Big films like Moana 2 have been an enormous hit for Disney+: in its newest earnings name, The Walt Disney Company mentioned that there have been now 126 million Disney Plus subscribers within the second quarter of its 2025 monetary yr, a rise of 1.4 million in comparison with the primary quarter.
Those new sign-ups imply that the whole variety of Disney+ and Hulu subscribers is now greater than 180 million, and revenues are up 8%.
Moana 2 was an enormous driver of that: when it got here to the streamer in March, it broke Disney+’s streaming information. In its first 5 days streaming it had 27.3 million views and have become Disney+’s third-biggest animated theatrical premiere of all time. And in keeping with Neilsen, the primary Moana has been the most-watched Disney+ film because the service launched in 2019.
Of course there’s one other key driver of subscriber numbers and income progress: the Disney+ account sharing crackdown, which is now firmly in place in plenty of key areas, and consists of Hulu.
While Disney expects subscriber progress to gradual, predicting a “modest” improve in Disney+ subscribers as higher climate will get us spending extra time outside, CEO Bob Iger is worked up concerning the films coming to theaters and streaming within the year-and-a-bit to return.
Thunderbolts* is the form of Disney movies to return
Bob Iger was in a bullish temper through the earnings name, saying that he had “lots of confidence in our upcoming slate”. That slate consists of 2025’s Lilo & Stitch on Memorial Day weekend – “I’ve seen the film just a few instances. I can endorse it wholeheartedly” – Pixar’s Elio, Fantastic Four, and the subsequent Tron, Zootopia and Avatar films.
“And then subsequent yr [we have] Avengers, Mandalorian, Toy Story and Moana stay motion,” Iger added. “So we have now a slate within the subsequent yr and a half that I not solely have lots of confidence in, nevertheless it’s as robust as any slate I’ve seen in a very long time.”
There was some indication that Disney goes to be extra cautious concerning the films and reveals it makes, with Iger admitting that “everyone knows that in our zeal to flood our streaming platform with extra content material…. amount doesn’t essentially beget high quality”.
He added: “And frankly, we have all admitted to ourselves that we misplaced slightly focus by making an excessive amount of”. Iger talked about Marvel particularly, and says that they’re now consolidating and “focus[ing] extra on their movies [which] we imagine will lead to higher high quality.”
Thunderbolts* is the primary movie coming from that new focus, and Iger says he feels “superb about that”.
That’s not all. Disney predicts double-digit progress within the revenue from its leisure and sports activities divisions, the place ESPN has been doing spectacular numbers: regardless of excessive prices from shopping for school soccer and NFL video games, Iger mentioned that plans to maneuver ahead the launch of a brand new ESPN streaming service that mixes linear TV programming with content material from ESPN+ “quickly”.
