LOS ANGELES — “Pardon our pixie dust.”
When the Walt Disney Company undertakes construction projects at its theme parks, it displays signs with that message as a promise of the magic to come.
The same request essentially hangs on Disney as a corporation at the moment. As Silicon Valley giants move deeper into Hollywood and the traditional television business unravels, Disney is trying to reinvent itself — buying most of 21st Century Fox, building two streaming services, pouring billions into theme park expansions focused on its “Star Wars” franchise — in pursuit of a new growth trajectory. But things may get a little messy in the meantime.
Disney reported mixed quarterly earnings on Tuesday as losses associated with the development of the planned streaming services — the first of which, arriving in the spring, will involve ESPN and cost $4.99 a month — hurt Disney’s cable television division, where operating income fell 1 percent to $858 million. Disney’s movie studio also reported weaker results, as did the company’s consumer products business.
On the bright side, operating income increased 21 percent, to $1.35 billion, at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts because of higher attendance and ticket prices at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Paris, among other properties. (Disney is expected in the coming week to increase ticket prices again, particularly for peak vacation times, as a way to spread out attendance.
) Disney Cruise Line also had a strong quarter.Analysts, however, were focused on Disney’s various growth plans during a post-earnings conference call, peppering Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, with questions about the company’s $52.4 billion offer for 21st Century Fox assets last month. He had few specific answers.
“We don’t really have any update on…
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