There’s this little company based out of Burbank that’s making a name for themselves nowadays called The Walt Disney Company. You may have heard of them once or twice recently when they came in at number 11 on Forbes list of Most Valuable Brands, or when their last big live action movie made $2.057 billion (with a “b”) at box office alone, or when their last big animated movie smashed the record for opening weekend box offices returns which they had previously set.
Whether you’re out of the loop with most things in the Disney World or you were born to be a Disney princess, there’s no question that Walt Disney is one of the most recognizable and globally influential companies on the planet. That’s why it’s so surprising that most people have no idea just how expansive the Disney corporation and its army of assets really are. We’ve sifted through their whole organization to bring you a small example of how big the House of Mouse has grown to be.
Film Studios
At the time of writing, The Walt Disney Company controls movie production for six major film studios:
- Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
- Walt Disney Animation Studios
- Touchstone Pictures
- Pixar Animation Studios
- Lucasfilm Ltd.
- Marvel Studios
Between all of these different studios, The Walt Disney Company has released literally thousands of films. From all these releases they’ve received hundreds of different awards including at least 79 Oscars and a countless fortune in box office earnings and home video sales.
TV Studios
Not to be underestimated, the small screen is just as full of Disney properties as the silver screen is:
- ABC Television Group
- ABC Family Worldwide
- ABC News
- Disney Channel
- ESPN (80%)
- A+E Network (50%)
- History Channel (50%)
- Lifetime (50%)
- Hulu (32%)
Much like the movies produced and distributed by Disney studios, these television networks offer programming which is designed to suit just about any viewer’s tastes. This means that even if you aren’t watching Mickey Mouse anymore, you’re still in all likelihood watching something under the Disney umbrella.
Consumer Merchandise
Merchandise is a world all its own for business with the scale and scope of Disney. They offer a source of revenue which in some cases can be even more lucrative than the films and TV shows they’re based on. It’s no surprise that The Walt Disney Company sees a massive return from its merchandising properties including:
- All Disney Licensing
- The Disney Store
- Disney Baby
- All Marvel Licensing
- Marvel Comics
- Ultimate Comics
- Icon Comics
- All Lucas Licensing
All this considered, The Walt Disney Company owns many of the most profitable merchandise brands the market has ever seen including half of the entries on The Richest’s list of movies which sold the most merchandise!
Theme Parks and Resorts
You knew we were gonna get here eventually. Walt Disney’s vision for “The Happiest Place on Earth” has now been realized on three continents and a (quite literal) fleet of luxury cruise ships which sail everywhere from the Greek Isles to the coast of Alaska! Their resort options include:
- Disneyland Inc.
- Walt Disney World
- Disneyland Paris (51%)
- Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (48%)
- Shanghai Disneyland Park (43%)
- Disney Cruise Line
- Disney Vacation Club
Additionally, each of these locations contains a wide variety of hotel accommodations which are rated very highly by just about every reviewer. That makes them the perfect getaway when you’re done playing with Disney toys based on Disney movies which you learned about through the Disney channel!
