Shares of Walt Disney (DIS 0.64%) narrowly beat the market in 2024. The 2.2% year-to-date gain doesn't seem like much, but it means the entertainment giant is once again coasting just ahead of the S&P 500.
Two months down, 10 months to go. A popular theme park festival, a polarizing live-action remake of a Disney classic, and a hopefully drama-free annual shareholder meeting are coming this month. There's never a dull moment when it comes to Disney. Let's look at some of the dates investors will be watching in March.
NYSE: DIS
Key Data Points
March 4
Daredevil became one of Marvel's first streaming-exclusive hits, but it didn't originate on Disney+. The series launched on Netflix (NFLX 0.09%) in 2015, four years before the debut of Disney's namesake service that has recently turned profitable.
Rights to the series would eventually revert back to the House of Mouse to find a home on Disney+. A decade later, the original series, Disney is ready to revisit the Marvel property with Daredevil: Born Again. The top stars of the previous show return. Weekly episodes will start being released on March 4. With Disney+ increasing prices back in October, it needs to continue investing in fresh content to keep its subscriber base close, content, and growing.
Image source: Disney.
March 5
Disney's Epcot continues to be the country's third most-visited theme park, lagging only Disneyland in California and the Magic Kingdom in Florida. A key to keeping guests coming to the 43-year-old attraction has been its steady cadence of festivals. The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival returns on Wednesday of this week.
The event features Disney-themed gardens and topiaries, exclusive eats and drinks served in outdoor kitchens, and a series of concerts by musical acts with generational appeal. You don't have to rush to check it out. The nearly three-month festival runs through June 2.
The blueprint works. The festival draws turnstile clicks. But it's not just about the foot traffic. Disney fans are drawn to the festival-specific merchandise and the unique food and beverage offerings, in a not-so-secret recipe to pump up revenue per capita. With Disney recently warning of challenging year-over-year comparisons at its domestic theme parks, a strong festival performance can help turn that around.
March 20
Last year's annual shareholder meeting had more fireworks than one of Disney's nighttime theme park spectaculars. Disney's boardroom was facing a proxy battle, attacked by two different activist groups. Disney emerged victorious, but shareholders didn't do a victory lap after the early April powwow.
Disney stock moved lower for the balance of 2024. The only reason the shares beat the market last year was that they raced higher through the first three months of the year. A wave of positive announcements early in 2024 helped CEO Bob Iger and his fellow board members secure shareholder support.
But that doesn't mean investors can ignore the upcoming meeting. There may not be a contested battle this time around, but Disney's financial update will bear checking out. There may also be some questions raised that generate responses worth hearing.
March 21
Disney is winning at the box office again. The movie studio bellwether put out the world's three highest-grossing films last year, and it's off to a strong start so far in 2025. Captain America: Brave New World has sold nearly $342 million in tickets globally this year, nearly triple its closest theatrical release.
Investors won't have to wait long for the next major Disney release, as Snow White hits theaters on March 21. The 1937 classic film reigns as historically significant for being the country's first animated feature, but the live-action reboot has had its detractors. Hollywood Reporter tracking data expects the film to open to a modest $53 million in domestic box office receipts for its opening weekend. Can star Rachel Zegler sway the skeptics? The multiplex will be the "mirror, mirror, on the wall" that reveals all later this month.
March 28
"Use the Force, Luke."
Disney injected its popular Star Wars franchise into its theme parks in a major way, just before the pandemic, with the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland and Disney World. It's been a successful new land addition on both coasts, but one knock from some purists is that there isn't enough of a presence of the original trilogy's characters.
Things are about to change. The limited-time Season of the Force event comes back to Disneyland in California on March 28 and runs through May 11. A new addition this month will be Luke Skywalker, as a costumed character roaming the Galaxy's Edge while donning his Return of the Jedi cloak.
The sci-fi event will conclude just days before Disneyland kicks off the celebration of the resort's turning 70. Sometimes you have to use the force.
