Disney’s theme parks and streaming business both had a strong third quarter, with Toy Story 5 crossing $1 billion at the global box office and helping push Disney’s merchandise sales to their best growth in five years.
The Walt Disney Company released its fiscal third quarter results on August 5, covering the three months ending June 27, 2026. Company-wide revenue reached $25.2 billion, up 7% from the same quarter last year, while adjusted earnings per share rose to $2.06 from $1.61, a 28% jump. New CEO Josh D’Amaro, five months into the role, told investors the results reflect the company operating as one connected business rather than a group of separate divisions.
Disney Experiences, which covers the theme parks, resorts, and Disney Cruise Line, had one of its better quarters. Revenue climbed 10% to nearly $10 billion, and the segment’s operating income jumped 20% to just over $3 billion. Walt Disney World led the way, with strong core attendance from both day guests and annual passholders, helped along by summer promotions and new offerings. Domestic park attendance grew 3% year over year, and guests spent about 4% more per visit than they did last summer. Disneyland Paris also had a good quarter following the opening of World of Frozen.
Combined attendance across every park and cruise ship, a number Disney calls “global guests,” grew 4%. A big part of that came from the cruise line. This was the first full quarter with both the Disney Destiny and Disney Adventure in service, and together the two ships added roughly 50% more stateroom capacity than Disney had a year ago. Disney says bookings for both ships remain healthy heading into the rest of the year, with more cruise capacity planned in the years ahead. Looking further out at the parks, D’Amaro pointed to a coming wave of new attractions, including Villains Land in Florida and the Avengers Campus expansion in Anaheim.
On the Entertainment side, revenue rose 6% to $11.3 billion, and operating income jumped 64% to $1.68 billion. Most of that growth came from higher subscription and licensing fees rather than any single hit, though Toy Story 5 did plenty of work on its own. The film opened June 19 and has already topped $1 billion worldwide, pushing the franchise’s lifetime total past $4 billion. It also gave Disney+ a lift, with more than two billion hours streamed, and helped merchandise sales post their best year-over-year quarter in five years. D’Amaro called it “the Disney flywheel in action,” one story showing up in theaters, on streaming, in stores, and across every park and ship the company operates.
Not every release hit its mark. Both Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and the upcoming live-action Moana came in under Disney’s box office expectations. Even so, Disney says both are still paying off in other ways. The Mandalorian and Grogu drove a jump in Star Wars retail sales and traffic to the newly updated Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Galaxy’s Edge in Anaheim and Orlando, along with a Fortnite tie-in that got fans engaged outside the theater entirely. Moana is expected to land well on Disney+ this fall, building on an original film that’s already one of the most-streamed movies ever and already has a themed area at EPCOT along with a full line of merchandise.
Streaming had a solid quarter too. Subscription revenue for Disney+ and Hulu grew 15% year over year on both new sign-ups and price increases, and combined streaming operating income more than doubled to $712 million from $329 million a year earlier. Disney also reached a milestone in tying Hulu and Disney+ together, letting Hulu subscribers link their profiles and manage everything from one account. The rate at which subscribers cancel dropped during the quarter, something Disney credits partly to better recommendations across the app.
Looking at the rest of the year, Disney still expects adjusted earnings per share to grow about 12% for all of fiscal 2026, or about 16% once an extra week in this year’s calendar is factored in. The company also raised its plans for buying back its own stock to at least $9 billion for the year, helped in part by an agreement to sell its 50% stake in A+E Networks, the parent company of channels like History and Lifetime, for roughly $1.2 billion in cash.
Between the numbers at the parks and the gains in streaming, this was a good quarter for Disney fans to watch from the outside too. New attractions are on the way, cruise capacity keeps expanding, and the company’s biggest franchises are still doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Disney’s Q3 Earnings Show Growth at the Parks and a Toy Story 5 Boost for Everything Else
