Walt Disney made his Alice Comedies for four years, but in 1927, he decided to move instead to an all-cartoon series. To star in this new series, he created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Within a year, Walt made 26 of these Oswald cartoons, but when he tried to get some additional money from his distributor for a second year of the cartoons, he found out that the distributor had gone behind his back and signed up almost all of his animators, hoping to make the Oswald cartoons in his own studio for less money without Walt Disney. On rereading his contract, Walt realized that he did not own the rights to Oswald—the distributor did. It was a painful lesson for the young cartoon producer to learn. From then on, he saw to it that he owned everything that he made.
The original Disney Studio had been in the back half of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue in Hollywood, but soon Walt had enough money to move next door and rent a whole store for his studio. That small studio was sufficient for a couple of years, but the company eventually outgrew it, and Walt had to look elsewhere. He found an ideal piece of property on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, built a studio, and in 1926, moved his staff to the new facility.
It was at the Hyperion Studio, after the loss of Oswald, that Walt had to come up with a new character, and that character was Mickey Mouse. With his chief animator, Ub Iwerks, Walt designed the famous mouse and gave him a personality that endeared him to all. Ub animated two Mickey Mouse cartoons, but Walt was unable to sell them because they were silent films, and sound was revolutionizing the movie industry. So, they made a third Mickey Mouse cartoon, this time with fully synchronized sound, andSteamboat Willie opened to rave reviews at the Colony Theater in New York November 18, 1928. A cartoon star, Mickey Mouse, was born. The new character was immediately popular, and, a lengthy series of Mickey Mouse cartoons followed.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Walt Disney soon produced another series—the Silly Symphonies—to go with the Mickey series. It featured different casts of characters in each film and enabled animators to experiment with stories that relied less on the gags and quick humor of the Mickey cartoons and more on mood, emotion, and musical themes. Eventually the Silly Symphonies turned into the training ground for all Disney artists as they prepared for the advent of animated feature films.Flowers and Trees, a Silly Symphony and the first full-color cartoon, won the Academy Award® for Best Cartoon for 1932, the first year that the Academy offered such a category. For the rest of that decade, a Disney cartoon won the Oscar® every year.
While the cartoons were gaining popularity in movie houses, the Disney staff found that merchandising the characters was an additional source of revenue. A man in New York offered Walt $300 for the license to put Mickey Mouse on some pencil tablets he was manufacturing. Walt Disney needed the $300, so he said okay. That was the start of Disney merchandising. Soon there were Mickey Mouse dolls, dishes, toothbrushes, radios, figurines—almost everything you could think of bore Mickey’s likeness. The year 1930 was a big one for the mouse that started it all, as it saw the first Mickey Mouse book and newspaper comic strip published.
The year 1950 saw big successes at Disney—the first completely live-action film,Treasure Island, the return to classic animated features withCinderella, and the first Disney television show at Christmas time. The Company was moving forward again. After two Christmas specials, Walt Disney went onto television in a big way in 1954 with the beginning of theDisneylandanthology series. This series eventually would run on all three networks and go through six title changes, but it remained on the air for 29 years, making it the longest-running primetime television series ever. TheMickey Mouse Club, one of television’s most popular children’s series, debuted in 1955 and made stars of a group of talented Mouseketeers.
Walt was never satisfied with what he had already accomplished. As his motion pictures and television programs became successful, he felt a desire to branch out. One area that intrigued him was amusem*nt parks. As a father, he had taken his two young daughters to zoos, carnivals, and other entertainment enterprises, but he always ended up sitting on the bench as they rode the merry-go-round and had all the fun. He felt that there should be a park where parents and children could go and have a good time together. This was the genesis of Disneyland. After several years of planning and construction, the new park opened on July 17, 1955.
Disneyland was a totally new kind of park. Observers coined the term “theme park,” but even that does not seem to do Disneyland justice. It has been used as a pattern for every amusem*nt park built since its opening, becoming internationally famous and attracting hundreds of millions of visitors. Walt said that Disneyland would never be completed as long as there was imagination left in the world, and that statement remains true today. New attractions are added regularly, and Disneyland is even more popular now than it was in 1955.
The 1950s saw the release of the classic20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Shaggy Dog—first in a series of wacky comedies—and a popular TV series about the legendary hero Zorro. In the 1960s cameAudio-Animatronics® technology, pioneered with Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Roomat Disneyland and then four shows at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, andMary Poppins—perhaps the culmination of all Walt Disney had learned during his long movie-making career. But the ’60s also brought the end of an era: Walt Disney died December 15, 1966.
Plans that Walt left behind carried the Company for a number of years under the supervision of Roy Disney.The Jungle Bookin 1967 andThe Aristocatsin 1970 showed that the Company could still make animated classics, andThe Love Bugin 1969 was the highest-grossing film of the year. Disney began work on educational films and materials in a big way with the start of an educational subsidiary in 1969.
After the success of Disneyland, it was only natural for Walt to consider another park on the East Coast. Prior to his death, the Company purchased land in Florida, and the Walt Disney World project, located on some 28,000 acres near Orlando, was announced. It opened October 1, 1971. In Florida, the Company had the space it lacked in California. Finally there was room to create a destination resort, unencumbered by the urban sprawl that had grown up around Disneyland. Walt Disney World would include not only a Magic Kingdom theme park like Disneyland but also hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, and shopping villages. It did not take long for Walt Disney World to become the premier vacation destination in the world.
Roy O. Disney, who after Walt’s death oversaw the building and financing of Walt Disney World, died in late 1971, and for the next decade the Company was led by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum, and Ron Miller—all originally trained by the Disney brothers. One of Walt’s last plans had been for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, as he called it. While he died before the plans could be refined, they were brought out again in a few years, and in 1979 ground was broken for the new park in Florida. EPCOT Center, a combination of Future World and World Showcase representing an investment of more than a billion dollars, opened to great acclaim October 1, 1982.
WED Enterprises (later renamed Walt Disney Imagineering), the design and development division for the parks, had several projects in the works during the early 1980s. In addition to designing Epcot, it was hard at work on plans for Tokyo Disneyland, the first foreign Disney park. Tokyo Disneyland opened April 15, 1983, and was an immediate success in a country that had always loved anything Disney. Now that the Japanese had their own Disneyland, they flocked to it in increasing numbers.
Moviemaking also was changing in America in the early 1980s. Audiences were diminishing for the family films that had been the mainstay of the Company for many years, and Disney was not meeting the competition for films that attracted the huge teenage and adult market. To reverse that trend, Disney established a new label, Touchstone Pictures, with the release ofSplashin 1984. At the same time, because of the widespread perception that Disney stock was undervalued relative to the company’s assets, two “corporate raiders” attempted to take over Disney. The efforts to keep the company from being broken up ended when Michael Eisner and Frank Wells became chairman and president, respectively.
The new management team immediately saw ways for Disney to maximize its assets. The Company had left network television in 1983 to prepare for the launch of a cable network, The Disney Channel. While the pay-TV service was successful, Eisner and Wells felt Disney should have a strong network presence as well, so in 1985 Disney’s Touchstone division began the immensely successfulGolden Girls, followed in 1986 by a return to Sunday night television with theDisney Sunday Movie(laterThe Magical World of DisneyandThe Wonderful World of Disney). Films from the Disney library were selected for the syndication market, and some of the classic animated films were released on video cassette. Using the sell-through technique, Disney classics soon reached the top of the all-time best-seller lists.
The late 1980s brought new innovations to the Parks. At Disneyland, new collaborations with filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Coppola broughtCaptain EO andStar Toursto the park, andSplash Mountainopened in 1989. Over at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disney’s Grand Floridian Beach and Caribbean Beach Resorts opened in 1988, and three new gated attractions opened in 1989: the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, Pleasure Island, and Typhoon Lagoon. More resort hotels opened in 1990 and 1991.
Filmmaking hit new heights in 1988 as Disney, for the first time, led Hollywood studios in box-office gross.Who Framed Roger Rabbit,Good Morning, Vietnam,Three Men and a Baby, and later,Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,Dick Tracy,Pretty Woman,andSister Act each passed the $100 million milestone. Disney moved into new areas by starting Hollywood Pictures and acquiring the Wrather Corp. (owner of the Disneyland Hotel) and television station KHJ (Los Angeles), which was renamed KCAL. In merchandising, Disney purchased Childcraft and opened numerous highly successful and profitable Disney Stores.
Disney animation began reaching even greater audiences, withThe Little Mermaidbeing topped byBeauty and the Beastin 1991 which was in turn topped byAladdin in 1992. Hollywood Records was formed to offer a wide selection of recordings ranging from rap to movie soundtracks. New television shows, such asLive With Regis and Kathy Lee,Empty Nest,Dinosaurs,andHome Improvement, expanded Disney’s television base. For the first time in 1991, Disney moved into publishing, forming Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books for Children, and Disney Press, which released books on Disney and non-Disney subjects. Disney purchasedDiscover magazine, the leading consumer science monthly. As a totally new venture, Disney was awarded in 1993 the franchise for a National Hockey League team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Over in France, the park now known as Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992. Eagerly anticipated, the beautifully designed park attracted almost 11 million visitors during its first year. Disneyland Paris is complemented by six uniquely designed resort hotels and a campground. Dixie Landings and Port Orleans, and a well-received Disney Vacation Club enlarged lodging possibilities at the Walt Disney World Resort, while Mickey’s Toontown and Indiana Jones Adventure helped increase attendance at Disneyland. Walt Disney World opened the All-Star Resorts, Wilderness Lodge, TheTwilight Zone Tower of Terror,Blizzard Beach, the BoardWalk Resort, Coronado Springs Resort, The Disney Institute, Downtown Disney West Side, and redesigned Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom Park.
In 1994, Disney ventured onto Broadway with a very successful stage production ofBeauty and the Beast, followed in 1997 by a unique staging of a show based onThe Lion Kingand in 2000 byAida. By restoring the historic New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, Disney became the catalyst for a successful makeover of the famous Times Square area. A musical version ofThe Hunchback of Notre Dameopened in Berlin, Germany in 1999.
By 1996, there were more than 450 Disney Stores worldwide, and by 1999 that number was up to 725. In Florida, the first home sites were sold in the new city of Celebration, located next to Walt Disney World. Eventually, 20,000 people would call Celebration their home. After the death of the owner Gene Autry, Disney acquired the California Angels baseball team to add to its hockey team, and in 1997 opened Disney’s Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World.
Early in 1996, Disney completed its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC. The $19 billion transaction, second-largest in U.S. history, brought the country’s top television network to Disney, in addition to 10 TV stations, 21 radio stations, seven daily newspapers, and ownership positions in four cable networks.
The years that followed saw the release of a group of very popular live-action films, such asMr. Holland’s Opus,The Rock,Ransom,Flubber,Con Air,Armageddon, and culminating in the hugely successfulThe Sixth Sense, which soon reached the 10th spot among the all-time highest grossing releases. Computer animation was showcased ina bug’s lifeandDinosaur.
A whole new park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, opened at Walt Disney World in 1998. With a gigantic Tree of Life as its centerpiece, the park was Disney’s largest, spanning 500 acres. A major attraction was theKilimanjaro Safaris, where Guests could experience live African animals in an amazingly accurate reproduction of the African savannah. An Asian area opened at Animal Kingdom in 1999. Back in California, Tomorrowland at Disneyland was redesigned in 1998.
As the world moved toward a new century, Epcot became the host of Millennium Celebration, Test Track (the longest and fastest Disney park attraction) opened, and other attractions were revised and updated. The Walt Disney Company welcomed a new president—Robert A. Iger—and the Company reached the $25 billion revenue threshold for the first time.
Disney regional entertainment expanded with DisneyQuest and the ESPN Zone in 1998, and that same year, theDisney Magic, the first of two luxury cruise ships, made its maiden voyage to the Caribbean, stopping at Disney’s own island paradise, Castaway Cay.
The year 2000 opened with the release in IMAX theaters of an almost totally new version of Fantasia entitledFantasia/2000. Other classically animated features wereThe Emperor’s New Groove,Atlantis: The Lost Empire,Lilo & Stitch,Treasure Planet,andBrother Bear. Continuing collaborations with Pixar brought the computer-animated blockbuster Monsters, Inc.Popular live-action productions continued withRemember the Titans,Mission to Mars,Pearl Harbor,The Princess Diaries, andThe Rookie. The new cable network, SoapNet, was launched, and award-winning productions on ABC includedThe Miracle Worker,Anne Frank, andChild Star: The Shirley Temple Story.
DVD releases became increasingly popular, especially when the company began adding generous amounts of bonus material for viewers.The Snow White and the Seven DwarfsDVD in 2001 sold more than one million units on the first day of release.
For the first time, in 2001, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts opened two new theme parks in the same year. In February, Disney’s California Adventure opened after several years of major construction, which transformed the entire Anaheim area. The new park celebrated the history, culture, and spirit of California, with areas ranging from a Hollywood Pictures Backlot to the amusem*nts of Paradise Pier. Joining it was an upscale shopping area, Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian Hotel, celebrating the Craftsman style of architecture. Across the Pacific in Japan, Tokyo DisneySea opened in September, looking to the myths, legends, and lore of the ocean as the inspiration for its attractions and shows. March 2002 saw the opening of another foreign park, Walt Disney Studios, featuring the history and lore and excitement of the movies, adjacent to Disneyland Paris. Ground was broken in January 2003 for Hong Kong Disneyland.
In 2001, The Walt Disney Company honored the 100th Anniversary of the birth of its founder, Walt Disney. The celebration, called “100 Years of Magic,” was centered at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Florida, and included several parades, an exhibit of archival memorabilia, and the installation of a gigantic Mickey’s sorcerer cap in the Chinese Theater plaza.
The year 2003 saw two Disney films grossing more than $300 million at the box office—Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearland Disney•Pixar’sFinding Nemo. In fact, Disney became the first studio in history to surpass $3 billion in global box office. In October,Mission: Spaceopened at Epcot to great acclaim, and the following month the Company celebrated the 75th anniversary of Mickey Mouse. As the year drew to a close the Pop Century Resort opened at Walt Disney World.
After years of partnering, Disney acquiredThe MuppetsandBear in the Big Blue Housein April 2004. Senator George Mitchell became chairman of the board, and movie theaters welcomedThe Incredibles. ABC had a rebirth with such popular series asDesperate Housewives,Lost,andGrey’s Anatomy.
At Disney parks in 2008, Disney-MGM Studios was renamed Disney’s Hollywood Studios,Toy Story Midway Mania!opened there and at Disney’s California Adventure, andit’s a small worldopened at Hong Kong Disneyland. The Company reacquired ownership of the Disney Stores’ retail locations from The Children’s Place, and the first Disney-operated language training center, Disney English, opened in China. In theaters, audiences flocked toWALL•EandBolt.Tinker Bell, the first of a series of Disney Fairies films, was released, andCamp RockandPhineas and Ferbdebuted on Disney Channel.Then, all the way on a stage under the sea, The Little Mermaidopened on Broadway.
The big news in 2009 was the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. The films Up(which would win two Oscars), the first Disneynature film,Earth, and with a return to hand-drawn animation,The Princess and the Frog, were in theaters that year. The first Disney film locally produced in Russia,The Book of Masters, was released. D23: The Official Disney Fan Club launched,Disney twenty-threemagazine began publication, and the first biennial D23 Expo was held in Anaheim. Bay Lake Tower opened at Walt Disney World, and a Disney Vacation Club section was added to the Grand Californian Hotel. Disney XD replaced Toon Disney, and at the end of the year the Company mourned the passing of Roy E. Disney.
In business news in 2010, the Company sold Miramax.Alice in WonderlandandToy Story 3were released, and they would go on to win two Oscars each. Also on movie screens wereTangledandTron: Legacy. Video gamers entered the world ofEpic Mickey, andWorld of Colordebuted at the renamed Disney California Adventure.
The year 2011 saw the launch of the Disney Dream and the repositioning of theDisney Wonderto the West Coast. The Company purchased the rights to theAvatarfranchise for theme parks, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa opened in Hawai‘i,The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventuredebuted at Disney California Adventure, and groundbreaking ceremonies were held for Shanghai Disneyland. In theaters, Disney began distributing DreamWorks films, withThe Helpwinning wide acclaim and a Supporting Actress Oscar for Octavia Spencer. Disney films includedPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Winnie the Pooh, The Muppets(Oscar for Best Song), andCars 2. In New York,Sister Actopened on Broadway andPeter and the Starcatcheroff-Broadway.
In theaters in 2012 wereJohn Carter, Brave, Wreck-It Ralph,Frankenweenie, Lincoln(DreamWorks), and Marvel Studios’The Avengers. Bob Iger took on the additional title of chairman of the board, and Alan Horn became chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. The Disney Junior cable channel replaced SOAPnet. On Broadway,Newsiesopened and won two Tony Awardsâ. Cars Land opened at Disney California Adventure, and theDisney Fantasyset sail. At the Walt Disney World, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, an enlarged and enhanced Fantasyland, and a newTest Trackopened. D23 sponsored aTreasures of the Walt Disney Archivesexhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The big corporate news was the acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd.
The beginning of 2013 saw a big achievement for Tokyo Disneyland. On April 15, it celebrated its 30th anniversary, naming it “The Happiness Year.” New additions came to the theme parks, with Fantasy Faire opening in Disneyland and Mystic Point at Hong Kong Disneyland. Box office smashes, including Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World arrived in theaters. After 12 years, fans were able to travel back in time to see Mike and Sully go to school in Monsters University, and hearts melted in November when audiences adventured into the world of Arendelle for the first time with the Academy Award-winning film Frozen.The year 2014 got off to a great start with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opening in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. And, over at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy made its debut. It was also a good year for films when the Company introduced audiences to a new, yet familiar set of horns when Maleficent premiered. Guardians of the Galaxy and Big Hero 6 flew into theaters and were critical and box-office smashes.
In 2015, the live-action film Cinderella reminded us to have courage and be kind. While the film provided many emotional moments, it wasn’t long after that we came face-to-face with all of them—literally—with Disney•Pixar’s Inside Out. Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man debuted in July, and the fourth D23 Expo took place in August at Anaheim. Then, that galaxy far, far away moved a closer when Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted in December.
In 2016 Zootopia premiered in March. Then, it animals of a very different kind pounced onto the screen in the live-action The Jungle Book. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge had its official groundbreaking, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrived in theaters on December 16. Moana and Doctor Strange were two other box-office smashes in 2016.
Hong Kong became home to the first Marvel-themed ride at any Disney park in 2017 when Iron Man Experience opened. While guests were joining Iron Man in an epic adventure of a lifetime (as well as a fight against evil), guests at Walt Disney World traveled to a new world when Pandora—The World of Avatar opened in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. May also saw the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the opening of a new attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure.
Later in the year, Miguel and Dante introduced us to the power of family in the Academy Award winner Coco. Then, Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered in December and continued the saga of Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren.
On Broadway, the stage got a bit chillier when FrozenThe Broadway Musicalpremiered. Pixar Pier also debuted at Disney California Adventure, and across the way at Disneyland, the Tropical Hideaway opened in Adventureland. As if that wasn’t enough, a brand-new way to explore, play, and listen in the parks arrived with the launch of the Play Disney app.
The Walt Disney Company bookended 2019 with several major additions, starting with the acquisition of 20th Century Fox in March, and then the remarkable launch of Disney+ in November. Disney+, which, together with ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+ Hotstar, delivers the Company’s iconic brands and incredible stories directly to consumers, gave us new movies and streaming series such as High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a new retelling of Lady and the Tramp, The Simpsons, The Imagineering Story, and, of course, The Mandalorian.
The Walt Disney Studios had a hugely successful year, releasing notable titles including Aladdin, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Toy Story 4, and Frozen 2. Marvel Studios released Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, which was the climactic finale to the Studios’ remarkable first 10 years of cinematic adventure. And Lucasfilm concluded the Skywalker saga with the epic Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, with a lavish Hollywood premiere and rollout in December.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! opened at Hong Kong Disneyland in March, followed by Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening at Disneyland Park in May and then at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in August. Walt Disney World Resort also saw a number of impressive additional developments in 2019, including: Gran Destino Tower opening as part of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in July, the NBA Experience opening in August at Disney Springs West Side, the launch of the Disney Skyliner in September, the debut of the incredible new attraction Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in November, and the grand opening of Disney’s Riviera Resort in December.
While 2020 saw Company theme parks pause because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Disney still delivered some incredible experiences, including the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland park in January, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in March, a major Fantasyland expansion at Tokyo Disneyland in September, and the debut of the Castle of Magical Dreams at Hong Kong Disneyland in November.
And, in addition to delivering more beloved films and TV series from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, 20th Century Studios, and National Geographic, Disney+ delivered scores of new entertainment to viewers around the globe, including Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (February), Stargirl (March), Prop Culture (May), Artemis Fowl (June), Broadway’s Hamilton (July), the live-action Mulan (September), and Pixar’s wondrous Soul (December).
Early in 2021, two Disney+ series from Marvel Studios became instant hits—WandaVision, which debuted in January, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in March. Also in March, the animated Raya and the Last Dragon premiered to rave reviews on both Disney+ (with Premiere Access) and in theaters, and the new series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers arrived on the streaming service, returning Coach Bombay (Emilio Estevez) to the ice. And, after more than a year of closure due to the pandemic, Disneyland Park welcomed guests back to Walt Disney’s original magic kingdom on April 30, before Avengers Campus officially opened its gates at Disney California Adventure on June 4. The Walt Disney World Resort also prepared in earnest for its 50th anniversary festivities, kicking off The World’s Most Magical Celebration on October 1, 2021. Featuring the opening of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, and the debut of several new entertainment offerings, including Harmonious, also at EPCOT, and Disney Enchantment at Magic Kingdom Park, the 18th month celebration will welcome Guests from across the globe to help celebrate this momentous milestone.
For nearly a century, The Walt Disney Company has created entertainment of the very highest quality. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the early 1920s to the Company of today—which includes Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Searchlight Pictures, and 20thCentury Studios, along with Disney Parks and Resorts around the globe—Disney continues to provide timeless entertainment for the entire family.
In early 2022, the Company won six Academy Awards®,for the filmsSummer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),West Side Story,Cruella, andEncanto—the last of which became a cultural phenomenon. Each of the animated feature’s songs, by Lin-Manual Miranda, was a hit on Billboard’s Hot 100, with “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” spending five weeks at No. 1. In April, the Emmy®Award-nominated ABC comedy seriesblack-ishended its history-making eight-season run. Marvel Studios releases ruled the year’s box office, asDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,Thor: Love and Thunder, andBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreverall became global hits. Disney and Pixar’sTurning Reddrew stellar viewership and reviews after its spring debut on Disney+, whereHocus Pocus 2became the streamer’s most-watched film ever in the fall. September’s D23 Expo: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event at the Anaheim Convention Center was the most successful ever, attracting worldwide fan and media attention. On November 20, Robert A. Iger returned as Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.
