Baby Yoda, a beautiful Disney + mascot -

Anthony Behar / Sipa USA / SIPA

The song

It's A Small World has

n't resounded in the aisles of Disney theme parks for almost a year.

Despite everything, the firm remains hopeful, in particular thanks to its various streaming services.

Disney +, ESPN + and Hulu had 146 million subscribers at the end of the year, according to a earnings release released this week.

Disney + alone, which began operating in November 2019, has nearly 95 million subscribers.

The platform has benefited greatly from containment measures, the huge catalog of the Californian group and low prices compared to competitors.

By comparison, Netflix recently passed 200 million users worldwide.

This accomplishment partially makes up for the difficult year the entertainment giant has just gone through because of the pandemic, which has resulted in the closure of theme parks and cinemas.

In all, Disney only earned $ 17 million in net profit during the holiday season, down from $ 2.1 billion a year ago.

New content every week

But the Californian group "will continue to grow in streaming, while its parks, its television and cinema branches will quickly recover thanks to vaccination and the expression of demand that has been contained for months," commented Eric Haggstrom, analyst at eMarketer.

The “parks, experiences and derivatives” branch generated only $ 3.6 billion in revenue, half less than last year in the same quarter.

The platform segment, on the other hand, generated $ 3.5 billion in revenue in the past quarter, up 73% year-on-year.

The holiday season was marked by several popular releases, including, in late October, the second season of

The Mandalorian

.

Disney + has aroused enthusiasm thanks to its catalog and those of Pixar, Marvel, and National Geographic studios.

The platform has also set itself the objective of broadcasting new content every week and around a hundred new titles per year.

Running the "franchise machine"

"We have to keep a very high value for money, and there is no better way to do that than to run the franchise machine to release new titles every month", elaborated Bob Chapek , the boss of the company.

"Content is the main factor in acquiring and retaining new subscribers," said Christine McCarthy, before confirming that the profitability target for the streaming service was maintained for fiscal year 2024.

For the current year, Disney plans to remain flexible when it comes to going to the movies or the Internet.

For example, “ 

Black Widow

is slated for theaters, but we will be closely monitoring theatrical reopening and consumer appetite to decide whether to reconsider our decision or not,” said Bob Chapek.

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