How Your Two Most Favorite Companies Are Doing: Hasbro And Disney

It’s that time of the year again when companies report their quarterly earnings. Hasbro did so a little more than two weeks ago, Disney followed this week. So how are things? Don’t expect all that many details, especially regarding Star Wars, as usual, no numbers are given, but we have some statements at least that tell us how the brand is doing. So click through for a brief overview!

Violins play in the background

There’s not much to talk about this time really.

Let’s begin with Hasbro. They are doing fine. Q1 2021 net revenues are up by 1%. Which is not THAT much perhaps, but there’s still some growth. Profits are up and adjusted net earnings are up by 78%.

But let’s focus on Star Wars. And here we have good news. Despite a general belief that places like Walmart NEVER sell any Star Wars toys anymore, that pegs are always empty, that Hasbro knows nothing about Star Wars and that no one can buy anything anymore Star Wars toy sales still manage to grow.

Overall, Hasbro’s Partner Brands grew by 3%. But there are a lot of Partner Brands. However, Star Wars was singled out and mentioned both in the presentation and in the conference earnings call as well. Here are the direct quotes.

First the quote from the earnings presentation about Hasbro’s Partner Brands performance which was up 3% compared to Q1/2020:

Growth in the quarter led by Lucasfilm’s Star Wars, Disney Princess and Marvel.

And this is what Brian Goldner said about Partner Brands performance when he was asked about it in the earnings call:

Partner Brand revenues grew 3% behind strong growth in Hasbro products for Star Wars as well as continued strength in products for The Mandalorian as well as growth in Marvel that’s led by momentum in Spider-Man franchise across all consumer segments, and new products for Marvel Studios, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier unveiled at quarter end that will be fully distributed in the second quarter.

And another quote from that same earnings call:

And we’re now seeing incredible growth in the Star Wars business, incredible growth in POS. Disney Princess, I mentioned earlier, has really strong shipments as well as more than 60% increase in POS.

“POS” does stand for “Points of Sale here”. And he did indeed say “incredible growth”. So Hasbro is very happy about their Star Wars toy sales.

So there you have it. Even though Hasbro had some tough numbers to beat, remember, 2020 saw a 70% increase in Star Wars toy sales overall for Hasbro, Star Wars toy sales still managed to grow in Q1 2021. I suppose people do and can buy Star Wars toys somewhere after all. And The Mandalorian was a strong seller, no surprise here.

But what about Disney? Cue the “sad violin meme” here.

The theme parks are still hurting a lot and reported a revenue drop of 44% compared to Q2/2020 (Disney’s financial year begins in October, so Q1 is their Q2), the ongoing pandemic is heavily affecting business here. This segment also lost a lot of money, more than $400 million.

Subscriber goals for Disney+ were not met, subscriber growth is slowing down. One explanation provided is that because of the pandemic streaming services saw huge growth in early 2020, numbers that are tough to beat. More worrying is another number though, Disney’s average monthly revenue per subscriber is down, by a lot. Disney+ now only earns $3.99 per subscriber, same time last year it was $5.63. Disney is at a serious disadvantage here compared to services like Netflix. And this decrease in average revenue per subscriber comes despite increased subscription fees.

However, overall Disney is showing signs of recovery. Disney is also still profitable and earns money. So they are not going belly up.

Disney said nothing noteworthy about Star Wars.

So there you have it.

You most favorite toymaker is doing fine. Your most favorite entertainment giant is slowly recovering from a terrible disease, still feels the effects in various places, but is still earning money. And Star Wars toy sales are still growing. Maybe Walmart (and other places) sell Star Wars toys after all.

Hasbro’s Q1/2021 earnings presentation (PDF)
Hasbro’s Q1/2021 earnings call
Disney’s Q2/2021 earnings report (PDF)
Disney’s Q2/2021 earnings call

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