92 Facts About Walt Disney Company

1.

Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California.

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2.

Since the 1980s, Walt Disney Company has created and acquired corporate divisions in order to market more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands.

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3.

Walt Disney Company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures.

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4.

Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest and most well-known companies in the world and has been ranked number 53 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of biggest companies in the United States by revenue.

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5.

Walt Disney Company has been said to have produced some of the greatest films of all time as well as revolutionizing the theme park industry.

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6.

Walt Disney Company has been criticized for alleged plagiarism, depicting racial stereotypes in the past, and both including and lacking LGBT-related elements in its films.

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7.

Walt Disney Company signed a contract to create six Alice Comedies series, with an option for two further series of six episodes each.

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8.

Walt Disney Company later convinced Iwerks and Davis' family to move to Hollywood as well.

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9.

In 1928, Walt Disney Company wanted a larger fee for his films, but Mintz wanted to reduce the price.

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10.

Walt Disney Company successfully re-released the two earlier films with synchronized sound in 1929.

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11.

Walt Disney Company would go on to make several cartoons featuring him and other characters.

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12.

In 1933, Walt asked a man who owned a Kansas City advertising firm named Kay Kamen to run Disney's merchandising.

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13.

Walt Disney Company agreed and was considered to completely transform Disney's merchandising.

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14.

In 1934, Walt Disney Company claimed that he made more money from the merchandising of Mickey than from the Mickey films.

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15.

When Walt Disney Company was listing to the radio, he heard the voice of Clarence Nash and invited him to the studio.

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16.

In 1932, Walt Disney Company signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor through the end of 1935 to produce cartoons in color, beginning with Flowers and Trees, which was part of the Silly Symphonies.

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17.

In 1934, Walt decided to make Disney's first ever feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and told his animators by acting out the story.

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18.

Roy tried to stop Walt from making it saying it would bankrupt the studio, and Hollywood called it "Disney's Folly", but Walt continued production on the film.

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19.

Walt Disney Company decided to go for a realistic approach to the film and created scenes from the film as if it were live action.

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20.

Walt Disney Company's next film Fantasia was a box-office bomb, but made great achievements by creating Fantasound, an early development surround sound, to produce the films' soundtrack, making it the first commercial film shown in stereo.

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21.

In 1941, Walt Disney Company would have a major setback when 300 of its 800 animators, led mainly by one of the companies top animators Art Babbit, would go on strike for five weeks for unionization, because of the amount of payment some of them were getting.

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22.

Walt Disney Company thought that the people on strike were secretly Communist and would end up firing many of the studios' animators, including some of its best ones.

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23.

Walt Disney Company agreed and signed a contract with them to create 20 war-related shorts for $90,000.

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24.

In 1943, Walt Disney Company would go on to make Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros after their visit to South America, but they would do poorly upon their releases.

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25.

In 1948, Walt Disney Company began the nature documentary series, True-Life Adventures, which would run until 1960 and win eight Academy Awards.

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26.

In 1950, the television industry began to grow, and Disney got in it on Christmas Day when NBC aired the company's first television production One Hour in Wonderland, which was a promotional program for Disney's next animated film Alice in Wonderland and sponsored by Coca-Cola.

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27.

Walt Disney Company recalled that he first came up with the idea of an amusement park during one of his visits to Griffith Park with his daughters.

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28.

Shortly after, its name would change to Walt Disney Incorporated before changing its name to WED Enterprises in November 1953.

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29.

Walt Disney Company hired a group of designers to work on the plans and those who worked on it became dubbed as "Imagineers".

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30.

Ever since Walt Disney Company came up with the idea of a park, he and his friends would visit parks in the US and Europe to get ideas on how to build one.

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31.

Walt Disney Company acquired 160 acres of orange groves in Anaheim, southeast of Los Angeles in neighboring Orange County, at $6,200 per acre to build the park.

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32.

In February 1953, Disney's next animated film Peter Pan was released and had been a success, but Walt wanted to figure out how to improve animation without raising the cost.

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33.

When Walt Disney Company wanted to create a feature with two short films, The Living Desert, for the True-Life documentary, RKO's lawyer believed it would break the 1948 antitrust Supreme Court ruling if it sold as a package.

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34.

Walt Disney Company made several live-action films based on children's books including Pollyanna and Swiss Family Robinson.

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35.

Child actor Hayley Mills would star in Pollyanna, where she would win the Academy Juvenile Award, and five other Walt Disney Company films, including her dual role as the twins in The Parent Trap.

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36.

Walt Disney Company worked alongside Mills in Pollyanna and starred in features such as Old Yeller, Toby Tyler, and Swiss Family Robinson.

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37.

Walt Disney Company featured in films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit alongside Dean Jones, The Barefoot Executive, and The Strongest Man in the World.

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38.

In late 1959, Walt Disney Company had an idea to build another park in Palm Beach, Florida, called the City of Tomorrow, a city that would be full of technological improvements.

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39.

On November 20,1964, Walt sold most of WED Enterprise to Walt Disney Productions for $3.

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40.

On December 15,1966, at the age of 65, Walt Disney Company died of circulatory collapse, caused by lung cancer.

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41.

In 1967, the last two films Walt had worked on were released, the animated film The Jungle Book, which would be Disney's most successful film for the next two decades, and the live-action musical The Happiest Millionaire.

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42.

In 1977, Roy E Disney, Roy O Disney's son and the only Disney working for the company, would resign from his job as an executive of the company because of disagreements with decisions the company was making.

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43.

In 1977, Walt Disney Company's created the successful animated film The Rescuers, grossing $48 million at the box office.

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44.

In 1981, Walt Disney Company released Dumbo to VHS and Alice in Wonderland the following year, eventually leading Walt Disney Company to release all their films to home media.

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45.

Ron would push for more more mature films from the studio, and as a result, Walt Disney Company founded the film distribution label Touchstone Pictures to produce movies geared toward adults and teenagers in 1984.

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46.

Walt Disney Company, which had less than $10 million, rejected and offered to buy all of his stock for $325.

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47.

Eisner's first move at Walt Disney Company was to make it a major film studio, which at the time it was not considered.

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48.

Walt Disney Company brought in Jeffrey Katzenberg as chairman and Roy as head of the animation division to help with the animation industry.

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49.

Walt Disney Company wanted to produce an animated film every 18 months instead of every 4 years like the company had been doing.

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50.

Eisner led Walt Disney Company into the television industry more by creating Touchstone Television and producing The Golden Girls, which was a hit.

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51.

In 1984, Walt Disney Company created the most expensive animated movie at $40 million, and their first animated film to feature computer-generated imagery The Black Cauldron, which was their first PG rated animated film because of its darker themes.

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52.

In 1986, the company changed its name from Walt Disney Productions to its current name the Walt Disney Company, stating that the old name only referred to the film industry.

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53.

At the time, Walt Disney Company became the box office leader out of all the studios in Hollywood for the first time, with films such as Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, Three Men and a Baby, and Good Morning, Vietnam.

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54.

In 1989, Walt Disney Company signed an agreement-in-principle to acquire Jim Henson Productions from its founder, Muppet creator Jim Henson.

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55.

In September 1990, Walt Disney Company arranged for financing up to $200 million by a unit of Nomura Securities for Interscope films made for Walt Disney Company.

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56.

For $60 million, Walt Disney Company broadened their more mature films by acquiring independent film distributor Miramax Films in 1993.

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57.

In 1994, Walt Disney Company had been looking to buy one of the big three networks, ABC, NBC, or CBS, which would give them guaranteed distribution for its programming.

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58.

Walt Disney Company had another huge success with Pixar when they released Monsters, Inc in 2001.

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59.

Later, Walt Disney Company bought children's cable network Fox Family Worldwide for $3 billion and the assumption of $2.

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60.

In 2001, Walt Disney Company's operations declined with a net loss of $158 million in fiscal, as well as a decline in viewership on the ABC television network, because of decreased tourism due to the September 11 attacks; Walt Disney Company earning in fiscal 2001 $120 million was heavily reduced from the year's before $920 million.

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61.

In 2003, Walt Disney Company became the first studio to garner $3 billion in a year at the box office.

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62.

Roy Disney announced his retirement in 2003 because of the way the company was being ran, calling on Eisner to retire; the same week, board member Stanley Gold retired for the same reasons, forming the "Save Disney" campaign together.

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63.

Walt Disney Company sold the Mighty Ducks NHL team to Henry Samueli and his wife Susan in 2005.

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64.

On January 24,2006, Walt Disney Company made a move to acquire Pixar from Steve Jobs for $7.

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65.

Later, Walt Disney Company launched a television channel geared towards older children named Walt Disney Company XD.

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66.

Shortly after, Walt Disney Company sold Miramax Films to an investment group headed by Ronald Tutor for $660 million.

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67.

That year, Walt Disney Company became the first studio to release two $1 billion films in a single year.

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68.

Later, in early February 2012, Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of UTV Software Communications, expanding their market further into India and Asia.

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69.

On March 24,2014, Walt Disney Company acquired Maker Studios, an active multi-channel network on YouTube, for $950 million.

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70.

In October, Walt Disney Company announced that television channel ABC Family would be changing its name to Freeform in 2016, with the goal to broaden its audience coverage.

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71.

In 2016, Walt Disney Company had four films that made over $1 billion, which were the animated film Zootopia, Marvel film Captain America: Civil War, Pixar film Finding Dory, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, making Walt Disney Company the first studio to surpass $3 billion at the domestic box office.

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72.

Walt Disney Company made an attempt to buy social media platform Twitter to market their content and merchandise on, but ultimately dropped out of the deal.

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73.

On March 23,2017, Disney announced that Iger had agreed to a one-year extension of his term as CEO through July 2,2019, and had agreed to remain with the company as a consultant for three years after stepping down.

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74.

Walt Disney Company planned to start an ESPN streaming service with about "10,000 live regional, national, and international games and events a year" by 2018.

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75.

In 2017, Walt Disney Company had two films go over the $1 billion mark, the live-action Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

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76.

In June 2018, Disney declared that Lasseter would be leaving the company by the end of the year, staying as a consultant until then.

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77.

Walt Disney Company obtained an antitrust approval from the United States Department of Justice to acquire Fox.

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78.

Walt Disney Company made $7 billion at the box office again like they did in record-breaking year 2016 with three film that made $1 billion, Marvel films Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War and Pixar film Incredibles 2, with Infinity War surpassing $2 billion and becoming the fifth highest-grossing film ever.

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79.

Walt Disney Company became the first film studio to have seven films gross $1 billion, which were Marvel's Captain Marvel, the live action Aladdin, Pixar's Toy Story 4, the CGI remake of The Lion King, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point at $2.

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80.

At the beginning of 2020, Walt Disney Company dropped the Fox name from all its assets rebranding it as 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.

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81.

The following month, Walt Disney Company named Alan Bergman as chairman of its Walt Disney Company Studios Content division to oversee its film studios.

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82.

Walt Disney Company was the first major Hollywood studio to halt the release of a major motion picture due to Russia's invasion, and other movie studios followed soon after.

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83.

Walt Disney Company operates six primary business segments, with two primary divisions and four content groups:.

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84.

Walt Disney Company is one of the world's largest entertainment companies and is considered to be a pioneer in the animation industry, having produced 790 features with 122 of the being animated films.

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85.

Walt Disney Company has created some of the most influential and memorable fictional characters of all time, such as Mickey Mouse, Woody, Captain America, Jack Sparrow, Iron Man, and Elsa.

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86.

Walt Disney Company has been ranked number 53 in the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and number 4 in Fortune's 2022 "World's Most Admired Companies".

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87.

Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest competitors in the theme park industry with 12 parks, all of which were the top 25 most visited parks in 2018.

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88.

When watching a film on Walt Disney Company+ considered to have wrongful racist stereotypes, Walt Disney Company added a disclaimer before the film starts to help avoid controversies.

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89.

Walt Disney Company has been accused a number of times for plagiarism in their films from already existing works.

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90.

Walt Disney Company has received criticism for both putting LGBT elements into their films and not putting enough LGBT representation in its media.

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91.

In 1990, Walt Disney Company payed $95,000 to avoid going to court over 16 animal cruelty charges for beating vultures to death, shooting at birds, and starving some of them at Discovery Island.

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92.

In 2010, at a factory in China where Walt Disney Company products were being made, workers went over the law by three times for working hours and one of the workers committed suicide.

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