overall revenues in the three-month period that ended June 27 fell 42 per cent year-over-year to US$11.78 billion. Earnings per share for the quarter showed a loss of US$2.61 compared to income of 79 cents in the prior-year quarter, according to a release from the company.

Disney said that the company took a 3.5-billion-dollar hit to its operating income from parks being closed during the quarter, a decrease of 85 per cent from a year earlier.

"The impact of COVID-19 and measures to prevent its spread are affecting our segments in a number of ways, most significantly at Parks, Experiences and Products," said the company in the release.

As a result of COVID-19, Disney closed its North American parks and resorts, cruise line business and Disneyland Paris in mid-March, while the company's Asia parks and resorts were closed earlier in the quarter.

Disney's theme parks in China, including Shanghai Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, had been closed since January amid threat of COVID-19 spread. Shanghai Disneyland welcomed visitors for the first time on May 11 after months of closure, becoming the first Disney park to reopen since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Hong Kong Disneyland reopened in late June and was closed again in July.

Studio Entertainment revenues for the quarter decreased 55 per cent to US$1.7 billion. Theatrical distribution in the quarter was negatively impacted by COVID-19 as theaters were generally closed domestically and internationally.

--BERNAMA