The first half of the year has been eventful for Walt Disney (DIS 1.09%). With its continued growth, a new CEO, and at least one bidding war for a media rival, you might think that shares of the family entertainment giant are doing well. But they’re not. Disney stock has declined 13% this year, heading into the final trading day of June.
Can Disney stock get back on track in the second half? Shareholders won’t get fresh financials to mull over until early August, but there are still plenty of things to keep an eye on in July. Another big movie hits theaters, and a couple of theme park moves should eventually make its gated attractions more attractive. Let’s take a closer look at a couple of dates worth circling on the calendar for the month ahead.
Image source: Disney.
July 2
There have been many new experiences for theme park guests at Disney World in recent weeks. Disneyland gets its shot at giving visitors something new later this week, when Soarin’ Across America makes its West Coast debut at Disney’s California Adventure.
The updated attraction happens in the same Soarin’ flight simulator space that takes guests over the World at Disney World and California at Disneyland. The new filmed sequence finds guests gliding over iconic U.S. sites. It will be available for only a limited time, celebrating America’s 250th birthday later this week and probably carrying over into next year.
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July 6
Speaking of updated experiences, one of Disney’s earliest attractions is getting a makeover. Disney World’s Carousel of Progress made its debut at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, years before the Florida resort actually opened. The rotating theater follows an audio-animatronic family through various generations. It closes next week for an overhaul that will reopen at some point in 2027.
The original — and current — attraction starts in the early 1900s, takes guests through the 1920s and 1940s, and then jumps to the present. The final scene made sense when the attraction opened at the World’s Fair in the 1960s, but now there’s an inexplicable 80-year jump between the two final family scenes.
The updated presentation will now start just after the World’s Fair in the 1960s. It won’t need to catapult over several generations with its updated timeline. The update won’t generate the same kind of buzz as the many new Disney World rides and attractions that it will open in the next few years, but the update should draw more guests to the Carousel of Progress.
July 10
It’s been a decade since Disney released Moana. The full-length animated feature generated $643 million in global box office sales, a blockbuster by 2016 standards. When Moana 2 arrived at multiplexes two years ago, it topped $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. It was one of only three movies to cross that mark, and all three have been Disney releases.
Disney is going back to that well a third time next weekend, only this time it’s with actual actors. Moana is a live-action adaptation of the original. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson returns, but most of the other voice actors from the first two films have been recast.
Disney has yet to crack the list of this year’s three highest-grossing films, though Toy Story 5 still has time to get there, with just a couple of weeks in the wild so far. Moana has a shot. Disney’s live-action adaptations of animated classics haven’t all been big hits, but last year’s Lilo & Stitch reboot with actual actors did top $1 billion.
Disney has been the studio behind six of the eight movies that have delivered 10-figure global box office receipts since the start of 2024. It will certainly have one later this year, when Avengers Doomsday comes out during the holiday season.
