Walt Disney 10-Q 2025-03-29

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

☒ QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended March 29, 2025

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from __________ to __________.

Commission File Number 001-38842

500 South Buena Vista Street

Burbank, California 91521

Address of Principal Executive Offices and Zip Code

(818) 560-1000

Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

There were 1,797,746,311 shares of common stock outstanding as of April 30, 2025.

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

Form 10-Q

For the Fiscal Quarter Ended March 29, 2025

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance and may include statements concerning, among other things, financial results; business plans (including statements regarding new services and products and future expenditures, costs and investments); future liabilities and other obligations; impairments and amortization; estimates of the financial impact of certain items, accounting treatment, events or circumstances; competition and seasonality on our businesses and results of operations; and capital allocation, including share repurchases and dividends. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “forecasts,” “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “potential,” “continue,” “assumption” or “judgment” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. These statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions as of the date of this report. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from expectations or results projected or implied by forward-looking statements.

Such differences may result from actions taken by the Company, including restructuring or strategic initiatives (including capital investments, asset acquisitions or dispositions, new or expanded business lines or cessation of certain operations), our execution of our business plans (including the content we create and intellectual properties (IP) we invest in, our pricing decisions, our cost structure and our management and other personnel decisions), our ability to quickly execute on cost rationalization while preserving revenue, the discovery of additional information or other business decisions, as well as from developments beyond the Company’s control, including:

• the occurrence of subsequent events;

• deterioration in domestic and global economic conditions or failure of conditions to improve as anticipated;

• deterioration in or pressures from competitive conditions, including competition to create or acquire content, competition for talent and competition for advertising revenue;

• consumer preferences and acceptance of our content, offerings, pricing model and price increases, and corresponding subscriber additions and churn, and the market for advertising sales on our direct-to-consumer services and linear networks;

• health concerns and their impact on our businesses and productions;

• international, including tariffs and other trade policies, political or military developments;

• regulatory and legal developments;

• technological developments;

• labor markets and activities, including work stoppages;

• adverse weather conditions or natural disasters; and

• availability of content.

Such developments may further affect entertainment, travel and leisure businesses generally and may, among other things, affect (or further affect, as applicable):

• our operations, business plans or profitability, including direct-to-consumer profitability;

• demand for our products and services;

• the performance of the Company’s content;

• our ability to create or obtain desirable content at or under the value we assign the content;

• the advertising market for programming;

• taxation; and

• performance of some or all Company businesses either directly or through their impact on those who distribute our products.

Additional factors include those described in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K, including under the captions “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Business,” in our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, including under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and in our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A forward-looking statement is neither a prediction nor a guarantee of future events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Unless required by federal securities laws, we assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated, to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the statements are made.

PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(unaudited; in millions, except per share data)

See Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (LOSS)

(unaudited; in millions)

See Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(unaudited; in millions, except per share data)

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ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION

Management’s Discussion and Analysis provides a narrative of the Company’s financial performance and condition that should be read in conjunction with the accompanying financial statements. It includes the following sections:

• Consolidated Results

• Current Quarter Results Compared to Prior-Year Quarter

• Current Six-Month Period Results Compared to Prior-Year Six-Month Period

• Seasonality

• Business Segment Results

• Corporate and Unallocated Shared Expenses

• Financial Condition

• Market Risk

• Commitments and Contingencies

• Other Matters

• DTC Product Descriptions, Key Definitions and Supplemental Information

• Supplemental Guarantor Financial Information

CONSOLIDATED RESULTS

Star India Transaction

On November 14, 2024, the Company and RIL completed the Star India Transaction (see Note 4 to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements) following which the Company began recognizing its 37% share of the India joint venture’s results in “Equity in the income of investees.” Star India results in the current six-month period through November 14, 2024

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS — (continued)

and results in the prior-year quarter and six-month period are consolidated in the Company’s financial results for those periods and reported in the Entertainment and Sports segments.

CURRENT QUARTER RESULTS COMPARED TO PRIOR-YEAR QUARTER

Revenues for the quarter increased 7%, or $1.5 billion, to $23.6 billion; net income attributable to Disney increased to $3.3 billion compared to a loss of $20 million in the prior-year quarter; and diluted earnings per share (EPS) attributable to Disney increased to $1.81 compared to a loss of $0.01 in the prior-year quarter. The EPS increase was due to the comparison to goodwill impairments in the prior-year quarter, a non-cash benefit from the resolution of a prior-year tax matter in the current quarter and higher operating income at Entertainment and Experiences.

Revenues

Service revenues for the quarter increased 8%, or $1.5 billion, to $21.3 billion, which included an approximate 2 percentage point decrease from the Star India Transaction and an approximate 1 percentage point decrease due to an unfavorable movement of the U.S. dollar against major currencies including the impact of our hedging program (Foreign Exchange Impact). Aside from these impacts, service revenues increased due to higher subscription revenue, an increase in theatrical distribution revenue, growth at parks and experiences and higher advertising revenue.

Costs and expenses

Cost of services for the quarter increased 6%, or $0.7 billion, to $13.4 billion, which included an approximate 2 percentage point decrease due to the Star India Transaction. Aside from this impact, cost of services increased due to higher programming and production costs and, to a lesser extent, the impact of inflation and increased volumes at our parks and experiences businesses.

Selling, general, administrative and other costs increased 5%, or $0.2 billion, to $4.0 billion, which included an approximate 3 percentage point decrease due to the Star India Transaction. Aside from this impact, selling, general, administrative and other costs increased driven by higher marketing costs.

Depreciation and amortization increased 7%, or $0.1 billion, to $1.3 billion due to higher depreciation at our p

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See Item 2, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and Note 15 to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures – We have established disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that the information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that it files or submits under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that such information is accumulated and made known to the officers who certify the Company’s financial reports and to other members of senior management and the Board of Directors as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Based on their evaluation as of March 29, 2025, the principal executive officer and principal financial officer of the Company have concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) are effective.

Changes in Internal Controls – There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the second quarter of fiscal 2025 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART II. OTHER INFORMATION

ITEM 1. Legal Proceedings

As disclosed in Note 13 to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company is engaged in certain legal matters, and the disclosure set forth in Note 13 to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements relating to certain legal matters is incorporated herein by reference.

For an enterprise as large and complex as the Company, a wide range of factors could materially affect future developments and performance. In addition to the factors affecting specific business operations identified in connection with the description of these operations and the financial results of these operations elsewhere in our filings with the SEC, the most significant factors affecting our business include the factors discussed in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K under Item 1A, “Risk Factors” as updated below:

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

We face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products, which impact demand for our entertainment offerings and products and the profitability of our businesses.

Our businesses create entertainment, travel and consumer products, the success of which depends substantially on consumer tastes and preferences that change in often unpredictable ways. The success of our businesses depends on our ability to consistently produce compelling creative content, which may be distributed, among other ways, through DTC platforms, broadcast, cable, theaters and used in theme park attractions, hotels and other resort facilities and travel experiences and consumer products. Such distribution must meet the changing preferences of the broad consumer market and respond to competition from an expanding array of choices facilitated by technological developments in the delivery of content. The success of our theme parks, resorts, cruise ships and experiences, as well as our theatrical releases, depends on demand for out-of-home entertainment experiences. Demand for certain out-of-home entertainment experiences, such as theater-going to watch movies, has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. In addition, many of our businesses depend on acceptance of our offerings and products by consumers outside the U.S. The success of our businesses therefore depends on our ability to predict and adapt to continually evolving consumer tastes and preferences outside as well as inside the U.S. Evolving tourist preferences regarding travel to destinations in the U.S. and other geographical regions where our parks and experiences businesses operate may affect those businesses. Moreover, we must often make substantial investments in content production and acquisition, acquisition of sports and programming rights, theme park attractions, cruise ships or hotels and other facilities or customer facing platforms before we know the extent to which these products will earn consumer acceptance, and the market, economic or social conditions are sometimes significantly different from the ones we anticipated at the time of the investment decisions. Further, preferences of some consumers are affected by their perceptions of our position on matters of public interest, including regarding environmental and social issues. Generally, revenues from, and profitability of, each of our businesses are adversely impacted when our entertainment offerings and products, as well as our methods to make our offerings and products available to consumers, do not align with constantly evolving consumer preferences and tastes or achieve sufficient consumer acceptance.

A variety of uncontrollable events disrupt our businesses, reduce demand for or consumption of our products and services, impair our ability to provide our products and services or increase the cost or reduce the profitability of providing our products and services.

The operation and profitability of our businesses and demand for and consumption of our products and services, particularly our parks and experiences businesses, are highly dependent on the general environment for travel and tourism, including in the specific regions in which our parks and experiences businesses operate. In addition, we have extensive international operations, including our international theme parks and resorts, which are dependent on domestic and international regulations consistent with trade and investment in those regions. The operation of our businesses and the environment for travel and tourism, as well as demand for and consumption of our other products and services, is subject to adverse impacts from a variety of factors beyond our control in the U.S., globally or in specific geographic regions around the world where we operate, including: health concerns; adverse weather conditions arising from short-term weather patterns or long-term climate change, including longer and more regular excessive heat conditions, catastrophic events or natural disasters (such as excessive heat or rain, hurricanes, typhoons, floods, droughts, tsunamis and earthquakes); international, political or military developments, including tariffs and other trade and international disputes and social unrest; macroeconomic conditions, including a decline in economic activity, inflation and foreign exchange rates; and terrorist attacks. These events and others, such as fluctuations in travel and energy costs, supply chain disruptions and malware and other cyber-related attacks or intrusions or other widespread computing, telecommunications or payment processing failures, from time to time disrupt our ability to provide our products and services, raise the cost of providing our products and services and in certain instances affect

our ability to obtain insurance coverage with respect to some of these events. An incident or other event that affected our property directly, including a security incident, earthquake or hurricane, would have a direct impact on our ability to provide goods and services and could result in closure of impacted operations or have an extended effect of discouraging consumers from attending our facilities. Moreover, additional costs we incur to protect against such incidents may reduce the profitability of our operations.

For example, COVID-19 and measures to prevent its spread impacted our businesses in a number of ways, including the closure of our theme parks and resorts, suspension of cruise ship sailings and guided tours, delayed, or in some cases, shortened or canceled, theatrical releases and disruptions in the production and availability of content, significantly reducing revenues across all of our segments. Certain of our business operations have been temporarily disrupted by payment processing outages and widespread computing failures. Hurricanes, such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which in the case of Hurricane Milton caused Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in Florida to close for one full and partial day, have impacted the operations and profitability of Walt Disney World Resort and may do so in the future. The Company has paused certain operations in certain regions, including in response to sanctions, trade restrictions and related developments and the profitability of certain operations has been impacted as a result of events in the corresponding regions.

In addition, we derive affiliate fees and royalties from the distribution of our programming, sales of our licensed goods and services by third parties, and the management of businesses operated under brands licensed from the Company, and we are therefore dependent on the successes of those third parties for that portion of our revenue. The profitability of one or more of our businesses could be adversely impacted by the significant contraction of distribution channels for our products and services, including through third-party licensees or sellers of our licensed goods and services. In addition, third-party suppliers provide products and services essential to the operation of a number of our businesses. A wide variety of factors could influence the success of those third parties and if negative factors significantly impacted a sufficient number of those third parties or materially impacted a supplier of a significant product or service, the profitability of one or more of our businesses could be adversely affected. In specific geographic markets, we have experienced delayed and/or partial payments from certain third parties due to liquidity issues.

We obtain insurance against the risk of losses relating to some of these events, generally including certain physical damage to our property and resulting business interruption, certain injuries occurring on our property and some liabilities for alleged breach of legal responsibilities. When insurance is obtained it is subject to deductibles, exclusions, terms, conditions and limits of liability. The types and levels of coverage we obtain vary from time to time depending on our view of the likelihood of specific types and levels of loss in relation to the cost of obtaining coverage for such types and levels of loss and we experience losses not covered by our insurance, which could be material.

RISKS RELATED TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, CYBERSECURITY AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

The success of our businesses is highly dependent on the existence and maintenance of intellectual property rights in the entertainment products and services we create.

The value to us of our IP is dependent on the scope and duration of our rights as defined by applicable laws in the U.S. and abroad and the manner in which those laws are construed. Where those laws are drafted or interpreted in ways that limit the extent or duration of our rights, or if existing laws are changed, our ability to generate revenue from our IP may decrease, or the cost of obtaining and maintaining rights may increase. The terms of some copyrights for IP related to some of our products and services have expired, including the copyright term for the short film Steamboat Willie (1928) and early versions of characters depicted in this film, and other copyrights will expire in the future. For example, in the United States and countries that look to the United States copyright term when shorter than their own, the copyright term for early works and the specific early versions of characters depicted in those works expires at the end of the 95th calendar year after the date the copyright was originally secured in the United States. As copyrights expire, we expect that revenues generated from such IP will be negatively impacted to some extent.

The unauthorized use of our IP may increase the cost of protecting rights in our IP or reduce our revenues. The convergence of computing, communications and entertainment devices, increased broadband internet speed and penetration, increased availability and speed of mobile data transmission and increasingly sophisticated attempts to obtain unauthorized access to data systems have made the unauthorized digital copying and distribution of our films, television productions and other creative works easier and faster and protection and the enforcement of IP rights more challenging. The unauthorized distribution and access to entertainment content generally continues to be a significant challenge for IP rights holders. Further, the availability of certain AI tools has facilitated the creation of infringing works based on the unauthorized use of our IP. Inadequate laws or weak enforcement mechanisms to protect entertainment industry IP in one country can adversely affect the results of the Company’s operations worldwide, despite the Company’s efforts to protect its IP rights. Distribution innovations have increased opportunities to access content in unauthorized ways. Additionally, negative economic conditions coupled with a shift in government priorities could lead to less enforcement. These developments require us to devote substantial resources to protecting our IP against unlicensed use and present the risk of increased losses of revenue as a result of unlicensed distribution

of our content and other commercial misuses of our IP. The legal landscape for some new technologies, including some AI tools, remains uncertain, and development of the law in this area could impact our ability to protect against infringing uses.

With respect to IP developed by the Company and rights acquired by the Company from others, the Company is subject to the risk of challenges to our copyright, trademark and patent rights by third parties. In addition, the availability of copyright protection and other legal protections for IP generated by certain new technologies, such as generative AI, is uncertain. Successful challenges to our rights in IP typically result in increased costs for obtaining rights or the loss of the opportunity to earn revenue from or utilize the IP that is the subject of challenged rights. From time to time, third parties allege that the Company is infringing certain third-party IP rights. Technological changes in industries in which the Company operates and extensive patent coverage in those areas increase the risk of such claims being brought and prevailing. For example, from time to time, the Company’s streaming platforms and technology are the subject of patent infringement litigation and other claims seeking damages and injunctive relief, and the resolution of these matters in aggregate may negatively impact the profitability of certain of our businesses.

Regulations applicable to our businesses impact the profitability of our businesses.

Each of our businesses, including our broadcast networks and television stations, is subject to a variety of U.S. and international regulations, which impact the operations and profitability of our businesses. Some of these regulations include:

• U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation of our television and radio networks, our national programming networks and our owned television stations. See our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K under Item 1 — Federal Communications Commission Regulation.

• Federal, state and foreign privacy and data protection laws and regulations, including with respect to child safety. See our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K under Item 1 — Privacy and Data Protection Regulation.

• Regulation of the safety and supply chain of consumer products and theme park operations, including regulation regarding the sourcing, importation and the sale of goods.

• Land planning, use and development regulations applicable to our theme parks operations.

• Environmental protection and sustainability regulations.

• U.S. and international anti-corruption laws, sanction programs, trade restrictions, tariffs, anti-money laundering laws or currency controls.

• Restrictions on the manner in which content is currently licensed and distributed, ownership restrictions or film or television content requirements, investment obligations or quotas. See our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K under Item 1 — International Content Regulation.

• Domestic and international labor laws, tax laws and antitrust laws.

Laws and regulations in any of these areas, and others, as well as changes in judicial and agency interpretation thereof or changes in regulatory priorities and activities (or, if applicable, private litigation to enforce such laws and regulations) require us to incur additional costs, may restrict our ability to execute on our business strategies as planned or offer products and services in ways that are profitable, and exacerbate an increasingly unpredictable regulatory landscape. In addition, ongoing and future developments in international political, trade and security policy may lead to new regulations that increase the cost of providing our products and services, negatively impact demand for our products and services and limit international trade and investment, disrupting our operations in and outside the U.S., including our international theme parks and resorts operations in France, mainland China and Hong Kong.

For example, in 2022 the U.S. and other countries implemented a series of sanctions against Russia in response to events in Russia and Ukraine; U.S. agencies have enhanced trade restrictions, including new prohibitions on the importation of goods from certain regions and other jurisdictions are considering similar measures; and U.S. state governments have become more active in passing legislation targeted at specific sectors and companies and applying existing laws in novel ways to new technologies, including streaming and online commerce. In 2025, tariffs were announced with respect to and by certain U.S. trading partners, which although currently expected to have only a modest impact on our results in the near term, over the longer horizon could, depending on how these or future tariffs or other regulations with respect to trade are implemented, have a more significant impact on our results of operations, including by impacting the macroeconomic environment, increasing costs or adversely affecting demand for our goods and services. Further, the legal and regulatory landscape for certain new technologies, such as AI, is uncertain and evolving and our compliance obligations could increase our costs or limit how we may use these technologies in one or more of our businesses.

ITEM 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

(c)The following table provides information about Company purchases of equity securities that are registered by the Company pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act during the quarter ended March 29, 2025:

(1)Amounts exclude the one percent excise tax on stock repurchases imposed by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

(2)Under a share repurchase program implemented effective February 7, 2024, the Company is authorized to repurchase a total of 400 million shares of its common stock. The repurchase program does not have an expiration date.

Rule 10b5-1 Trading Arrangements

None of our directors or officers adopted or terminated a Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement or a non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement (as defined in Item 408(c) of Regulation S-K) during the quarterly period covered by this report.

Developments

During the third quarter, the Company and Miral LLC, a limited liability company organized under the laws of the United Arab Emirates (Miral), agreed to create a Disney-branded theme park and resort in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to be built and operated by Miral. The Company will license its IP for the operation of the theme park and resort and provide certain development and management services to the project. The Company will earn royalties based on the project’s revenues and it will also earn service fees. The Company will not provide capital for the project. The development of this project is subject to finalizing additional agreements among the parties.

INDEX OF EXHIBITS

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

May 7, 2025

Burbank, California