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Part II The experience I had in 1984 going to Walt Disney World with my young family was wonderful. It made me realize how unusual this company was. And going back year after year only reinforces those feelings. Among other things a family can do together is play together. I've always wanted to do an advertising campaign for our parks with the tag line, "The family that plays together stays together." During this past year, revenues in our Theme Parks and Resorts segment grew by 13 percent to $4.5 billion, up from $4 billion in 1995 when our theme park revenues increased 14 percent. As these numbers suggest, all our theme parks are on a roll, setting new annual attendance records this past year in Florida, California, Tokyo and Paris.
Tokyo Disneyland also performed fantastically, hosting nearly 17 million guests, and Disneyland in Anaheim outperformed its best year ever by marketing the closing of the Main Street Electrical Parade in anticipation of a new evening show called Light Magic, which opens in the spring. Over the past dozen years, we have enjoyed similar growth in our film business—both in feature animation and live-action production. As a matter of fact, one out of four movie tickets sold in North America is for a movie released by your company. The world is aware of the string of animated blockbusters we have produced during the past several years (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame). The specific success outside the United States of Hunchback is particularly gratifying. The wonderful response to these Disney features has caught the attention of every major Hollywood studio, and many of them are within months of introducing their own entries into the animation marketplace, something that I will say in a most mature way is a flattering sign. Also, I do have to reluctantly admit that competition raises the bar of excellence for all of us in the industry, and I am confident that Disney's best will continue to be the industry's best when all the smoke has cleared. Our animated feature schedule for the next few years is a strong one. Features in the works include Hercules in the summer of 1997 and a raft of titles that will take us into the millennium, including Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia '99, Bugs (working title for the next feature we are doing in collaboration with director John Lasseter and Pixar, which gave us the fabulously successful Toy Story this past year) and Dinosaur. Three additional animated features are in the works, one from John Musker and Ron Clements who directed The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, one from the directorial team of Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, who brought Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame to the screen, and one from Roger Allers, the director of The Lion King. In looking at our current live-action release schedule, it is difficult to believe that we distributed just two live-action motion pictures back in 1984. We have added to the annual output each year since. During the past fiscal year, our total of live-action film releases was 29. This is in addition to Miramax film releases over the same period, which totaled 36. Coming up with a definitive philosophy on how to operate in the movie business is like trying to decide what your major in college should be, or exactly how to invest in the stock market, or what kind and how much exercise to do, or what diet really reduces cholesterol. Each day, you are absolutely sure of another approach, and you are sure of it with conviction. The one thing I am sure of in making movies is that a great idea well executed will create a hit even if the film is expensive, that a good idea well executed will survive unless the costs are out of control, that a poor idea brilliantly executed will fail at any cost, and that a poor idea badly executed and expensive will be a total disaster from coast to coast and around the world. We will continue to try to produce great ideas! In order to focus on the best ideas, our studios have embarked on a program to reduce significantly the number of films released by Buena Vista (our motion picture releasing company) in the years immediately ahead. The market has become overcrowded with films vying every weekend of the year for the attention of a finite number of filmgoers. Films which fail to attract a large enough audience during the first weekend are doomed to early removal from the nation's screens. This has had the effect of increasing the cost of talent and marketing to exorbitant levels as studios have scrambled to secure "stars" and get out the word on their upcoming offerings. We plan to concentrate on a smaller number of higher-impact, star-driven films with greater potential for establishing themselves early in the domestic marketplace and creating greater demand in the increasingly important international marketplace. Even more intriguing, we are pursuing a plan to take one or two properties each year and convert them into blockbuster live-action "event" films under the Walt Disney Pictures banner with the underlying strategy that the entire Disney Company will promote, publicize and support the picture in the same way we turn an animated film into a company-wide effort. The first of these properties was 101 Dalmatians. The original film, of course, is a Disney animated classic. The new live-action version has been produced and marketed as well as any property I have seen in my career. Watching from the sidelines and enjoying the creative process take place this year has been wonderful. Judging from the performance of this film, the studios have succeeded in relaunching live-action films under the Walt Disney Pictures label as a major component of the Disney franchise. Other properties now in production that are being considered for the same special treatment include George of the Jungle and The Absent Minded Professor, which stars Robin Williams. Each of our businesses is run by the most skilled executives in their respective industries, and descriptions of their businesses are covered in other sections in this report. In the past I have mentioned each executive by name, going as deep into the organization as space would allow. This year, instead, I will use my allocation of "ink" to salute all the 100,000 cast members who make this company run, from a ride operator in Disneyland to a cameraman on Prime Time Live, from an "in-betweener" in feature animation to a satellite operator of The Disney Channel in Taiwan, from a room service captain at Disneyland Paris to an editor at Mouseworks, from one continent to another, from consumer products to publishing to broadcasting to The Disney Channel to ESPN to ABC Daytime to Typhoon Lagoon and four Main Streets around the world. It is these dedicated people who make up your company and deserve your praise.
Let me introduce you to a few of them: Valerie E. Edwards, in her ninth year with the company, is chief sculptor at Walt Disney Imagineering. In that position, she is responsible for all three-dimensional representations of Disney characters used by animators and creators of Disney theme parks. She guides the process of turning clay forms into moving figures. Tom Nabbe, a 40-year cast member working for Distribution Service, Walt Disney World, was the first Tom Sawyer, hired by Walt himself in 1956. He is well-known for his creation of the "Nabbe Grabber"—a device used by custodial hosts and hostesses to pick up litter from the ground. Ron Wood, circulation director, The Oakland Press, is a 26-year veteran of the newspaper. When the paper's two main rivals in nearby Detroit were hit by strikes last year, Wood's 126 full- and part-time employees kicked into high gear to propel the newspaper to its highest daily and Sunday circulation ever. Shoko Ohto is show quality administrator in the Design Office at Walt Disney Attractions, Japan. She was the first Japanese employee hired by Disney in 1979 to work on the Tokyo Disneyland project, which was then still in the early planning stages. Pat Hopkins, labor boss at the Disney Studios in Burbank, is responsible for office moves, office reorganizations and wall picture hangings. Pat is known for his great attitude as well as his eagerness to do whatever needs getting done. Cristina Giosa splits her time between Mexico City and her home location, Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she serves as director of marketing for Buena Vista Home Entertainment's Latin America licensees. A true pioneer in video marketing since joining Disney 5-1/2 years ago, Cristina was one of the key people involved in the launch of BVHE in Mexico this past year and temporarily serves as head of marketing for that country in addition to her regular duties. Edward Collins, who during his 13 years with the company, was responsible for managing the renovation of the El Capitan Theater, Hollywood, and has been involved in special promotions including The Toy Story Funhouse, Pocahontas in Central Park and The Lion King premiere at Radio City Music Hall. Jennifer Campbell, an eight-year Disney employee, has been helping coordinate the annual International Children's Summit in her capacity as director of special events for the Disney Consumer Products European regional office in Paris. These cast members...and thousands of others like them...make Disney what it is, a very special company. (continued)
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