May was a busy month for Walt Disney (DIS 1.67%). There were major theme park additions opening ahead of the pivotal summer travel season. The studios put out a pair of high-profile theatrical releases. It was also Josh D'Amaro's first earnings call as CEO.
June might not carry the same amount of fireworks, but there is still plenty on the plate for the widely followed entertainment company. With Disney stock flat through May and down 10% year to date, it might not take much to get the stock moving in the right direction. You want someone to walk you through some key dates that Disney shareholders will be watching in the coming weeks? You've got a friend in me.
The NBA Finals tip off next Wednesday night, and Disney's ABC will run the best-of-seven basketball championship series. ABC got lucky when the New York Knicks became the first team to qualify. The Knicks haven't played in the NBA Finals since 1999. Big-market teams tend to draw well for championship contests, and the Knicks in a 27-year drought is more than a little interesting.
The Knicks will face off against one of two smaller-market teams. The San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder will play on Saturday night to see which one moves on to the NBA Finals. It should generate strong ratings for Disney's network business. The Stanley Cup Final also starts next week, exclusively on ABC.
Sports remain a major part of Disney, with its majority stake in ESPN. It will be game on in June. The toys are back in town. Toy Story 5 hits theaters in three weeks.
The franchise that kicked off Pixar's run of theatrical full-length animated features continues to draw crowds. 2019's Toy Story 4 rang up ticket sales of $434 million in the U.S. and topped $1 billion worldwide. Disney enters this weekend without any of the year's three highest-grossing movies. That should change with Toy Story 5. A strong box office naturally means even bigger opportunities for Disney in merchandising, theme park experiences, and, eventually, the now-profitable streaming market.
Unlike this year, Disney locked up all three of the world's box-office winners outside China last year. One of those three films was Avatar: Fire and Ash. The third installment in James Cameron's high-tech franchise grossed almost $1.5 billion in theaters last year. That's a lot, but it still fell short of the first two releases, which continue to rank among the three highest-grossing films of all time.
Six months after it started its theatrical run, Avatar: Fire and Ash will begin streaming on Disney+. It could expand the franchise's audience. With a fourth installment currently slated to be released in three years, that can only help to bring folks back to the multiplex.