ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is a U.S.-based pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen along with his son Scott Rasmussen and Ed Egan.

ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices in Miami, New York City, Seattle, Charlotte, and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as chairman of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been much criticism of ESPN, which includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.

ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut

As of September 2018, ESPN is available to approximately 86 million television households (93.2% of households with pay television) in the United States.

In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries, operating regional channels in Australia, Brazil, Latin America, and the United Kingdom, and owning a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) as well as its five sister networks in Canada.

Bill Rasmussen conceived the concept of ESPN in late May 1978, after he was fired from his job with the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers. One of the first steps in Bill and his son Scott's (who had also been let go by the Whalers) process was finding land to build the channel's broadcasting facilities. The Rasmussens first rented office space in Plainville, Connecticut. However, the plan to base ESPN there was put on hold because of a local ordinance prohibiting buildings from bearing rooftop satellite dishes. Available land area was quickly found in Bristol, Connecticut (where the channel remains headquartered to this day), with funding to buy the property provided by Getty Oil, which purchased 85% of the company from Bill Rasmussen on February 22, 1979, in an attempt to diversify the company's holdings. This helped the credibility of the fledgling company, however there were still many doubters to the viability of their sports channel concept. Another event that helped build ESPN's credibility was securing an advertising agreement with Anheuser-Busch in the spring of 1979; the company invested $1 million to be the "exclusive beer advertised on the network."

ESPN launched on September 7, 1979, beginning with the first telecast of what would become the channel's flagship program, SportsCenter. Taped in front of a small live audience inside the Bristol studios, it was broadcast to 1.4 million cable subscribers throughout the United States.

ESPN's next big break came when the channel acquired the rights to broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. It first aired the NCAA tournament in March 1980, creating the modern day television event known as "March Madness." The channel's tournament coverage also launched the broadcasting career of Dick Vitale, who at the time he joined ESPN, had just been fired as head coach of the Detroit Pistons.

In April of that year, ESPN created another made-for-TV spectacle, when it began televising the NFL Draft. It provided complete coverage of the event that allowed rookie players from the college ranks to begin their professional careers in front of a national television audience in ways they were not able to previously.

The next major stepping stone for ESPN came over the course of a couple of months in 1984. During this time period, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) purchased 100% of ESPN from the Rasmussens and Getty Oil.[6] Under Getty ownership, the channel was unable to compete for the television rights to major sports events contracts as its majority corporate parent would not provide the funding, leading ESPN to lose out for broadcast deals with the National Hockey League (to USA Network) and NCAA Division I college football (to TBS). For years, the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball refused to consider cable as a means of broadcasting some of their games. However, with the backing of ABC, ESPN's ability to compete for major sports contracts greatly increased, and gave it credibility within the sports broadcasting industry.

Later in 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA could no longer monopolize the rights to negotiate the contracts for college football games, allowing each individual school to negotiate broadcast deals of their choice. ESPN took full advantage and began to broadcast a large number of NCAA football games, creating an opportunity for fans to be able to view multiple games each weekend (instead of just one), the same deal that the NCAA had previously negotiated with TBS. ESPN's breakthrough moment occurred in 1987, when it secured a contract with the NFL to broadcast eight games during that year's regular season – all of which aired on Sunday nights, marking the first broadcasts of Sunday NFL primetime games. ESPN's Sunday Night Football games would become the highest-rated NFL telecasts for the next 17 years (before losing the rights to NBC in 2006). The channel's decision to broadcast NFL games on Sunday evenings actually resulted in a decline in viewership for the daytime games shown on the major broadcast networks, marking the first time that ESPN had been a legitimate competitor to NBC and CBS, which had long dominated the sports television market.

In 1992, ESPN launched ESPN Radio, a national sports talk radio network providing analysis and commentary programs (including shows such as Mike and Mike in the Morning and The Herd) as well as audio play-by-play of sporting events (including some simulcasted with the ESPN television channel).

On October 10, 1993, ESPN2 – a secondary channel that originally was programmed with a separate lineup of niche sports popular with males 18–49 years old (with snowboarding and the World Series of Poker as its headliners) as well as serving as an overflow channel for ESPN – launched on cable systems reaching to 10 million subscribers. It became the fastest growing cable channel in the U.S. during the 1990s, eventually expanding its national reach to 75 million subscribers.

Ownership of ABC, and in effect control of ESPN, was acquired by Capital Cities Communications in 1985.[9] ESPN's parent company renamed themselves as Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was then acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1996 and was re-branded as Walt Disney Television.

On April 26, 2017, approximately 100 ESPN employees were notified that their positions with the sports network had been terminated, among them athletes-turned-analysts Trent Dilfer and Danny Kanell, and noted journalists like NFL beat reporter Ed Werder and Major League Baseball expert Jayson Stark. The layoffs came as ESPN continued to shed viewers, more than 10 million over a period of several years, while paying big money for the broadcast rights to such properties as the NFL, NBA and College Football Playoff. Further cost-cutting measures taken include moving the studio operations of ESPNU to Bristol from Charlotte, North Carolina, reducing its longtime MLB studio show Baseball Tonight to Sundays as a lead-in to the primetime game and adding the MLB Network-produced Intentional Talk to ESPN2's daily lineup.

The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

Our Businesses

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with the following business segments: Media Networks; Parks, Experiences and Products; Studio Entertainment; and Direct-to-Consumer and International.

Media Networks

Media Networks is the primary unit of The Walt Disney Company that contains the company’s vast array of television networks, cable channels, associated production and distribution companies, and owned and operated television stations across two divisions – Walt Disney Television and ESPN.

Parks, Experiences and Products

Parks, Experiences and Products is the global hub that brings Disney’s stories, characters, and franchises to life through theme parks and resorts, cruise and vacation experiences, and consumer products—everything from toys to apparel, and books to video games.

Studio Entertainment

For over 90 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world.

Direct-To-Consumer and International

Comprised of the Company’s international business units and various direct-to-consumer streaming services, Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) aligns technology, global content sales and advertising sales into a single business segment to create and deliver personalized entertainment experiences to consumers around the world.

Corporate Social Responsibility

At Disney, corporate social responsibility refers to our commitment to operate our businesses in an honorable and ethical manner along with our efforts to bring comfort, inspiration, and opportunity to families around the world.

History of Disney

From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family.

Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else. He had made a cartoon in Kansas City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice’s Wonderland, and he decided that he could use it as his “pilot” film to sell a series of these “Alice Comedies” to a distributor. Soon after arriving in California, he was successful. A distributor in New York, M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the Alice Comedies on October 16, 1923, and this date became the start of the Disney company. Originally known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, as equal partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy’s suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio.

Walt Disney made his Alice Comedies for four years, but in 1927, he decided to move instead to an all-cartoon series. To star in this new series, he created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Within a year, Walt made 26 of these Oswald cartoons, but when he tried to get some additional money from his distributor for a second year of the cartoons, he found out that the distributor had gone behind his back and signed up almost all of his animators, hoping to make the Oswald cartoons in his own studio for less money without Walt Disney. On rereading his contract, Walt realized that he did not own the rights to Oswald—the distributor did. It was a painful lesson for the young cartoon producer to learn. From then on, he saw to it that he owned everything that he made.

The original Disney Studio had been in the back half of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue in Hollywood, but soon Walt had enough money to move next door and rent a whole store for his studio. That small studio was sufficient for a couple of years, but the company eventually outgrew it, and Walt had to look elsewhere. He found an ideal piece of property on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, built a studio, and in 1926, moved his staff to the new facility.

It was at the Hyperion Studio, after the loss of Oswald, that Walt had to come up with a new character, and that character was Mickey Mouse. With his chief animator, Ub Iwerks, Walt designed the famous mouse and gave him a personality that endeared him to all. Ub animated two Mickey Mouse cartoons, but Walt was unable to sell them because they were silent films, and sound was revolutionizing the movie industry. So, they made a third Mickey Mouse cartoon, this time with fully synchronized sound, and Steamboat Willie opened to rave reviews at the Colony Theater in New York November 18, 1928. A cartoon star, Mickey Mouse, was born. The new character was immediately popular, and, a lengthy series of Mickey Mouse cartoons followed.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Walt Disney soon produced another series—the Silly Symphonies—to go with the Mickey series. It featured different casts of characters in each film and enabled animators to experiment with stories that relied less on the gags and quick humor of the Mickey cartoons and more on mood, emotion, and musical themes. Eventually the Silly Symphonies turned into the training ground for all Disney artists as they prepared for the advent of animated feature films. Flowers and Trees, a Silly Symphony and the first full-color cartoon, won the Academy Award® for Best Cartoon for 1932, the first year that the Academy offered such a category. For the rest of that decade, a Disney cartoon won the Oscar® every year.

While the cartoons were gaining popularity in movie houses, the Disney staff found that merchandising the characters was an additional source of revenue. A man in New York offered Walt $300 for the license to put Mickey Mouse on some pencil tablets he was manufacturing. Walt Disney needed the $300, so he said okay. That was the start of Disney merchandising. Soon there were Mickey Mouse dolls, dishes, toothbrushes, radios, figurines—almost everything you could think of bore Mickey’s likeness. The year 1930 was a big one for the mouse that started it all, as it saw the first Mickey Mouse book and newspaper comic strip published.

One night in 1934, Walt informed his animators that they were going to make an animated feature film, and then he told them the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. There were some skeptics in the group, but before long everyone had caught Walt’s enthusiasm, and work began in earnest. It took three years, but the landmark film debuted on December 21, 1937 and became a spectacular hit. Snow White soon became the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held until it was surpassed by Gone with the Wind. Now Walt Disney’s studio had firmer footing. The short cartoons paid the bills, but Walt knew that future profits would come from feature films.

Work immediately began on other feature projects, but just as things were looking rosy, along came World War II. The next two features, Pinocchio and Fantasia, were released in 1940. They were technical masterpieces, but their costs were too high for a company losing most of its foreign markets because of the war. Dumbo was made in 1941 on a very limited budget, but Bambi, in 1942, was another expensive film, and caused the studio to retrench. It would be many years before animated features of the highest caliber could be put into production.

During the war, Walt made two films in South America, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, at the request of the State Department. His studio concentrated on making propaganda and training films for the military. When the war ended, it was difficult for the Disney Studio to regain its pre-war footing. Several years went by with the release of “package” features—films such as Make Mine Music and Melody Time, containing groups of short cartoons packaged together. Walt also moved into live-action production with films such as So Dear to My Heart, but because audiences expected animation from Walt Disney, these films included animated segments. Walt opened some new doors by beginning the award-winning True-Life Adventure series featuring nature photography of a style never seen before.

The year 1950 saw big successes at Disney—the first completely live-action film, Treasure Island, the return to classic animated features with Cinderella, and the first Disney television show at Christmas time. The Company was moving forward again. After two Christmas specials, Walt Disney went onto television in a big way in 1954 with the beginning of the Disneyland anthology series. This series eventually would run on all three networks and go through six title changes, but it remained on the air for 29 years, making it the longest-running primetime television series ever. The Mickey Mouse Club, one of television’s most popular children’s series, debuted in 1955 and made stars of a group of talented Mouseketeers.

Walt was never satisfied with what he had already accomplished. As his motion pictures and television programs became successful, he felt a desire to branch out. One area that intrigued him was amusement parks. As a father, he had taken his two young daughters to zoos, carnivals, and other entertainment enterprises, but he always ended up sitting on the bench as they rode the merry-go-round and had all the fun. He felt that there should be a park where parents and children could go and have a good time together. This was the genesis of Disneyland. After several years of planning and construction, the new park opened on July 17, 1955.

Disneyland was a totally new kind of park. Observers coined the term “theme park,” but even that does not seem to do Disneyland justice. It has been used as a pattern for every amusement park built since its opening, becoming internationally famous and attracting hundreds of millions of visitors. Walt said that Disneyland would never be completed as long as there was imagination left in the world, and that statement remains true today. New attractions are added regularly, and Disneyland is even more popular now than it was in 1955.

The 1950s saw the release of the classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Shaggy Dog—first in a series of wacky comedies—and a popular TV series about the legendary hero Zorro. In the 1960s came Audio-Animatronics® technology, pioneered with Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and then four shows at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and Mary Poppins—perhaps the culmination of all Walt Disney had learned during his long movie-making career. But the ’60s also brought the end of an era: Walt Disney died December 15, 1966.

Plans that Walt left behind carried the Company for a number of years under the supervision of Roy Disney. The Jungle Book in 1967 and The Aristocats in 1970 showed that the Company could still make animated classics, and The Love Bug in 1969 was the highest-grossing film of the year. Disney began work on educational films and materials in a big way with the start of an educational subsidiary in 1969.

After the success of Disneyland, it was only natural for Walt to consider another park on the East Coast. Prior to his death, the Company purchased land in Florida, and the Walt Disney World project, located on some 28,000 acres near Orlando, was announced. It opened October 1, 1971. In Florida, the Company had the space it lacked in California. Finally there was room to create a destination resort, unencumbered by the urban sprawl that had grown up around Disneyland. Walt Disney World would include not only a Magic Kingdom theme park like Disneyland but also hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, and shopping villages. It did not take long for Walt Disney World to become the premier vacation destination in the world.

Roy O. Disney, who after Walt’s death oversaw the building and financing of Walt Disney World, died in late 1971, and for the next decade the Company was led by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum, and Ron Miller—all originally trained by the Disney brothers. One of Walt’s last plans had been for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, as he called it. While he died before the plans could be refined, they were brought out again in a few years, and in 1979 ground was broken for the new park in Florida. EPCOT Center, a combination of Future World and World Showcase representing an investment of more than a billion dollars, opened to great acclaim October 1, 1982.

WED Enterprises (later renamed Walt Disney Imagineering), the design and development division for the parks, had several projects in the works during the early 1980s. In addition to designing Epcot, it was hard at work on plans for Tokyo Disneyland, the first foreign Disney park. Tokyo Disneyland opened April 15, 1983, and was an immediate success in a country that had always loved anything Disney. Now that the Japanese had their own Disneyland, they flocked to it in increasing numbers.

Moviemaking also was changing in America in the early 1980s. Audiences were diminishing for the family films that had been the mainstay of the Company for many years, and Disney was not meeting the competition for films that attracted the huge teenage and adult market. To reverse that trend, Disney established a new label, Touchstone Pictures, with the release of Splash in 1984. At the same time, because of the widespread perception that Disney stock was undervalued relative to the company’s assets, two “corporate raiders” attempted to take over Disney. The efforts to keep the company from being broken up ended when Michael Eisner and Frank Wells became chairman and president, respectively.

The new management team immediately saw ways for Disney to maximize its assets. The Company had left network television in 1983 to prepare for the launch of a cable network, The Disney Channel. While the pay-TV service was successful, Eisner and Wells felt Disney should have a strong network presence as well, so in 1985 Disney’s Touchstone division began the immensely successful Golden Girls, followed in 1986 by a return to Sunday night television with the Disney Sunday Movie (later The Magical World of Disney and The Wonderful World of Disney). Films from the Disney library were selected for the syndication market, and some of the classic animated films were released on video cassette. Using the sell-through technique, Disney classics soon reached the top of the all-time best-seller lists.

The late 1980s brought new innovations to the Parks. At Disneyland, new collaborations with filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Coppola brought Captain EO and Star Tours to the park, and Splash Mountain opened in 1989. Over at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disney’s Grand Floridian Beach and Caribbean Beach Resorts opened in 1988, and three new gated attractions opened in 1989: the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, Pleasure Island, and Typhoon Lagoon. More resort hotels opened in 1990 and 1991.

Filmmaking hit new heights in 1988 as Disney, for the first time, led Hollywood studios in box-office gross. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Good Morning, Vietnam, Three Men and a Baby, and later, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dick Tracy, Pretty Woman, and Sister Act each passed the $100 million milestone. Disney moved into new areas by starting Hollywood Pictures and acquiring the Wrather Corp. (owner of the Disneyland Hotel) and television station KHJ (Los Angeles), which was renamed KCAL. In merchandising, Disney purchased Childcraft and opened numerous highly successful and profitable Disney Stores.

Disney animation began reaching even greater audiences, with The Little Mermaid being topped by Beauty and the Beast in 1991 which was in turn topped by Aladdin in 1992. Hollywood Records was formed to offer a wide selection of recordings ranging from rap to movie soundtracks. New television shows, such as Live With Regis and Kathy Lee, Empty Nest, Dinosaurs, and Home Improvement, expanded Disney’s television base. For the first time in 1991, Disney moved into publishing, forming Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books for Children, and Disney Press, which released books on Disney and non-Disney subjects. Disney purchased Discover magazine, the leading consumer science monthly. As a totally new venture, Disney was awarded in 1993 the franchise for a National Hockey League team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Over in France, the park now known as Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992. Eagerly anticipated, the beautifully designed park attracted almost 11 million visitors during its first year. Disneyland Paris is complemented by six uniquely designed resort hotels and a campground. Dixie Landings and Port Orleans, and a well-received Disney Vacation Club enlarged lodging possibilities at the Walt Disney World Resort, while Mickey’s Toontown and Indiana Jones Adventure helped increase attendance at Disneyland. Walt Disney World opened the All-Star Resorts, Wilderness Lodge, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Blizzard Beach, the BoardWalk Resort, Coronado Springs Resort, The Disney Institute, Downtown Disney West Side, and redesigned Tomorrowland in Magic Kingdom Park.

The Disney success with animated films continued in 1994 with The Lion King, which soon became one of the highest-grossing films of all time. It was followed by Pocahontas in 1995, The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996, Hercules in 1997, Mulan in 1998, Tarzan in 1999, and then Fantasia/2000 at the turn of the century. Toy Story pioneered computer-animation techniques, and was followed by successful sequels. Disney also continued its strong presence in children’s animated programs for television and found success with sequels to animated features released directly to the video market.

In 1994, Disney ventured onto Broadway with a very successful stage production of Beauty and the Beast, followed in 1997 by a unique staging of a show based on The Lion King and in 2000 by Aida. By restoring the historic New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, Disney became the catalyst for a successful makeover of the famous Times Square area. A musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame opened in Berlin, Germany in 1999.

By 1996, there were more than 450 Disney Stores worldwide, and by 1999 that number was up to 725. In Florida, the first home sites were sold in the new city of Celebration, located next to Walt Disney World. Eventually, 20,000 people would call Celebration their home. After the death of the owner Gene Autry, Disney acquired the California Angels baseball team to add to its hockey team, and in 1997 opened Disney’s Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World.

Early in 1996, Disney completed its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC. The $19 billion transaction, second-largest in U.S. history, brought the country’s top television network to Disney, in addition to 10 TV stations, 21 radio stations, seven daily newspapers, and ownership positions in four cable networks.

The years that followed saw the release of a group of very popular live-action films, such as Mr. Holland’s Opus, The Rock, Ransom, Flubber, Con Air, Armageddon, and culminating in the hugely successful The Sixth Sense, which soon reached the 10th spot among the all-time highest grossing releases. Computer animation was showcased in a bug’s life and Dinosaur.

A whole new park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, opened at Walt Disney World in 1998. With a gigantic Tree of Life as its centerpiece, the park was Disney’s largest, spanning 500 acres. A major attraction was the Kilimanjaro Safaris, where Guests could experience live African animals in an amazingly accurate reproduction of the African savannah. An Asian area opened at Animal Kingdom in 1999. Back in California, Tomorrowland at Disneyland was redesigned in 1998.

As the world moved toward a new century, Epcot became the host of Millennium Celebration, Test Track (the longest and fastest Disney park attraction) opened, and other attractions were revised and updated. The Walt Disney Company welcomed a new president—Robert A. Iger—and the Company reached the $25 billion revenue threshold for the first time.

Disney regional entertainment expanded with DisneyQuest and the ESPN Zone in 1998, and that same year, the Disney Magic, the first of two luxury cruise ships, made its maiden voyage to the Caribbean, stopping at Disney’s own island paradise, Castaway Cay.

The year 2000 opened with the release in IMAX theaters of an almost totally new version of Fantasia entitled Fantasia/2000. Other classically animated features were The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, and Brother Bear. Continuing collaborations with Pixar brought the computer-animated blockbuster Monsters, Inc. Popular live-action productions continued with Remember the Titans, Mission to Mars, Pearl Harbor, The Princess Diaries, and The Rookie. The new cable network, SoapNet, was launched, and award-winning productions on ABC included The Miracle Worker, Anne Frank, and Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.

DVD releases became increasingly popular, especially when the company began adding generous amounts of bonus material for viewers. The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD in 2001 sold more than one million units on the first day of release.

For the first time, in 2001, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts opened two new theme parks in the same year. In February, Disney’s California Adventure opened after several years of major construction, which transformed the entire Anaheim area. The new park celebrated the history, culture, and spirit of California, with areas ranging from a Hollywood Pictures Backlot to the amusements of Paradise Pier. Joining it was an upscale shopping area, Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian Hotel, celebrating the Craftsman style of architecture. Across the Pacific in Japan, Tokyo DisneySea opened in September, looking to the myths, legends, and lore of the ocean as the inspiration for its attractions and shows. March 2002 saw the opening of another foreign park, Walt Disney Studios, featuring the history and lore and excitement of the movies, adjacent to Disneyland Paris. Ground was broken in January 2003 for Hong Kong Disneyland.

In 2001, The Walt Disney Company honored the 100th Anniversary of the birth of its founder, Walt Disney. The celebration, called “100 Years of Magic,” was centered at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Florida, and included several parades, an exhibit of archival memorabilia, and the installation of a gigantic Mickey’s sorcerer cap in the Chinese Theater plaza.

The year 2003 saw two Disney films grossing more than $300 million at the box office—Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Disney•Pixar’s Finding Nemo. In fact, Disney became the first studio in history to surpass $3 billion in global box office. In October, Mission: Space opened at Epcot to great acclaim, and the following month the Company celebrated the 75th anniversary of Mickey Mouse. As the year drew to a close the Pop Century Resort opened at Walt Disney World.

After years of partnering, Disney acquired The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House in April 2004. Senator George Mitchell became chairman of the board, and movie theaters welcomed The Incredibles. ABC had a rebirth with such popular series as Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy.

A major anniversary came in 2005 as Disneyland celebrated its 50th, and all of the Disney theme parks joined in a Happiest Celebration on Earth. A brand-new theme park, Hong Kong Disneyland, opened in September, and fall saw the successful releases of Chicken Little and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Robert A. Iger took over as CEO of The Walt Disney Company on October 1 with the retirement of Michael Eisner.

In 2006 High School Musical aired on Disney Channel and become an overnight sensation. In May, Disney made a major purchase of Pixar Animation Studios. Disney•Pixar’s Cars was released in June. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest beat Company records to become the company’s highest grossing feature after its July release. Disney parks celebrated the Year of a Million Dreams with special promotions.

With 2007 came another popular release from Pixar, Ratatouille, and Disney had its first co-production in China—The Secret of the Magic Gourd. The year ended with the hits Enchanted and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The third Pirates of the Caribbean feature, subtitled At World’s End, became the top-grossing film of the year internationally. Disney Channel reached new heights with High School Musical 2, and Hannah Montana shot Miley Cyrus to stardom. In the summer, Disney acquired Club Penguin. At the parks, Disney built on the Pixar brand with the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland, The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot, and Finding Nemo—The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

At Disney parks in 2008, Disney-MGM Studios was renamed Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Midway Mania! opened there and at Disney’s California Adventure, and it’s a small world opened at Hong Kong Disneyland. The Company reacquired ownership of the Disney Stores’ retail locations from The Children’s Place, and the first Disney-operated language training center, Disney English, opened in China. In theaters, audiences flocked to WALL•E and Bolt. Tinker Bell, the first of a series of Disney Fairies films, was released, and Camp Rock and Phineas and Ferb debuted on Disney Channel. Then, all the way on a stage under the sea, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway.

The big news in 2009 was the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. The films Up (which would win two Oscars), the first Disneynature film, Earth, and with a return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog, were in theaters that year. The first Disney film locally produced in Russia, The Book of Masters, was released. D23: The Official Disney Fan Club launched, Disney twenty-three magazine began publication, and the first biennial D23 Expo was held in Anaheim. Bay Lake Tower opened at Walt Disney World, and a Disney Vacation Club section was added to the Grand Californian Hotel. Disney XD replaced Toon Disney, and at the end of the year the Company mourned the passing of Roy E. Disney.

In business news in 2010, the Company sold Miramax. Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3 were released, and they would go on to win two Oscars each. Also on movie screens were Tangled and Tron: Legacy. Video gamers entered the world of Epic Mickey, and World of Color debuted at the renamed Disney California Adventure.

The year 2011 saw the launch of the Disney Dream and the repositioning of the Disney Wonder to the West Coast. The Company purchased the rights to the Avatar franchise for theme parks, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa opened in Hawai‘i, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure debuted at Disney California Adventure, and groundbreaking ceremonies were held for Shanghai Disneyland. In theaters, Disney began distributing DreamWorks films, with The Help winning wide acclaim and a Supporting Actress Oscar for Octavia Spencer. Disney films included Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Winnie the Pooh, The Muppets (Oscar for Best Song), and Cars 2. In New York, Sister Act opened on Broadway and Peter and the Starcatcher off-Broadway.

In theaters in 2012 were John Carter, Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, Frankenweenie, Lincoln (DreamWorks), and Marvel Studios’ The Avengers. Bob Iger took on the additional title of chairman of the board, and Alan Horn became chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. The Disney Junior cable channel replaced SOAPnet. On Broadway, Newsies opened and won two Tony Awardsâ. Cars Land opened at Disney California Adventure, and the Disney Fantasy set sail. At the Walt Disney World, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, an enlarged and enhanced Fantasyland, and a new Test Track opened. D23 sponsored a Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The big corporate news was the acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd.

The beginning of 2013 saw a big achievement for Tokyo Disneyland. On April 15, it celebrated its 30th anniversary, naming it “The Happiness Year.” New additions came to the theme parks, with Fantasy Faire opening in Disneyland and Mystic Point at Hong Kong Disneyland. Box office smashes, including Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World arrived in theaters. After 12 years, fans were able to travel back in time to see Mike and Sully go to school in Monsters University, and hearts melted in November when audiences adventured into the world of Arendelle for the first time with the Academy Award-winning film Frozen.The year 2014 got off to a great start with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opening in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. And, over at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy made its debut. It was also a good year for films when the Company introduced audiences to a new, yet familiar set of horns when Maleficent premiered. Guardians of the Galaxy and Big Hero 6 flew into theaters and were critical and box-office smashes.

In 2015, the live-action film Cinderella reminded us to have courage and be kind. While the film provided many emotional moments, it wasn’t long after that we came face-to-face with all of them—literally—with Disney•Pixar’s Inside Out. Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man debuted in July, and the fourth D23 Expo took place in August at Anaheim. Then, that galaxy far, far away moved a closer when Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted in December.

In 2016 Zootopia premiered in March. Then, it animals of a very different kind pounced onto the screen in the live-action The Jungle Book. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge had its official groundbreaking, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story arrived in theaters on December 16. Moana and Doctor Strange were two other box-office smashes in 2016.

Hong Kong became home to the first Marvel-themed ride at any Disney park in 2017 when Iron Man Experience opened. While guests were joining Iron Man in an epic adventure of a lifetime (as well as a fight against evil), guests at Walt Disney World traveled to a new world when Pandora—The World of Avatar opened in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. May also saw the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the opening of a new attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure.

Later in the year, Miguel and Dante introduced us to the power of family in the Academy Award winner Coco. Then, Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered in December and continued the saga of Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren.

2018 began, not with a bang, but with a star. Minnie Mouse, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining her pals Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. In February, Marvel introduced us to the newest hero to join the Avengers with Black Panther, which would go on to break several records and win multiple Oscars. We saw a childhood favorite unfold before us in A Wrinkle in Time, while also greeting some beloved characters once more in Christopher Robin. Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios also brought back some favorites with Solo: A Star Wars Story and Ant-Man and The Wasp, and Marvel also delivered the biggest movie of the year globally with Avengers: Infinity War. November and December saw the releases of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Mary Poppins Returns, respectively.

On Broadway the stage got a bit chillier when Disney Frozen The Broadway Musical premiered. Pixar Pier also made its debut at Disney California Adventure, and across the way, The Tropical Hideaway opened in Adventureland at Disneyland. As if that wasn’t enough, brand-new way to explore, play, and listen in the parks arrived with the launch of the Play Disney app.

For more than nine decades, The Walt Disney Company has created entertainment of the very highest quality. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to the company of today—which includes Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox, Disney continues to provide quality entertainment for the entire family all around the world.