Disney Net Worth, Money and More
Net Worth: $ 103.95 billion
“I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known.”
-Walt Disney
When it comes to cartoon, it has to be Disney. As we were growing up, the better part of our childhood was dominated by Disney cartoons. Cartoons are, well, the heart and mind of the company. The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923 by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. In the initial years it was more of an animation company, before it ventured into live action film production, motion pictures and amusement parks. It was renamed to its current name in 1986 and plunge din much broader aspects of the industry, including theater, radio, music, publishing and also online media. The Disney Company is best known for its film studio, Walt Disney Studios, which is one of the largest and best studios of Hollywood. Disney also owns and operates networks such as the ABC broadcast television network, ESPN, Disney Channel, and also 14 theme parks in the world.
“I am Born”
Early in 1923, Walt Disney created the short film called Alice’s Wonderland and then move to Hollywood after his previous undertaking called Laugh-o-Gram Films went bankrupt. There he joined his brother and formed Disney Brother Cartoon Studio the same year. After the completion of the Disney Studios, the studio was renamed as Walt Disney Studios.
After the demise of Alice comedies, Disney began its first all cartoon show, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was distributed by Winkler Pictures. Since the distributor owned the character, Disney did not make much of a profit from the character and ultimately Winkler’s husband took over the distribution company. He hired away four of Disney’s main animators after he failed to take away the entire Disney Company and started his own studio.
Mickey Mouse
After the losses suffered from Oswald, Disney one day came up with a mouse character, called Mortimer in 1928 when he was on a train to California. This was the mouse which later became world famous as Mickey Mouse. On November 18 the same year, Disney released its first sound film, Steamboat Ville, which starred Mickey Mouse. The film was an immediate hit but the credit did not go to Mickey Mouse initially. It went to the fact that it was the first sound film and hence it was a huge success.
Many cartoons were continued to be produced by Disney with Mickey Mouse as the central character, when in September 1929, theatre manager Harry Woodin suggested starting a Mickey Club, which was ultimately approved by Disney and later test comic strips were sent to King Features. In the meantime, Walt Disney Studios was reorganized as Walt Disney Productions Limited, which had a merchandise division and two other subsidiaries. On December 30, 1929, the first strip of Mickey Mouse comics was published in New York Mirror. Due to the immense popularity of Mickey Mouse, Disney planned to make its first feature length animation film.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The company and its idea of its cartoons were huge success. So Walt Disney decided to produce a feature length animation film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It took three years to complete and after its premiere in December 1937, it became the highest grossing film of that time. With the profits of this film, Disney built a studio in California. This Walt Disney studio is now the headquarter of the company.
From this studio, Disney continued to produce several other animation films like, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi etc. which all became famous.
Post World War II
After the World War where many of Disney’s staffs were sent to the war, the company produced collection of short films and released them together, but the films performed quite poorly. The fortunes of the company took a turn in 1950 when Cinderella became a hit and proved that there was still market for feature length animation films. There were several other films from Disney during this period, which all went on to become cult cartoon films, such as, Alice In Wonderland, Peter Pan, Treasure Island, The Sword and the Rose, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and more.
We all love Disneyland
After the super successful Disneyland series on the ABC network, Walt Disney opened the very famous Disneyland to the general public. Year after year, it continued to attract visitors from all around the world. Few years later, Disney announced the launch of Disney World, which would have theme parks, hotels and a model city and Disney purchased thousands of acres of land in Florida.
The film studios of Disney released a series of animated films which are very popular now, like, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and adapted many children’s books into animated movies.
After the death of Walt Disney in December 1966, his brother Roy Disney took over the company and named Disney World as Walt Disney World in honor of his late brother. In 1967, two films were released which were the last ones to be supervised by Walt Disney, The Jungle Book and The Happiest Millionaire. Later in 1971, Roy Disney too died of a stroke and left the company with Donn Tatum, Card Walker and Walt Disney’ son in law Ron Miller.
The company now has several subsidiaries, namely, Walt Disney Studio, Disney Theatre Group, Disney Music Group, Hong Kong Disney Resort, Disney Cruise Line, Pixar Studios, The Muppet Group, Disney India Ltd., Lucas Film, Marvel entertainment and lots more. In the year 2003, Disney studio was the first studio in the world that obtained revenue of $3 billion worldwide. The Disney Company has 51% ownership in Disneyland Paris and holds 48% interest in Hong Kong Disneyland.
