Disney has returned to profit after its streaming service made money for the first time and the success of the blockbuster film Inside Out 2.

Inside Out 2, released over the summer, became the highest-grossing animated film of all time which helped the company reach $254m (£200m) in earnings before interest and tax from content sales and licensing.

The original Inside Out film being shown on the Disney+ streaming service drove 1.3 million new subscriptions and resulted in 100 million views of the film since the trailer for the sequel launched in March.

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A streaming surprise

The streaming portion of the business, which includes platforms Hulu and ESPN+, surprisingly became profitable for the first time due to a strong three months (Q3) for predominantly sports-focused ESPN+.

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Disney itself had not expected the segment to be popular until later in the year. It follows the company’s decision to follow Netflix and crack down on password sharing.

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It resulted in that portion of the business reporting a quarterly operating loss of $19m (£14.9m), smaller than its loss of $505m (£396.8m) a year earlier.

That in turn helped the overall entertainment section report nearly triple revenues to $1.2bn dollars (£942bn) compared with the same three-month period a year earlier.

Not all good news

But the picture was not rosy in all corners of the business.

The broader slowdown of the US economy could be seen in the fall in revenue at Disney’s US-based theme parks.

It was because of increased costs, driven by inflation, technology spending and new offerings that revenue for those parks and experiences fell.

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Disneyland Paris too would have fewer visitors due to the impact of the Olympics on normal consumer travel, the company said.

In the coming months there’ll be a “moderations in demand” it added, as income at the parks would be down “mid-single-digits” in the final months of the financial year.

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