The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries have been variously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; the company has business interests in areas that involve mass gatherings (including its theme parks and film releases) and isolation (including its streaming service and U.S. television brands).
Leadership and business In March 2020, Disney's executive chairman Bob Iger announced that he would not take any salary during the pandemic; in 2019 he earned $47.5 million. Chief executive Bob Chapek announced that he will take a 50% pay cut.
The president of Walt Disney World, Josh D'Amaro, was included on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's board for re-opening the state and reinvigorating its economy, while Disney Parks' VP Thomas Mazloum is on the task force for Orange County, Florida's economic recovery.
The publicly listed shares of the company fell 28% on April 20, 2020.
Theme parks
Two of the company's theme parks, Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland, closed on January 25, 2020. On February 28, the Tokyo Disney Resort closed.
On March 12, the company announced that Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, and Disneyland Paris would be closed beginning March 15 through at least the end of the month, marking the first time that all six Disney resorts worldwide were closed. Two days later, Disney announced the temporary suspension of its internship programs, including the Disney College Program and International Programs, which was later extended until the end of 2020. Due to the closure of Walt Disney World, the British variety show Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway canceled a finale taping that had been set to film at the resort in April. On March 27, the closure of both U.S. resorts were extended indefinitely. Cast members were to be paid through the week of April 18, 2020.
Iger suggested that when parks reopen, temperature checks on visitors will become routine.
Walt Disney World employs 75,000 total workers, the biggest single-site employer in the United States. From the week beginning April 20, 2020, over 100,000 staff at Disney theme parks and hotels were put on indefinite unpaid leave, to save the company $500 million. The move was taken due to the extended period of closures for these destinations, which earn over $1 billion per quarter. Disney had arranged with the Florida unemployment program for its 26,000 UNITE HERE union workers in the state to be automatically enrolled, preventing them from needing to apply on the system that is said to regularly fail – though the state's benefits have been criticized for only paying out $275 a week for 12 weeks.
Shanghai Disneyland was the first park to reopen on May 11, 2020, with new safety protocols. Park capacity was limited to 30%, social distancing measures were instituted, and temperature checks and face masks were required for entrance. On May 20, following the easing of some restrictions in Florida for retail and dining establishments, third party retailers at Disney Springs were allowed to reopen. Disney-owned stores in the shopping district reopened on May 27. On May 27, the Orange County Recovery Task Force in Orlando approved Disney's phased approach to opening the Walt Disney World Resort, with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom slated to reopen on July 11, followed by the reopening of Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios on July 15.
On June 10, 2020, the Disneyland Resort in California announced its intentions for reopening. Pending local government approval, the resort intended to open the Downtown Disney shopping district on July 9. The reopening of the Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure was set to follow shortly after on July 17, 2020, sixty-five years to the day the original park opened. However, the reopening of Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and Disney owned resort hotels were postponed indefinitely due to the continuation of the pandemic.
On June 1, the Tokyo Disneyland Resort shopping district, Ikspiari, reopened to the public. The Parks reopened on July 1.
Disneyland Paris reopened on July 15, 2020, but closed in late October when France started a second lockdown.
On September 29, 2020, the New York Times reported that Disney was laying off 28,000 people in the United States, due to the impact of the pandemic on its parks, resorts, cruise line, and retail store business. According to Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of Disney's parks, 67% of the employees reported to be laid off were part-time workers who were paid by the hour.
On November 9, 2020, the Disneyland Resort announced additional furloughs for executive, salaried and hourly cast members. No reopening date for the California parks was known.
On January 11, 2021, Orange County officials announced that Disneyland was set to become a massive COVID-19 vaccination site.
On February 8, 2021, outdoor dining reopened in Downtown Disney. From March 18 through April 19, 2021, Disneyland and Disney California hosted a limited-capacity ticketed event called “A Touch of Disney”, which offered guests to shop at stores and enjoy eateries around the parks. On March 5, 2021, it was announced that Disneyland and Disney California Adventure could reopen with capacity restrictions beginning on April 1, 2021. Four days later, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced at a shareholder's meeting that the company was planning on officially reopening the parks in late April 2021. On March 17, 2021, it was then announced by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products that both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure would officially reopen on April 30, 2021.
On May 3, 2021, the return of the Disney College Program in Orlando was announced for June 2021 with priority given for 2020 applicants to reapply. Though no immediate announcement was made for the program in Anaheim, the Culinary Program, Professional Internships or the International Programs, in July 2021, the Culinary Program was confirmed to return to Orlando for the August 2021 semester.
Disneyland Paris reopened on June 17, 2021, marking the first day in 17 months that all Disney parks worldwide were open.
The Disney International Programs returned to Orlando with the Cultural Representative Program in August 2022, as announced by Disney Programs on March 25, 2022.
Cruises On March 12, 2020, Disney Cruise Line made the decision to stop sailing. It suspended all ships on March 14, when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered cruises to stop sailing for 30 days. On April 6, Disney Cruise Line extended its shutdown and announced it would not launch ships until April 28, and would not travel to Canada until July 1, in line with Canadian cruise ship restrictions. As compensation to passengers, Disney offered full refunds or to re-book a cruise for within 15 months of the original departure. Per CDC direction, the cruise line on June 8, 2020, its restart dates canceled additional trips with Dream class ships sailings through July 27 while the Magic and Wonder sailings through October 2 and September 14, 2020, respectively.
Cinema and television
Walt Disney Studios and Television On March 19, Walt Disney Studios announced that they would no longer report box office figures.
As films began to cancel wide releases at the start of 2020, Disney's Mulan, which was set to premiere on March 27, but was postponed in China and Italy. Particularly for Disney, Mulan not opening in China, where it aimed to make most of its money, was concerning, especially with the possibility of pirated copies appearing, discouraging Chinese patronage in cinemas on release. Mulan's London premiere on March 12 went ahead without a red carpet, but the next day it was announced that the film was removed from the release calendar; on this day, Disney also postponed the releases of Antlers and The New Mutants. Also on March 13, Walt Disney Television announced that production was suspended on many of its series. The Disney Family Singalong, an ABC special on April 16, which featured karaoke performances of songs from Disney works with celebrity guests, was created during the lockdowns in the US.
Delayed productions American Housewife Big Shot (for Disney+; production suspended) Big Sky (postponed after casting finished) Empire Genius Grey's Anatomy The Goldbergs (season 7 finale not filmed) High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (for Disney+; season 2 production suspended) Home Sweet Home Alone (for Disney+; production suspended) The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Last Duel (production suspended) The Little Mermaid Peter Pan & Wendy Pose Queen of the South Shrunk Schooled (season 2 finale not filmed) Snow White
Delayed releases Mulan (moved from March 27, 2020, to July 24, 2020, and again to August 21, 2020, before getting its North American theatrical release cancelled and moving to Disney+) The Bob's Burgers Movie (moved from July 17, 2020, to April 9, 2021, and again to May 27, 2022) Deep Water (moved from November 13, 2020, to August 13, 2021, and again to January 14, 2022, and then moved to Hulu) Free Guy (moved from July 3, 2020, to December 11, 2020, and again to May 21, 2021, and then further to August 13, 2021) The King's Man (moved from September 18, 2020, to February 26, 2021, and up to February 12, 2021, and down to March 12, 2021, then down to August 20, 2021, and then down further to December 22, 2021) Jungle Cruise (moved from July 24, 2020, to July 30, 2021; its original release date was taken by the postponed earlier film Mulan) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (moved from July 9, 2021, to July 29, 2022, and again to June 30, 2023) The New Mutants (moved from April 3 to August 28, 2020) Antlers (moved from April 17, 2020, to February 19, 2021, and again to October 29, 2021) The Personal History of David Copperfield (release outside the UK moved from May 8, 2020, to August 14, 2020, and again to August 28, 2020) The Woman in the Window (May 15, 2020, theatrical release scrapped; moved to Netflix) Nomadland (moved from December 4, 2020, to February 19, 2021, and up to January 29, 2021) Ron's Gone Wrong (moved from February 26, 2021, to April 23, 2021, and again to October 22, 2021) Raya and the Last Dragon (moved from November 25, 2020, to March 12, 2021, and up to March 5, 2021) West Side Story (moved from December 18, 2020, to December 10, 2021) Death on the Nile (moved from October 9, 2020, to October 23, 2020, and again to December 18, 2020, then to September 17, 2021, and then further to February 11, 2022) The Empty Man (moved from August 7, 2020, to December 4, 2020, and up to October 23, 2020) Everybody's Talking About Jamie (moved from October 23, 2020, to January 22, 2021, and again to February 26, 2021, and then moved to Amazon Prime Video)
Pixar The 2020 opening March weekend's biggest film was Disney/Pixar's Onward, making around US$39 million. This was dramatically lower than the year before, when Disney/Marvel film Captain Marvel earned over US$153 million. For its second weekend, during the worst box office period the US had seen in decades, Onward saw the biggest weekend-to-weekend drop of any Pixar film, making $10.5 million, though was still the weekend's biggest film and the only one to make over $10 million. It did not open in the areas most affected by the pandemic; while cinemas were closed in China, it also chose not to open in South Korea, Italy or Japan, and was ultimately made available to purchase digitally on March 21. It was then added to Disney+ on April 3.