Thread by @gauravsabnis

Was telling my students just 2 days ago in our pre-Oscars class how people don't realize what a massive amount of revenue for Disney comes from theme parks. A quarter of their revenue. In comparison, for Comcast, it's less than 10%.

https://twitter.com/peegeekay/status/1634567942208643074

Oh that is THE main point I make. unlike Hershey Park or Legoland or 6 Flags, Disney world is ridiculously expensive, remote, swampy, with nothing else much (other than Universal properties).

What are people paying this much for?

https://twitter.com/TriggeredYeti/status/1634919973104783364?t=gYB78yAx9sKbGxkBWXXUOYWTk3YmKh5dyNF1vt556Cs&s=19

What they are paying for is the brand value and loyalty for Disney built for decades since you were born. The potential customer for Disney World is literally every single family in the world.

It is a singularly valuable brand relationship that starts when you're a toddler.

Disney doesn't care beyond a point whether Oscar ratings fall. They are playing a much bigger game than selling ads during one night. Oscars are an advertisement themselves that we voluntarily watch.

There are 3 occasions where Americans (and really anyone in the world) will spend as much money as they can afford to.

Wedding
Funeral
Visit to Disney World

Disney world gets almost 60 million visitors a year. And everyone spends as much as they can.

Disney World makes more revenue than the entire GDP of Iceland!

There is nothing in the world that compares in sheer brand value.

Apple and Coke and all are excellent brands. But in terms of sheer lifelong brand equity (defined as the extra money you make just by having your brand on product or service vs an average competitor), what Disney has with parks is incomparable.

There are still people in the world that will never buy apple or coca cola or Amazon or Microsoft products.

But pretty much 99% of humanity, is they can afford and have access, will happily go to Disney world. And spend as much as they can afford.

Because kids or family or just childhood memories or accompanying someone. Most adults visiting DW would rather be doing something else. But it's such a massive bucket list item in general. People like you and me are a tiny percentage.

https://twitter.com/sohinichat/status/1634970662283653120?t=FRRbNRIdMIECaLZp8l-Amw&s=19

The last study I checked for the lecture showed that something like almost 80% of all adults in America had been to Disney World or Disney Land at least once in their lives. And something like 35% had been twice.

A family on average spends about $600 at a Disney property.

And they spend about $3000 on travel and hotel and other things. This is for a family of 4.

These are some insane numbers in terms of assured revenue for relatively little cost. Even with all the DeSantis assholery. In fact I think he's overplayed his hand.

There is absolutely nothing remarkable about Orlando other than Disney and Harry Potter World.

Disney is NOT "woke". Disney is a money making machine whose data show that there is more money to be made in embracing diversity and queer friendly postures.

Eventually white supremacy can't win because white supremacy does not give the best returns to shareholders in this world of ours. It did for several centuries.

MetLife defended segregation and white only policies in 1940s NYC citing fiduciary duty. Not even kidding.

The Mars corporation is a money making machine which is incapable of any "values" no matter what flowery text they put on their website.

It is not "woke" and obsessed with de-sexifying M&Ms cos that's what liberals and universities tell them to do and there's a mind virus.

A publicly traded corporation by definition has only one "values". To keep giving returns to shareholders.

If the best returns are from segregation and apartheid, the corporation, like MetLife literally said in court many times, will pursue it.

But that's not the world anymore

So with this DeSantis political stunt of "punishing" Disney and taking away their special status, which brings Orlando 60 million multiplied by about $2000 i.e. 120 BILLION of revenue (on top of what Disney makes) is something that goes against Capitalism 101.

It won't happen overnight and won't affect DeSantis in any way. But it will cost Florida big-time.

Not cos there's a "woke mind virus". But because there is nothing special about Orlando other than amusement parks. Disney will just go somewhere "woke" if it's more profitable.

The basic fact that causes Musk or Thiel or Sacks most heartburn is that "wokeness" is the best way for shareholders to make money. There just isn't enough profit anymore, like in the pre WW2 days, for a publicly traded corporation to be unwoke.

The Left has already won. 🤷🏽

It doesn't matter if Disney actually is Mickey mouse type cute or Bob iger type ruthless. It doesn't matter if they still use sweat shops or child labor, except it's a nice topic for a thread rant or a cable news panel and useful for shareholder activism.

This recent wave of ethnofascism around the world, in the larger scheme of things, is definitive proof that progressives "won" the 20th century. This is conservatism's extremely long and violent death rattle.

California is where Disney was born. California is where they can easily create a Disney world as woke as they like. Or even new Mexico or Arizona. It just needs to be a 12 month destination.

Florida is being a total sheikhchilli. Companies have abandoned states before.

Ron DeSantis is jeopardizing over a 100 billion of Florida GDP and thousands of jobs and small businesses to build a narrative of being more badass than trump.

It makes absolutely no sense to court the white supremacist market. Anymore. It just isn't profitable. 🤷🏽

MetLife, the same company that in 1940s NYC said, literally, hey we aren't racist, some of our friends are black, we even built the nicest apartment complex in Manhattan for black people! It is just not fair to our shareholders for us to not follow apartheid.

Not kidding.

Today MetLife is so gung ho about DEI and their ads are more multi colored than a rainbow. Because their fiduciary duty demands being woke.

Just remember the arc of the universe and all that.

Unlike South Africa, there was no law enforcing apartheid in the US after the fifteenth amendment. But major league baseball and NFL stayed whites only for over 50 years, cos that was more profitable.

It stopped being profitable. In comes Jackie Robinson.

Nike has been all in on #BlackLivesMatter from day 1. Not cos Nike is woke. Nike can't have emotions or morals. It is a machine for making money. Whose executives, I'm sure are liberal and woke and all. But they've been in Kapernick's corner cos that's more profitable.

Look at the stock price of Disney or Nike or Starbucks. Any company with a wide customer base that has been attacked by the right wing for being "woke".

10x stock returns in a decade on average at one point.

That's the funny thing. In the end, as long as we keep activism and social reform happening, it is capitalism itself that will lead to a more Marxist world. 🤣🤣🤣

Ramaswamy and DeSantis can rant all they want against ESG as ideological and propaganda and wokeness and whatnot.

Truth is, ESG is the best way to make a little bit more money.

“Listen, all this shit that you’re saying, none of this matters. All that’s of interest is that I am going to make more money than your team. And not even that much more, just a little bit more.”

- Succession explaining the point of it all

And the reason diversity and LGBTQ will win in the end no matter how long it takes is the simple arithmetic that you make more money by selling to more people. Doesn't matter what's in their pants or in their skin cells. 🤷🏽🤷🏽