Walt Disney vs Netflix

Walt Disney was fired from his job at the Kansas City Star newspaper in 1919 because his editor felt he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He subsequently started Laugh-O-Gram Studios in Kansas City — which went bankrupt. In 1923, he moved to Hollywood with $40 in his pocket and founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio with his brother Roy. His first successful character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was created in 1927 — and promptly stolen by his distributor, who owned the rights.

Having lost Oswald, Disney created a replacement character on the train back to California from New York. He originally named the mouse Mortimer; his wife Lillian suggested Mickey. Steamboat Willie, released in November 1928, was the first cartoon with synchronised sound. The film was a sensation. Mickey Mouse became the most recognisable fictional character in history. Disney later said: "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse."

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in December 1937, was the world's first feature-length animated film. The Hollywood establishment called it "Disney's Folly" — certain that audiences would not watch an 83-minute animated movie. The film cost $1.4 million — Disney had to mortgage his house to help finance it. Snow White grossed $8 million in its initial release, saving the studio from bankruptcy and establishing animation as a legitimate art form.

Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009 and Lucasfilm — the Star Wars franchise — for $4.05 billion in 2012. The acquisitions gave Disney ownership of two of the most valuable entertainment franchises in history. The Marvel Cinematic Universe became the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, generating over $30 billion in box office revenue. The company that Walt Disney had started with $40 and a mouse drawing on a train had become the most powerful entertainment company in human history.

Disney's direct-to-consumer streaming division — Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — had lost more than $11 billion since Disney+ launched in November 2019. CEO Bob Iger, who returned to the role in November 2022, promised the division would reach profitability by end of fiscal 2024. It did: entertainment streaming posted its first profit in Q2 FY2024. Disney reported $91.4 billion in total revenue for fiscal year 2024, with streaming targeting $1 billion in operating income for fiscal 2025. Q1 FY2025 revenue was $24.7 billion — up 5% — with Disney+ gaining 1.4 million subscribers. The business Walt Disney had built on a mouse and a motion picture company had spent more than a decade and $11 billion learning that streaming was harder than it looked.

The founding myth of Netflix is that Reed Hastings was inspired after paying a $40 late fee to Blockbuster for an overdue copy of Apollo 13. Hastings has since admitted this story was invented for marketing purposes — the real origin was Marc Randolph suggesting that DVDs could be rented by mail. Both versions are entertaining. One is true.

In 2000, Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster's CEO laughed them out of the room. At the time, Netflix had 300,000 subscribers and was losing money. Blockbuster had 60 million customers. In 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Netflix was worth $13 billion. By 2026, Netflix would be worth over $400 billion.

Netflix spent $100 million producing two seasons of House of Cards before a single episode had aired, without even a pilot. It was the largest single content bet in television history at the time. The show won three Emmy Awards. The era of streaming-native prestige television had begun — and Netflix had written the rulebook.

In April 2022, Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in over a decade. The stock fell 35% in a day. Within 18 months, Netflix had cracked down on password sharing — converting millions of borrowers into paying subscribers — introduced an ad-supported tier, and added over 40 million new paying members. The recovery was one of the fastest in streaming history.

Netflix ended 2025 with 325 million paid subscribers globally — the largest streaming audience ever assembled. The ad-supported tier, launched in late 2022, reached 250 million monthly active viewers by May 2026, with 60% of new sign-ups now choosing the cheaper ad plan. Ad revenue is on track to double to approximately $3 billion in 2026. Full-year 2025 revenue was $45.18 billion, growing 16% year-over-year, and Netflix guided 2026 revenue of $50–52 billion. The company had also announced an $83 billion offer for Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming assets, which would make it the most dominant entertainment company since the golden age of Hollywood.