New Star Wars trilogy raises Disney hopes

Walt Disney has declared a deal to form 3 new Star Wars movies.

The company aforementioned it had stricken a alter Rian Johnson, director of the approaching "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", to form a replacement trio of the fantasy blockbuster.

Disney is additionally acting on a live-action Star Wars series for a replacement on-line streaming service.

The news overshadowed Disney's 1st visit annual profits since 2009, amid steep competition from on-line rivals.

Profits for the year to Sep fell 4WD to $8.98bn (£6.8bn).

Disney's shares fell at first in late commercialism on the discharge of its results, however they then rallied to a quarter higher on news of the new Star Wars movies.

Chief government Bob Iger said: "We stay optimistic concerning our future, partially as a result of quality really will matter."

The amusement large conjointly plans to launch a sports-focused ESPN+ app within the spring, and a Disney streaming service in 2019.

Mr Iger aforementioned those investments, that raise associate degree existing Disney subscription service in Europe, were "vital" to the firm's future.

"Our goal here is to be a viable player within the direct-to-consumer house, {a house|an area} that we have a tendency to all understand may be a terribly compelling space to be in," he said.

He declined to deal with reports that the corporate had command talks with twenty first Century Fox concerning effort elements of its business, however he failed to rule out a procurement.

"I do not assume there is ever such a factor as having an excessive amount of quality."

Under pressure

Disney is grappling with a challenge from on-line video, that has won viewers of ancient tv and films and is driving a shift faraway from cable tv.

In the fourth quarter of Disney's yr, covering the 3 months to the top of Sep, profits lordotic one hundred and twenty fifth to $1.7bn.

Quarterly revenues fell third to $12.8bn because the impact of hurricanes, lower advertising revenue and a decline in cable subscriptions weighed on the results.

Revenue in its picture division sank twenty first, that Disney aforementioned was because of a tricky comparison with last year, once a replacement Star Wars picture upraised results.

Disney's parks and resorts business, that has steady ends up in recent quarters, was the sole division that according year-on-year revenue growth within the quarter, rising 6%.

But even that unit was tormented by the hurricanes that stricken the North American country earlier this year. Disney aforementioned that accounted for a roughly third decline in North American country group action.