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- <text id=91TT2286>
- <title>
- Oct. 14, 1991: Business Notes:Entertainment
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Oct. 14, 1991 Jodie Foster:A Director Is Born
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 56
- Business Notes
- ENTERTAINMENT
- Mickey's Mini-Profits
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Goofy was there. So were the Seven Dwarfs, along with 7,000
- journalists from 35 countries and a guy named Bush. In an
- extravaganza of self-congratulation and free publicity, the Walt
- Disney company last week celebrated the 20th anniversary of its
- Orlando landmark, Disney World. But in another corner of the
- globally famous theme park, Disney's chief financial officer,
- Richard Nanula, was disclosing to a gathering of financial
- analysts a dramatically different picture of the State of the
- Magic Kingdom: a 20% decline in earnings for fiscal 1991 from
- the previous year's record $824 million. That marks the first
- fall since 1984, when the moribund company began its spectacular
- comeback under the chairmanship of Michael Eisner.
- </p>
- <p> Ironically, much of the slide was the result of declining
- attendance at Disney's theme parks and resorts as gulf-war woes
- and recession kept would-be tourists at home. Adding to the ebb
- in profits is a recent string of box-office busts from Disney's
- moviemaking wing. The company once identified with such runaway
- hits as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Pretty Woman is now more
- associated with disappointing offerings like The Rocketeer, The
- Marrying Man and V.I. Warshawski. With such problematic pics as
- the delayed Billy Bathgate in its future, it may be increasingly
- rare to find Disney employees who whistle while they work.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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