Disney (DIS) Stock Slides 4.77% after ‘Avatar’ Opening Weekend Failed to Meet Expectations

UTC by Steve Muchoki · 2 min read
Disney (DIS) Stock Slides 4.77% after ‘Avatar’ Opening Weekend Failed to Meet Expectations
Photo: Walt Disney Company / Twitter

Avatar: The Way of Water has brought Disney a revenue of $134 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, falling short of analysts’ expectations of $175 million and Disney’s forecast of between $135 million and $150 million.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) stock closed Monday, December 19, trading at $85.78, down 4.30 percent from the day’s opening price. Disney did not hit the nail on the head during the opening box office weekend for James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water.” As such, the DIS stock may close the year at new lows, despite the coincidence with the 2022 end-of-year festive season.

Avatar by Disney

Notably, the Avatar: The Way of Water – official trailer on YouTube – has attracted over 46 million views after being released on November 2.

According to an American media outlet, Avatar: The Way of Water has brought Disney a revenue of $134 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, falling short of analyst expectations of $175 million and Disney’s forecast of between $135 million and $150 million.

In the international market, the film has scraped up approximately $300.5 million, bringing the opening weekend revenue to about $434.5 million.

Disney Stock and the Market Outlook

According to market data from MarketWatch, the Disney stock market has struggled since the onset of the Coronavirus global pandemic. In figures, the DID shares are down approximately 44 percent in the past year. Technically, the DIS stock market is retesting the 2020 Black Thursday, which marked Covid-19 as a global pandemic.

Nonetheless, Wall Street is highly bullish on Disney’s market outlook. Whereby a survey conducted by MarketWatch shows, 28 ratings gave DIS stock market an average of BUY.

The current market sentiment is directly proportional to the vaccine rollout in the United States and Canada, where most of Disney’s in-house activities are held.

The poor performance in the past few years has put the company’s leadership position at loggerheads with the board members. Moreover, the company’s recent quarterly earnings report showed a miss in analysts’ expectations. Notably, Disney reported revenue of $20.15 billion vs. $21.24 billion during the fiscal fourth quarter, according to Refinitiv.

Nonetheless, according to StreetAccount estimates, Disney+ added approximately 12.1 million subscriptions during the fiscal fourth quarter, bringing the platform’s total subscriber base to 164.2 million. Reportedly, the figure was higher than the 160.45 million analysts had forecast to happen during the fiscal fourth quarter.

The DIS stock market is expected to fall further in the first quarter of 2023, as the company’s overall growth is expected to slow down. Furthermore, Disney CEO Bob Chapek previously said that Disney+ will achieve profitability in the fiscal year 2024.

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