On the morning of February 2, 2026, The Walt Disney Company hosted its Fiscal First Quarter 2026 earnings call before the markets opened. The call included current Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston. “We are pleased with our start to fiscal 2026, and our achievements reflect the tremendous progress we have made,” Iger and Johnston said in an executive commentary on Monday.

Disney shared several key achievements during the call. They included:

• Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash both reached $1 billion at the box office
• Streaming services continue to be enhanced with improvements to the user experience
• ESPN is the preeminent destination for sports
• Disney Experiences has expansion projects happening at each theme park

“These achievements reflect the progress we’ve made over the past three years to fortify the company, position our businesses for future growth over the long-term, and set Disney on a path for continued success,” the two said.

Entertainment

Film & Television

In total, Disney films generated over $6.5 billion globally at the box office during the 2025 calendar year. This is the third biggest year ever. It is also the ninth consecutive year that Disney has held the top spot at the global box office over the last decade.

“To date, 37 billion-dollar films have come from our studios out of the 60 films that have hit this mark industrywide, and we have four times as many as any other studio,” Iger and Johnston said.

Iger and Johnston shared that the “box office success of our branded IP also generates value across our interconnected businesses, with hits like Zootopia 2 lifting viewership of related titles on Disney+ and fueling global interest in our parks and consumer products.”

“Zootopia 2 is the highest grossing Hollywood film of all time in China, earning more than $630 million at the box office so far,” they said. “This franchise is also an important driver of attendance at Shanghai Disneyland with our Zootopia-themed land – one of the most popular areas of the park.”

On the small screen, seven of the top ten most-watched shows of 2025 were found on Disney+ or Hulu. Nielsen reported that Bluey was the most-streamed show in the United States for the second year in a row, with 45 billion minutes watched. ABC also had the top six shows for Adults 18-49 during the 2025 calendar year. This included High Potential, Abbot Elementary, and Dancing with the Stars.

Streaming

“With audience and critical favorites across film and television, combined with our leading portfolio of sports offerings and award-winning news programming, we offer consumers a powerful streaming proposition,” Iger and Johnston said.

It was also shared that the company is focused on “the international growth opportunity for our streaming services and are seeing encouraging results from our investment in local content.”

Iger and Johnston also noted that Disney is rolling out numerous product enhancements to elevate the user experience on Disney+.

“Ongoing experimentation remains central to how we innovate, and we expect new ad tech capabilities such as our AI-powered planning tool and video generator to improve advertiser engagement,” they said. “We’re also layering in additional ways to engage audiences by developing new vertical and shortform experiences, and we plan to introduce a curated slate of Sora-generated content on Disney+ following our recently announced licensing agreement with OpenAI.”

They continued, “together, these efforts are shaping a more personalized streaming experience and positioning us to deliver greater value to consumers.”

Sports

ESPN continues to be a leader in the industry. It offers a compelling portfolio of live sports, studio shows, original content, and multiple ways to be watched. ESPN led the industry with more than 30% of all sports viewership across networks, including ESPN and ABC, and marquee events delivering strong ratings throughout the first quarter.

Highlights for the quarter include:

• ESPN networks delivered their most-watched college football regular season since 2011
• ABC achieved its best college football season since 2006
• College Football National Championship reached 30.1 million viewers and became the second most-viewed cable event ever
• Monday Night Football delivered its second-highest viewership in 20 years
• Disney’s NFL Divisional game drew 38 million viewers, the most-watched event in company history

“We continue to strengthen our rights portfolio while maintaining a disciplined approach,” Iger and Johnston said. “Our recently announced three-year MLB agreement exemplifies this strategy, expanding our rights footprint and making ESPN the exclusive distributor of MLB.TV. And on January 31, we closed our transaction with the NFL to acquire NFL Network and other media assets, including the linear rights to the popular NFL RedZone channel, further bolstering ESPN’s offering with a rich content experience for football fans.”

The two added that “the launch of ESPN Unlimited marked an important step in our direct-to-consumer evolution, and while still early days, we are pleased with the adoption and engagement with new app features. We are encouraged by ESPN app authentication from pay-TV subscribers, the pace of new signups, and the engagement patterns that have followed.”

Experiences

Iger and Johnson shared that Disney’s Experiences segment as well, saying, “our efforts to turbocharge this segment are well underway, and we are excited about continued progress on a robust pipeline of projects to support long-term growth.”

Next month, the World of Frozen at the completely reimagined Disney Adventure World at Disneyland Paris will open.

“This milestone marks the beginning of a bold new era for Disneyland Paris, nearly doubling the size of the second park and showcasing Disney’s unique ability to bring our stories to life in the physical world,” they said. “Additionally, we are continuously expanding storytelling in our parks, with new experiences featuring Bluey, activations planned around the release of Toy Story 5, and a new mission featuring the Mandalorian and Grogu inside Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run coming soon.”

The Disney Cruise Line recently launched the Disney Destiny. This ship has received rave reviews from guests since its maiden voyage on November 20, 2025. The Disney Adventure, the first ship from Disney to be homeported in Asia, is on its way to Singapore for its March 10th maiden voyage. This will expand Disney storytelling to more people around the world than ever before. When it joins the fleet, the Disney Cruise Line will have eight cruise ships. There are five more on the way that are scheduled for launch beyond fiscal 2026.

Conclusion

Iger and Johnston wrapped up the call by noting that this quarter underscores Disney’s disciplined execution and strong strategic investments.

“Overall, this quarter reflects our focused execution and investment across each of our strategic priorities and stands on the solid foundation we’ve built over the past three years, providing us with a path for long-term growth,” the two concluded.

No announcements were made regarding Bob Iger’s successor as CEO of The Walt Disney Company. There were acknowledgements of a successor, but any direct references to this person or what might happen in the future were avoided.