The steepest decline appears to have coincided with Disney's ill-advised wade into the political sphere when it opposed Florida's parental rights law in 2022.
After nearly a year and a half of chaos following the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase I through III, releases that concluded with Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, Disney has seen its stock value collapse to a nine-year low according to recent reports.
According to Newsmax, this culminated in a new stock price low of $83.53/share on Monday. The market cap of the entertainment giant plunged from $350.09 billion to $154.04 billion from March 2022 to today in a catastrophic decline of 56 percent or approximately $196.05 billion.
The outlet set out a clear timeline of the decline:
"The company's financial troubles follow Disney's March 2022 to condemn and fight Florida's Parental Rights in Education law, which forbids any instruction of sexual matters for children in kindergarten through third grade.
"Members of the LGBTQ community decried the law with their "Don't Say Gay" campaign. Disney quickly followed suit in advocating against the law and condemning Florida Republicans for passing it."
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Florida Republican lawmakers fought back against the campaign and Disney, noting the law did not single out any group and called for educators to stay away from all sexual and gender identity matters involving the youngest of school-age children.
In February, DeSantis also moved to take control of what had been Walt Disney World's self-governing district in central Florida.
With his company facing falling profits and economic difficulties as it has sought to embrace the woke agenda, Disney CEO Bob Iger earlier this month announced dramatic increases for its online streaming subscription services Disney+ and Hulu."
As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, Disney's parks in Florida and California stood emptier in July than at the height of the COVID-19 panic owing to the "disparagingly high cost of entry for the amusement parks," pointing to analysis from The Wall Street Journal. In May, it was announced that the park's 'Star Wars' theme hotel will close in September after operating for just two years. Making matters worse, Disney has also scrapped a planned $1 billion office complex in Florida due to the “changing business conditions.”
In late July, with a move smacking of desperation, Disney broke with Walt Disney's longstanding teetotaling policy and, amidst collapsing attendance numbers, moved to make alcohol available at three locations in Anaheim's Magic Kingdom.
Finally, in early August the company was revealed to have lost approximately 300,000 subscribers to its Disney+ streaming platform in a single quarter of fallout.
Based on these reports, we appear to be seeing the waning days of Walt Disney's dream.
Source - DC Enquire/X - Image - Reuters