Walt Disney (DIS +0.77%) has a lot on its plate as we head into Thanksgiving later this month. The iconic media stock finds itself trading only marginally higher in 2025. It enters November negotiating with YouTube TV to gets ESPN, ABC, and other of media networks back on the live TV streaming service.
Unlike last year -- when Disney put out the year's three highest grossing films worldwide -- it has just one of the nine top draws in 2025. It's still the world's most prolific theme park operator, but its closest rival just reported a big jump for its gated attractions business last week on the strength of a new bar-raising destination.
Can a new Disney World experience, encouraging financial results, and a fresh theatrical release get it back on track? Let's take a closer look at some of the dates that Disney investors will want to circle in November.
Image source: Disney.
1. Nov. 7
Theme parks may stir up nostalgia, but they are never supposed to be time capsules. The experience needs to evolve to exceed rising price tags and expectations, and that brings us to the official opening of "Zootopia: Better Zoogether" at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida next weekend.
Based on Disney's popular Zootopia animated franchise, the animated 3D show has in-theater effects replicating confetti launches, stampedes, and spitting animals. It replaces "It's Tough To Be a Bug," one of the few remaining attractions from when Disney World's fourth theme park opened 27 years ago.
There are much bigger changes coming to Disney World's gated attractions in the years to come. However, as the world's most-visited theme park resort starts to gear up for the popular holiday season, it's always good to have something new for guests to experience.
NYSE: DIS
Key Data Points
2. Nov. 13
Zootopia-related events will serve as bookends this month. The meaty center in this sandwich will be Disney's fresh financial results. There's a lot riding on the fiscal fourth-quarter results that the House of Mouse will be reporting on the morning of Nov. 13.
Wall Street pros aren't holding out for much. Analysts are modeling $27.8 billion in revenue, a less than 1% year-over-year increase. The bottom-line outlook isn't better. The $1.03 a share profit that the market is expecting is a 10% decline. A silver lining here is that Disney has come through with double-digit percentage earnings beats in each of the three previous quarters.
What was holding Disney back this summer? It fared better on the theatrical front last year with Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine. On the theme park front, rival Comcast (CMCSA +1.88%) opened the Epic Universe theme park at its Universal Orlando resort in May -- minutes away from Disney World. Comcast announced financial results on Thursday, turning heads with a 19% increase in revenue for its theme parks business for the first full quarter for Epic Universe operations. Will those gains come at the expense of Disney World's tourist magnets or did an uptick in tourist counts benefit the leader?
There are also some big questions to answer with Disney's streaming business. Did Disney+ hold up under the threat of cancellations over the short-lived Jimmy Kimmel suspension? Are subscribers on board with the full-featured ESPN streaming service that launched in August? One thing that happened after the quarter came to a close was subscription prices going up again. Will Disney offer any color on potential churn following the Oct. 21 price hike?
Disney is a bellwether of entertainment stocks. In less than two weeks, its own earnings season appearance will be required reading or hearing for all industry investors.
3. Nov. 26
A weak year at the multiplex should get a boost in the final few weeks of the year. Zootopia 2 hits theaters on Thanksgiving Eve. Avatar: Fire and Ash will premiere in December, a lock to be the biggest film among this year's theatrical releases.
Zootopia 2 should draw well. The original animated feature came out in 2016, one of just four movies to top $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide that year. It's also probably worth mentioning that three of the four biggest movies of 2024 -- from any studio -- happened to be animated sequels. It's the right film at the right time to boost Disney in a year that hasn't gone right as often as investors would like.
