Disney stock jumped 10% in early trading on Friday, to a record high of $128, one day after the Mouse House revealed its upcoming $7-per-month streaming service.
Netflix’s stock on Friday morning, meanwhile, dipped 3.3%, with many analysts now seeing the upcoming Disney+ streaming service as its chief competition.
Disney, led by CEO Bob Iger and a slew of other executives, walked investors through its new service, dubbed Disney+, in a nearly three-hour investor presentation on Thursday afternoon. There was a lot to cover.
Not only did the service’s $7 monthly price tag — or $70 for the full year — live up to Iger’s 2017 declaration it would be priced “substantially below” Netflix, the reigning streaming champ, Disney also revealed it would invest $1 billion in original content for the service in the next year.
That number will rise to $2 billion by 2024, said Disney CFO Christine McCarthy. Disney+ will launch on Nov. 12.
All of the content will be available to download for offline viewing for subscribers.
The first one will be “The Mandalorian,” the live-action “Star Wars” series helmed by Jon Favreau. Other series include a “Rogue One” prequel starring Diego Luna’s character Cassian Andor, a “Monsters, Inc.” sequel with Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprising their roles, and another series fronted by classic Disney villains like Ursula from “The Little Mermaid.”
Additionally, Marvel Studios is developing four different series centered around characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, three of which were unveiled Thursday. “Loki” with Tom Hiddleston, “WandaVision” with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), and “Falcon & Winter Solider” with Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier. (Sebastian Stan). Marvel Studios is also developing a series starring Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye.
Disney will not be able to feature all of its own films at launch, due to its existing licensing deals, it will be able to launch with titles including its own celebrated vault of classic films like “The Little Mermaid,” “Bambi” and “Fantasia,” as well as 2019 releases including “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Toy Story 4.”