The Walt Disney Company Case

1. Walt Disney in General

1923 Disney was founded in 1923 by Walter Elias Disney and his older brother Roy.

1928 Mickey Mouse, Disney's first major hit in 1928 which is known by almost everybody.

1937 The first full-length film they produced was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

1953 Roy Disney announces the studio would end its 18-year distribution arrangement with RKO Radio Pictures, and would distribute films itself through Buena Vista.

1954 Disney expanded the television presence for example with the ABC produced television program called Disneyland. They also hoped to push the publicity for the similar named theme park in advance.

1955 Disneyland in Anaheim California opened. But after they spent seventeen million dollar the opening was linked with a high risk of having done a bad investing and losing a lot of money. The park was a new kind of theme park for children and adults and also kept really clean. After a few years Disneyland put Disney in a stable financial status.

1966 Walt Disney the name giver and founder of the company died.

1971 Walt's last big plans were the opening of Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida which opened five years after his death and was a huge success. Also Disney started to bring live shows such as Disney on Ice, to all capital cities over the world.

1983 Tokyo Disneyland opens.

Disney Channel debuts

1984 Michael Eisner and Frank Wells hired.

Touchstone label created- for adult movies.

1986 The company officially changes its name from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company.

1987 The first Disney Store opens in Glendale, California.

1989 Turnaround of Disney's film Division, Disney decided to expand its animation staff and to accelerate production by releasing a new animated feature every 12 to 18 months, instead of every 4 to 5 years.

Hollywood Records, a pop music label, was founded for less than $20 million.

High investments in animation technology and consumer products, like books and magazines. Disney established Disney Press, which published children's books.

The Little Mermaid was released.

1992 Euro Disney opened in Paris.

Disney spent $50 million to acquire a National Hockey League expansion team based a few miles from Disneyland in Anaheim.

Aladdin was released.

1994 Disney's newest animated feature, The Lion King break box office records.

Euro Disney was renamed Disneyland Paris.

Disney President Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter crash in Nevada.

Disney bought a theater and had his first Broadway show, Beauty and the Beast.

2000 Disney maintained its position as market leader in theme parks.

Disney bought CineNova in Europe

2. Reasons for the long term success of Disney

Walt Disney is one of the famous movie companies of the world. Mickey Mouse, Disney's first major hit in 1928, is known by almost everybody.

Disney was founded in 1923 by Walter Elias Disney and his older brother Roy. Walter was the creative one of the two brothers, so Roy handled all the financial things. Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5th 1901 and died in Burbank, California with only 65 years. The Disney logo which is famous worldwide is based on his signature.

Walt Disney became famous because of Mickey Mouse, but Mickey was not their first character. The first Disney Character was "Oswald the lucky rabbit", but Mickey mouse was based on its look. They just changed a couple things of Oswald's appearance and so Mickey Mouse was born. The first full-length film they produced was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937. Because of the success they had with that movie, they produced several short films and two full-length films every year. With that Disney's employee base grew sevenfold and a new Studio was opened in Burbank, California. To control all of their music copyrights, the "Disney Music Company" was founded. After World War II, Their next successful Full-length film, Cinderella, was released in 1950 and also "Treasure Island" which has been their first live-action movie. In 1954 Disney expanded its TV presence with ABC and produced "Disneyland" and the "Mickey Mouse Club", we all probably now that Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears became famous because of the Mickey Mouse Club.

To earn more money and to reach more customers, Walter decided to build a theme park in Anaheim, California, where young and old can spend their time having fun. He wanted to create an experience for the whole family. So in 1955 "Disneyland" was constructed. Today there is more than only one Theme Park. The biggest one is in Orlando, Florida and opened its doors for the first time in 1971. Tokyo Disneyland as built in 1982, Disneyland Paris was opened in 1992 and the newest one is Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005. The biggest park, World Disney World, is not only a huge resort; it is a whole world with several different parks like Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and the Hollywood Studios. To spend one day at one of the parks you have to pay between 90$ and 95$ for the tickets. Even the prices for the tickets are that expensive, millions of people spend their vacation at Disney World every year. The children can meet their favorite movie characters and there is also a lot to do and see for adults.

One reason why Disney is so successful is, Disney is not only a movie production company, and it is a brand that everybody wants to have. Disney earns money with the tickets of the Parks, their movies and all the other Disney things you can buy in regular stores. You can the the movie characters as toys, they re-release older movies in 3D versions and you can also go and watch the Disney musicals like "Lion King". Disney does not only produce hand-drawn or animated films, their also produce movies for adults. Touchstone pictures are also a film company which belongs to the Walt Disney Company. With Touchstone pictures they released movies like "Sister Act",