Disney Income Dips in Q1

Poor box office results made the studio entertainment division of The Walt Disney Co. the sole division to have a drop in revenue in the second quarter when compared to a year ago. The Burbank-based entertainment and media conglomerate needed to write down costs of “Mars Needs Moms,” the lone feature film release in the domestic market for the second quarter. The studio entertainment division brought in $1.3 billion in revenues for the quarter ending April 2, a 13 percent drop from the $1.5 billion in revenues for the same period in 2010. Overall, Disney reported net income of $942 million, or $0.49 per diluted share for the quarter. For the same period a year ago, the company reported net income of $953 million, or $0.48 per diluted share. Revenues for the second quarter were $9 billion, an increase of 6 percent over the $8.6 billion from a year ago. Media networks revenue went up to $4.3 billion, a 12 percent increase from the prior year. Parks and resorts revenues went up to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion although results were impacted by the Easter holiday travel season being later in April, and by the Tokyo Disney Resort being temporarily closed following the earthquake and tsunami in March. Consumer products revenues were $626 million for the second quarter and interactive media revenues were $159 million. Mark R. Madler