# The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company| The corporate variant of the Disney logo |
| The Walt Disney Studios corporate headquarters in Burbank, California, 2016 |
| Trade name | Disney |
| Formerly | * Disney Brothers Studio (1923–1926)
* Walt Disney Studio (1926–1929)
* Walt Disney Productions (1929–1986)
 |
| Company type | Public |
| Traded as | * NYSE: DIS
* DJIA component
* S&P 100 component
* S&P 500 component
 |
| Industry | * Media
* Entertainment
 |
| Predecessors | Laugh-O-Gram Studio |
| Founded | October 16, 1923 (1923-10-16) |
| Founders | Walt Disney, Roy O. Disney |
| Headquarters | Team Disney Building, Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | * Susan Arnold (Chairwoman)
* Bob Iger (CEO), John Nallen COO, Viet Dinh CLO, Tommy Lee CFO, at PBS (now part of Disney) Susan Arnold CFO, John Gelke VP Global Operations, J Young SVP Growth, Gerard Devan Group Executive APAC, Stephanie Gruber Group Executive Television, Christopher Greavu Vice President of Sales.
 |
| Products | * Amusement parks
* Television program
* Movies
* Comic Books
* Music
* Video games
* Web portals
 |
| Services | * Broadcasting
* Licensing
* Publishing
* Radio
* Streaming
* Television
 |
| Revenue |  US$82.722 billion (2022) |
| Operating income |  US$12.121 billion (2022) |
| Net income |  US$3.145 billion (2022) |
| Total assets |  US$203.631 billion (2022) |
| Total equity |  US$98.879 billion (2022) |
| Number of employees | c. 220,000 (2022) |
| Divisions | * Disney Parks, Experiences and Products
* Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution
* Walt Disney Studios
* Disney General Entertainment Content
* Disney International Content and Operations
* ESPN and Sports Content
 |
| Subsidiaries | * Marvel Entertainment
 |
| Website | thewaltdisneycompany.com |
| **Footnotes / references** |

**The Walt Disney Company**, commonly known as **Disney**, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios Complex in Burbank, California. Disney was started on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing its name to The Walt Disney Company in 1986.

Disney is known for Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Aladdin, Frozen, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled and Pinocchio. Pixar famous movies such as Toy Story and Cars. Marvel Comics well known famous superhero comics such as Spider-Man and Hulk. They also had Lucasfilm media franchises such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and Jim Henson's original franchises such as The Muppets.

In its early days the company established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film *Steamboat Willie*, which used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon and debuted the widely popular character Mickey Mouse, who would go on to become the company's mascot and corporate icon.

## Divisions

The company's main units are Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Media Networks and Consumer Products.

### Studio Entertainment

This unit, also called the Walt Disney Studios, is headed by Chairman Dick Cook. It consists of:

* The Walt Disney Studios – movie studios Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and Hollywood Pictures.
* The Disney Music Group – Walt Disney Records, Mammoth Records, Lyric Street Records and Hollywood Records.
* Distribution companies: Buena Vista International and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

One of the Studios' largest assets lies in Walt Disney Animation Studios, which has made a successful string of animated movies for almost seven decades. Because of failures with most of their recent additions, it has changed its focus from traditional hand-drawn to CGI movies. Pixar, also owned by Disney, is one of the first studios to create CGI movies. Since 2006, Disney has bought three movie studios: Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm and Pixar.

### Parks and Resorts

Worldwide, Disney has eleven theme parks (as of June 2025)

* Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California
	+ Disneyland Park in California
	+ Disney's California Adventure in California
* Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
	+ Magic Kingdom in Florida
	+ Epcot in Florida
	+ Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida
	+ Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida
* Disneyland Paris in France
* Walt Disney Studios in France
* Tokyo Disneyland in Japan
* Tokyo DisneySea in Japan
* Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
* Shanghai Disneyland Park in China

Disney once owned the sports teams, the Angels (baseball) and the Mighty Ducks (ice hockey), both based in Anaheim, California. These teams were later sold to other people.

### Disney Enterprises Inc.

**Disney Enterprises Inc.** is a subsidiary of the company; the name is found in many of its franchises.

### Media Networks

The ABC television network, which Disney bought in 1995, serves as the center of this unit. Cable television channels within it include Disney Channel, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN on ABC, Freeform,and PBS (which Disney's ABC owns the Public TV network). It also partly owns Lifetime, A&E and E!.

Buena Vista Television, responsible for the syndication of many Disney series, produces some of its own as well: *Tamron Hall*, *The View*, *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire*, *Live with Regis and Kelly*, and *Ebert & Roeper*.

### Consumer Products

Merchandising and licensing within the company are overseen in this division. Disney Publishing Worldwide, part of this unit, has Disney Press, Disney Editions and Hyperion Books as its brands.

It once owned the Disney Store shopping chain until 2004, when it sold all the stores to The Children's Place.

## History

* 1923: Disney is founded
* 1925: First appearance of Pegleg Pete cartoon, *Alice Solves the Puzzle*
* 1928: First Mickey Mouse cartoon, *Plane Crazy*
* 1928: First appearance of Minnie Mouse cartoon, *Plane Crazy*
* 1928: First official Mickey Mouse cartoon, *Steamboat Willie*
* 1929: Start of the *Silly Symphonies*: *The Skeleton Dance*
* 1929: First Silly Symphony episode, *The Skeleton Dance*
* 1930: First appearance of Pluto cartoon, *The Chain Gang*
* 1932: First appearance of Goofy cartoon, *Mickey's Revue* (Columbia Pictures Studios)
* 1932: First full-colour cartoon, *Flowers and Trees*
* 1933: First appearance of Fifi the Peke cartoons, *Puppy Love*
* 1933: First Donald Duck Theme Music #1, *The Steeplechase*
* 1933: First Pluto's Devil cartoons, *Mickey's Pal Pluto*
* 1933: First Pluto's Angel cartoons, *Mickey's Pal Pluto*
* 1934: First Walt Disney segment, *The Hot Choco-Late Soldiers*
* 1934: First Donald Duck cartoon, *The Wise Little Hen*
* 1937: First Daisy Duck cartoon, *Don Donald*
* 1937: First Pluto, Jr. cartoons. *Pluto's Quin-Puplets*
* 1937: First full-length animated movie, *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*
* 1938: First Huey, Dewey and Louie cartoons, *Donald's Nephews*
* 1939: First Goofy episode, *Goofy and Wilbur*
* 1939: First Mickey Mouse Theme #1, *The Standard Parade*
* 1940: First Disney movie failed at the box office, *Pinocchio*
* 1940: First Pluto episode, *Bone Trouble*
* 1940: First Donald Duck Theme #2, *Window Cleaners*
* 1940: First Goofy Theme #1, *Goofy's Glider*
* 1940: First Pluto #1, *Private Parate*
* 1940: Studio moves to Burbank, California
* 1940: Fantasia's debut
* 1941: Dumbo's debut
* 1942: Bambi's debut
* 1942: First P.J. cartoons, *Bellboy Donald*
* 1943: First Scrooge McDuck cartoons, *The Spirit of '43*
* 1943: First Chip 'n' Dale cartoons, *Private Pluto*
* 1944: First Pluto Theme #2, *Springtime for Pluto*
* 1945: First Dutch cartoons, *Canine Casanova*
* 1946: *Song of the South*'s debut
* 1947: First Pluto Theme #3, *Pluto's Housewarming*
* 1947: First Donald Duck Theme #3, *Donald's Dilemma*
* 1947: First Mickey Mouse #2, *Mickey's Delayed Date*
* 1950: Cinderella's debut
* 1950: First Goofy Theme #2, *Motor Mania*
* 1954: Walt Disney anthology series starts
* 1955: Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California
* 1955: First widescreen cartoon, *Lady and the Tramp*
* 1964: Mary Poppins becomes the first Disney movie to be nominated for Best Picture
* 1966: Walt Disney dies; his brother Roy takes over the studio
* 1967: Last animated movie from producer Walt Disney, *The Jungle Book*
* 1971: Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida
* 1979: Don Bluth and friends leave the studio
* 1979: *The Black Hole*, Disney's first PG movie, is a failure with critics.
* 1981: Disney's last movie that has any of the Nine Old Men as the animators: *The Fox and the Hound*
* 1983: Disney Channel is launched
* 1984: Touchstone Pictures starts with *Splash*
* 1984: Michael Eisner became the CEO of Disney
* 1984: Disney Television Animation is founded
* 1985: Disney's first animated movie that was rated PG: *The Black Cauldron*
* 1985: Disney's first two animated series for television *The Adventures of the Gummi Bears* and *The Wuzzles* premiere on NBC and CBS’ Saturday Morning lineups.
* 1987: Disney animated television series *DuckTales*
* 1988: Who framed Roger Rabbit's debut
* 1988: DisneyToons Studios opens
* 1989: *The Little Mermaid* brings new life in the animation division as well as the genre; studio gets its first Oscar in eighteen years for this movie
* 1990: Hollywood Pictures starts with *Arachnophobia*
* 1991: *Beauty and the Beast* becomes the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture
* 1992: Disney releases *Aladdin*
* 1993: The Nightmare Before Christmas's debut
* 1993: Disney buys the Miramax movie studio.
* 1994: Studio president Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter crash
* 1994: The Lion King is released. It becomes the highest grossing hand drawn animated movie of all time.
* 1994: Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns from Disney.
* 1995: First Pixar movie, *Toy Story*
* 1996: Disney acquires American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and ESPN
* 2001: Disney Channel television series *Lizzie McGuire*
* 2001: First Pixar movie that was nominated for Best Animated Feature, Monsters Inc.
* 2003: First Pixar movie that won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, Finding Nemo
* 2003: *Pirates of the Caribbean* becomes studio's first family movie with a rating of PG-13
* 2004: Disney acquired the Muppets franchise from Henson
* 2004: *Home on the Range* is Disney's last traditionally animated movie to use CAPS
* 2004: First Pixar movie that is rated PG, The Incredibles
* 2005: Disneyland celebrates fiftieth birthday
* 2005: Michael Eisner resigns from Disney. He was replaced by Bob Iger.
* 2005:The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe's debut
* 2005: First self-made CGI movie, *Chicken Little*
* 2009: Up becomes the first Pixar animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture
* 2009: Disney buys comic book publisher Marvel Comics for 4 billion US dollars.
* 2010: Disney sells one of its movie studios, Miramax Films, to Filmyard Holdings.
* 2012: Disney buys movie studio Lucasfilm for 4 billion US dollars.
* 2013: Disney releases *Frozen*, which becomes the studio's first non-Pixar movie to win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
* 2016: Disney releases *Moana*.
* 2018: DisneyToon Studios was closed down
* 2018: John Lasseter left Disney
* 2018: Touchstone Pictures was closed down
* 2019: Disney acquired 21st Century Fox’s assets
* 2019: Ed Catmull retires
* 2019: Disney creates their own streaming service, Disney+ (including Pixar, Marvel Comics and Star Wars) in November 2019.
* 2020: Bob Iger resigns as the CEO of Disney. He was replaced by Bob Chapek as CEO.
* 2021: Disney closes its radio station, Radio Disney.
* 2021: Disney+ creates Disney Channel and Disney XD outside of the US, which has Disney movies and television programs for kids.
* 2021: The Walt Disney Company Latin America rebrands all the channels with the Disney name in Latin America, to Disney-PBS.
* 2022: The Walt Disney Company Latin America closes Star Premium in January 31st, 2022.
* 2022: Bob Chapek got fired, and Bob Iger returned as a CEO of Disney.
* 2023: Disney celebrates the 100th Anniversary.

* 2026: Bob Iger resigns, and hands over position to Josh D'Amaro

## Disney+

On November 12, 2019, Disney launched their own streaming service, Disney+. The platform features almost all of their cartoons, short movies, movies and TV shows along with those made by properties bought by Disney, such as Disney, The Muppets, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Marvel. It also features original content, such as several Marvel and Star Wars programs.

## Related pages

* Walt Disney Pictures
* List of Disney animated movies
* List of Disney characters

## Other websites

* The Official Site
* Corporate Site
* Corporate website (Mobile)
* Disney.com