Welcome. I thought I would share something with you this morning. Today is my anniversary. Not my wedding anniversary, but seven years ago today, I was named to be the sixth CEO in the history of The Walt Disney Company. I must say those seven years have really flown by, probably because this is one of the greatest jobs in the world. Something that I will always appreciate, to have the honor and the opportunity to run a company as special as The Walt Disney Company is really quite a life experience. Thank you. You know, we move this meeting around every year. We're kind of peripatetic, mostly because we find great customers and fans of The Walt Disney Company just about wherever we go. We've been in Oakland, we were in Albuquerque, we were in Salt Lake City. We did it in Anaheim a few years ago.
This year in Kansas City, where I know we've got some great fans, people who watch ABC on KMBC, people who listen to Radio Disney, shop in the Disney stores, watch the Disney Channel. Kansas City, you may have a bit of a dilemma. Do you go to Disneyland or Walt Disney World? I'm not sure. Maybe you go to both. We'll take it. There is also another special reason why we're in Kansas City, but I will explain that in a minute. Just to give you an idea of what's in store today, I'm going to be followed by our Chairman, John Pepper, who's going to take you through the business portion of today's program. I'm going to come back and talk about some exciting things that are coming up in the company. John's going to take questions on the proxy-related issues.
John's going to join me when I'm done, and we'll take questions on just about any subject you'd like. I mentioned that there's a special reason why we're in Kansas City, and some of you may be aware of it, but Walt Disney himself and his brother Roy and his family spent some time in Kansas City way back in the early part of the 20th century. Take a look at this video, and we'll explain. Thank you very much. See you later.
You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Chairman of the Board of The Walt Disney Company, John Pepper, Jr.
Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a delight to see so many of you here today, and we thank you all for coming. This is, in a way, a bittersweet moment for me. There's no reason you really know, but I'll be stepping down from my role as Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company. This is going to be my last meeting as a board member. It's really hard for me to believe that almost seven years have passed since I joined this board. I'll always be grateful for the experience. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. One of my favorite parts of serving as your Chairman has been the opportunity, the pleasure I've had of meeting employees and cast members and seeing firsthand what Disney means to millions of people all around the world.
I've had the pleasure of watching Chinese children learn English in Beijing with the help of Disney characters and first-class technology. I've watched families create memories for the children and for themselves that will last a lifetime in parks that range all the way from Anaheim to Hong Kong and to Paris. When I look back over the last seven years, there are many, many things to be proud of. Above all, they give me confidence in the future of your company. We've made bold strategic acquisitions that have given Disney new franchises and which have injected new creative potential into your company. Disney's acquisition of Pixar, in particular, was perhaps the most transformational merger that I've ever witnessed in my career. There's also been Marvel and new franchises being created on Disney Channel.
During the last five or six years, we've expanded aggressively into new markets, including the emerging regions of China and India and Russia. They offer unlimited potential for our future. We've made major investments for the future. They include new cruise ships, new attractions in all of our existing parks, and of course, the groundbreaking for a magnificent new park in Shanghai, China. No matter what part of the company that I visit, wherever it's been in the world, I've always been impressed and lifted, as I hope you have, by the passion of Disney's people and their commitment to create an exceptional experience for everyone they meet every day. They know what The Walt Disney Company means to people. They relish the responsibility and the opportunity that comes with that very privileged position.
It has been my honor and a real pleasure to meet with shareholders like you, who've never attended shareholder meetings like Disney has, and in women who share our vision for Disney and who challenge us to keep the creativity and the innovation going so that Disney is just as special for future generations as it's been for all of us. It has also been a great privilege and pleasure to serve and lead an extraordinary Board of Directors. Working with them on behalf of this wonderful company has provided me with an experience that I'll always be grateful for. Today, I've got the honor of introducing the men and women of your Board of Directors one last time. Susan Arnold spent her career at Procter & Gamble. She's retired.
At Procter & Gamble, she was Vice Chairman of the company, as well as the President of all of our global business units. John Chen is Chairman and CEO of Sybase. Sybase is a software development company and a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP. Judy Estrin is CEO of JLabs. JLabs is focused on furthering innovation in business, government, and nonprofit organizations. Bob Iger is, of course, our President and our CEO. Fred Langhammer is Chairman of Global Affairs of the S.P. Lauder Company. Alan Lewis is President and CEO of Potbelly Sandwich Works. Monica Lozano is Chief Executive Officer of ImpreMedia LLC. She's also a publisher and CEO of La Opinión. That's the largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States. Bob Matschullat is a private equity investor and former Vice Chairman and CEO of the Seagram Company. Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer of Facebook.
Orin Smith has served as the President and the Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks. I'd like to ask our directors to stand with—and they're all here with us today—and be recognized by you. Ladies and gentlemen, as I said, working with the Director of the Board of this great company has been a tremendous pleasure. As I said earlier, working with this company has been a great experience. Nothing explains why more than the opportunity that I've had to work with your Chief Executive Officer, Bob Iger. Since becoming CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, Bob has been a transformational leader. In a business environment too often defined by short-term gains, Bob Iger plays the long game, making decisions and investments geared to the long-term growth of your company. There's just one measure of this: a $100 investment at the time that Bob took his position.
It is now worth over $190. Under Bob's leadership, your company has been unrelenting in the pursuit of excellence and our strategic priorities. It's been driving Disney forward to constantly create the content and the experiences that, yes, wow millions of people every year. We've had a fine year in 2011. We've had record revenue, record net income, and record earnings per share. We also had the 56th consecutive year of dividend payments to shareholders, and we were very pleased this past year to raise our dividend by 50% while still investing for the future growth of this great company of ours. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, let me assure you, we have the right strategy for long-term success, and we definitely have the right leadership. With that, I'm going to move on now to consider the formal business that's before this meeting. Let me first cover a few administrative matters.
Today's meeting has been duly called and is being conducted in conformity with the laws of Delaware and the company's charter and bylaws. The notice of the meeting and proxy materials describing the meeting business have been duly sent out and made available to the company's shareholders. Polls opened at 9:00 A.M. this morning, and they'll close at the end of the business portion of this meeting. If you haven't yet voted or if you would want to change your vote, you may do so at any time prior to the closing of the polls. Ballots for this purpose are available at the registration tables just outside the doors that you came in. Copies of the rules for the meeting have been made available at the same location.
I would like to ask for your cooperation in respecting the rules, including the speaking time limits and assisting us in the orderly conduct of the meeting. The business has retained Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions as Inspector of Election for this meeting. Now, we've got four items on the agenda today. They are the election of the 10 directors that are named in the proxy statement, the ratification of the appointment of our registered public accountants, approval of an amendment to our 2011 stock incentive plan, and an advisory vote on executive compensation. I'm going to introduce each of these matters, and then at the end, it'll be the opportunity for all of you present to address any matters that you would like. Once we've completed our consideration of these items, the polls will close, and we will hear a preliminary report from the Inspector of Election.
The business portion of the meeting will then adjourn, and we'll have Bob come back out and we'll talk to business, and I'll introduce a terrific film I know you'll love. I'd like to now introduce our Inspector of Election, Peter Descovich. Peter is a representative of Broadridge, and I would ask him to report on the number of outstanding shares that are present today and which are voting.
Thank you. My name is Peter Descovich, a representative of Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, acting here today as Inspector of Election for this meeting. As of the close of business on January 13, 2012, the record date for this meeting, there were 1,789,767,118 shares of common stock outstanding, each of which is entitled to one vote. There are at least 1,527,779,154 shares of common stock represented by proxy at this meeting, representing at least 85% of the total number of shares entitled to vote.
Thank you, Mr. Descovich. Based on that report, I rule that a quorum is present and that this meeting is qualified to proceed with the business before us. The first proposal, as I said, is the election of 10 members of the board of directors. Each director will hold office for a term of one year. Those nominated for election at this meeting are Susan Arnold, John Chen, Judy Estrin, Bob Iger, Fred Langhammer, Alan Lewis, Monica Lozano, Bob Matschullat, Sheryl Sandberg, and Orin Smith. As you all know, the board has recommended a vote for the election of each of these nominees. The next proposal is the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered accountants for the current fiscal year as recommended by our audit committee.
Services provided by Pricewaterhouse to the company include examination of the company's financial statements and review of its reports and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wayne Jackson, a representative of Pricewaterhouse, is here today to respond to any questions you might have. The board has recommended a vote for the ratification of the appointment of Pricewaterhouse as the company's independent accountants for the fiscal year 2012. The next proposal is approval of an amendment to the 2011 stock incentive plan. We're proposing here to increase the total number of shares available for issuance under this and prior plans by 15 million to a total of approximately 281 million shares. The next proposal is the advisory vote on executive compensation. We're seeking advisory shareholder approval of the compensation of our named executive officers.
We believe the design of our compensation program and the compensation awarded under it creates an appropriate relationship between performance and compensation, and the board has recommended a vote for this proposal. Although this vote is nonbinding, the board of directors and the compensation committee will review the voting results in connection with their ongoing evaluation of the company's compensation program. Those are the proposals. At this point, I will open the floor to discussion of any of the proposals that I've just reviewed with you. If you would like to address one of these proposals, please proceed to a microphone and wait to be recognized. When you are recognized, I would ask that you state your name, tell us where you're from, and identify which proposal you wish to address, and then proceed with your remarks.
I would ask that you limit your remarks to two minutes in order to give everyone an opportunity to be heard. I would also like to emphasize that we're going to have a general question and answer session following the business portion of the meeting where Bob will be here. Please limit any questions or comments you have here to the proposals that I presented. Let me go ahead now and see if there are any remarks or any questions on any of those four proposals that we are presenting here to you today. I appreciate that because we obviously believe in what we're putting out here. With that, we will go on. I so often find that I'm going to have a lot of discussion on this, and you all are a wonderful audience, I must say.
What I would like to do now is a very happy piece of business, and you will agree with me in the next few minutes, is introduce a film which I think just does a terrific job of highlighting why I, and I suspect all of you in this audience, so love this company. It's because it's the impact we have on other people. In any event, we'll look at this film. Bob will then return to talk about the business, and then I'll come back up here to answer questions and answers. There was another piece of business I've been reminded of, my good friend. I'm closing the polls, and I guess we'll get a preliminary report right now, Alan? I'm closing the polls now, and I would note that this will be a preliminary report. We'll be coming back with the final report.
We will hear what the preliminary report is based on the proxies that have already been voted on as of this meeting. They will be clearly a substantial part of what we'll be receiving.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For item one, the election of directors, we have received proxies or votes for a total of 972,631,897 shares for each director. For votes represented at least 73% of the votes cast for each director. For item two, ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, we have received proxies or votes for a total of 1,511,724,505 shares on this proposal. The holders of 13,728,007 shares have voted against the proposal. The holders of 2,326,642 shares have abstained. For item three, approval of an amendment to the 2011 stock incentive plan, we have received proxies for 1,103,427,307 shares, voting in favor of the amendment. The holders of 217,442,073 shares have voted against the amendment. The holders of 4,102,903 shares have abstained. For item four, approval of the advisory vote on executive compensation, we have received proxies for 749,547,177 shares, voting for approval.
The holders of 567,474,510 shares have voted against approval. The holders of 7,950,596 shares have abstained. That concludes my report, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much, Mr. Descovich. Thank you, Mr. Braverman. To translate that, based on that report, I can, subject to the final confirmation of voting results by the Inspector of Election, boil it down by telling you that all of the nominees for election to the board have been duly elected, that the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been duly ratified, and that the amendment to the 2011 stock incentive plan is approved. I would also note that a majority of votes present and eligible to vote approved the advisory proposal on executive compensation. That really does conclude the business portion of this meeting. We will go on now, and we'll take a look at the film I referenced earlier. Following that, Bob will come back. Bob Iger will come back together with Alan Braverman, our Chief Legal Officer, and Jay Rasulo, our Chief Financial Officer.
I'll return here as well to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you very much.
You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment.
Isn't that fantastic? I think that really does capture what Disney means today. The exciting part is it feels like we're really just getting started. We're using technology to tell stories in spectacular new ways and to reach millions more people all over the world. We're expanding into promising new markets around the world. We're creating the kind of entertainment that only Disney can deliver. Since I became your CEO, we've delivered total shareholder returns of more than four times greater than the S&P 500. For fiscal 2011, Disney generated record revenues of $40.9 billion, which was up 7% over last year. We also achieved a record $4.8 billion in net income. That's up 21% over the previous year. Our diluted earnings per share also increased by 24% to a record $2.52. I think our strong performance is a reflection of what Disney means to people around the world.
It's a validation of the remarkable men and women across our company who work so hard to deliver incredible experiences to hundreds of millions of people every single day. This is a very exciting time for our company, and there's so much going on. I thought I would share a few of those things with you. These are things that I'm particularly excited about. John mentioned earlier Shanghai Disneyland. In April, we broke ground on Shanghai Disneyland. That's the largest investment we've ever made outside the United States. Our Imagineers are working on the design as we speak, and we're hoping to welcome our first guests by the end of 2015.
Creating a Disney theme park in China will deliver extraordinary experiences to the people of China, but it's also the most important step that our company could take to enable growth in this very large and obviously very important market. We're also making significant investments in our other parks, including expanding Hong Kong Disneyland and doubling the size of Fantasyland at Walt Disney World, which is the biggest project that we've undertaken there since the park opened in 1971. We launched our fourth cruise ship, the Disney Fantasy, just last week, which joins the Dream, the Magic, and the Wonder to form the most beautiful fleet in the global cruise ship business. I'm looking forward to the Fantasy's maiden voyage at the end of this month, not just because I'm going to be on it. This summer, we're going to open up Cars Land at California Adventure.
It's based on the great characters and stories from Disney Pixar's Cars franchise. There's a picture of it right there. We're taking guests right into Radiator Springs, the town that you all grew to know and love in the movies. There are going to be three new attractions, including Radiator Springs Racers, which is the largest attraction that we've ever built. I spent some time at Cars Land last week, and yes, I did ride all the rides. I do have a great job, I know. Cars Land is going to be, I think, great for everybody, but more than anything, it's going to be just what you love about Pixar: exciting characters in a great place and also everything you expect from a Disney theme park experience. It's also going to be an action-packed summer for our studio. On May 4, we'll release The Avengers.
It features six iconic Marvel superheroes. It's everything that you'd expect from a Marvel story: excitement, adventure, and nonstop action. It's also the first Marvel movie that will be marketed and distributed by Disney. When the new trailer debuted online last week, it set an iTunes record with almost 14 million views just during its first 24 hours. Here's what all the excitement is about.
You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting.
Somewhat of a quiet trailer. The bass actually shook my insides up a little bit. I know you've seen a lot of trailers over the years. Normally, we take the best parts in a film, particularly in an action film, the most exciting action moments, and put them in a trailer. In this particular case, there are so many great moments in this film, we had trouble making a trailer. I was going to show you the whole movie, but we didn't have time. May 4. We're going to follow The Avengers this summer with the animated adventure Brave, which introduces Pixar's first female hero, Merida, who is also an action hero. In the clip you're about to see, several anxious suitors are eagerly competing for Merida's hand, but she clearly has other ideas.
You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment. You are listening to The Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholder Meeting. The program will continue in a moment.
Brave is another great story told in the Pixar tradition of creative brilliance. We can't wait for you to see that film too. Moving on to our digital media business, our digital interactive team is following the phenomenal success of a game called Where's My Water? with more innovative new games in the next few months. The upcoming launch of our new Disney.com will create a new home for all things Disney with an incredibly rich amount of content, something that's easy to navigate, and I think a really strong online experience for Disney fans. Over to our media networks group, they're building on their recent successes as well. For kids, Disney Channel Worldwide continues to be a global powerhouse, also a key franchise driver for our company.
We've launched over 100 Disney Channels around the world so far, including our newest in Russia and in Turkey, entertaining families and children in 168 countries now and giving the company a very strong platform for global growth. Our other channel, Disney XD, now has 23 channels and programming blocks around the world. It is going to add Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand later this year. With its target audience of boys, we think Disney XD is a perfect home for Marvel characters. We're planning to launch a new Marvel Universe programming block on that channel on April 1. Since introducing Disney Junior, a brand for preschoolers, a year ago, we've launched 28 Disney Junior channels and branded program blocks around the world. We're thrilled to be launching a 24-hour Disney Channel in the United States for 30 million U.S. homes just next week.
Over to ABC, they're delivering some of the most watched and the most recorded programs on television, from popular new shows like Once Upon a Time, Revenge to returning hits like Modern Family, which won its second Emmy for outstanding comedy last year. Shows from ABC Studios not only stand out on our network, but they're also sold into more than 200 markets around the world, delivering even greater returns on our investment. Meanwhile, at ABC Family, which superserves the millennial audience, they've had their eighth straight year of record growth. Over to ESPN, it obviously remains the worldwide leader in sports, leveraging innovative technology to bring unprecedented coverage of sports like the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, college football, college basketball, the Indy 500, golf, tennis, the World Cup. You just about name it, it's on ESPN. ESPN just had its most watched year ever.
Today, 70% of people who watch sports on a mobile device are watching ESPN. Today, almost a century after a 22-year-old Walt Disney boarded that train from Kansas City to Hollywood, The Walt Disney Company is clearly one of the best-known entertainment companies in the entire world. I also want us to be one of the most admired companies, not just for our exceptional entertainment experiences, like many that you've seen today, but for the integrity of our people and the way we behave as citizens of the world. I don't think we can be The Walt Disney Company without having this goal. It's part of our brand. It's clearly part of our promise.
That promise includes many things, from our work to protect the environment and conserve natural resources to our commitment to the health and well-being of children and families around the world, to our deep respect and appreciation for the men and women in the military. Supporting the U.S. Armed Forces has been a proud Disney tradition from the very beginning. It's part of our company's history as well as Walt Disney's legacy. As a new generation of America's military men and women complete their service and transition into civilian life, we're increasing our commitment and support for these modern-day heroes. It's a measure of our respect for their sacrifices on behalf of our country. It's our sincere gratitude for their extraordinary contributions to this great country.
Today, we're proud to announce a new initiative that we're calling Heroes Work Here, which reflects our commitment to hire, train, and support military veterans and military families. The military values of honor, integrity, commitment, and courage, along with the skills and experience they've gained through their service, make veterans incredibly valuable employees, and we want them for Disney. That's why we've committed to hiring at least 1,000 U.S. veterans across all segments at our company. We're also making investments in nonprofit organizations that provide training and support services. We're giving our employees a chance to participate in the Disney Volunteers program. These are efforts across the company to support this important community. Lastly, we're launching a national media campaign to encourage other companies to hire veterans as well.
In the coming weeks, you're going to see our Heroes Work Here campaign on ABC and ESPN, ABC Family, and other platforms featuring proud veterans working at Disney, unscripted in their own words. Take a look.
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Real Disney employees. We're going to add 1,000 more, and we're really proud of that. We hope other companies follow our lead. As I said earlier, we have a lot of work to do, but we also have a lot to look forward to this year. As we move ahead, I remain very grateful for the support and wisdom of our great Board of Directors. I continue to rely on their considerable experience and expertise. I'd like to mention three members in particular who have been a very, very important part of our success. After 12 years of service to our board, John Bryson stepped down just last year to become the U.S. Commerce Secretary. He takes our best wishes and sincere gratitude with him. In October, we, along with the rest of the world, lost the great Steve Jobs.
Steve changed the way we worked, the way the world played, the way the world connected to one another. His legacy will extend far beyond the products that he created for the businesses that he built. It will be the millions of people that he inspired, the lives that he changed, and the culture that Steve really defined. He wasn't just a member of our board or our largest shareholder. He was an advisor. Steve was a supporter. He was a believer in the company and a real believer in its people. For me, he was also a dear friend. I think about him every day with great appreciation for his tremendous contributions and especially for who he was as a person. I also want to share my deep respect and gratitude for our outgoing Chairman, John Pepper. John, if you don't mind joining me on stage for a moment.
Wherever you are, John. There you are. I know that you weren't looking to join another board when Disney came calling, but I'm sure glad you took our call. On behalf of our board and our shareholders, the thousands of Disney cast members around the world, many of whom you've had a chance to interact with over the years, and of course, for me, I wanted to express sincere gratitude and appreciation. Your wisdom, your enthusiasm, your advice, your support, the way you challenged us, the way you just believed in Disney and enjoyed every moment that you've been on the board and as Chairman has really been an inspiration to all of us. I don't know that there's a way to really appreciate in words, John, just what you've meant to all of us and to me. Walt Disney, actually, at least as legend has it, created an award.
I'm waiting to get, excuse me. I'll hide it.
I've got a pink backhand.
Many, many, many years ago, Walt created an award. He called it the Mousecar.
The Mouse Curve?
The Mouse Curve is sort of a take on the Oscar, but it was Walt's version of it. He created it to express appreciation to people who had made a difference for the company or helped the company in many ways who were just special. I always liked what it stood for, but we decided to update it a bit, and we changed the name to Golden Mickey. We thought it just was, I don't know, sounded a little bit more contemporary. We put it on a bigger base and just a slightly more substantial statue of Mickey Mouse. I'll give it to you in a minute.
That's okay.
We have only given out—this is actually not to be taken lightly, even though it is a statue of Mickey Mouse—we have only given out a few of these.
Oh, right.
Because we want them to be special. I can't think of a better recipient than you, John. Thank you very, very much, sincerely. I know that the shareholders of this company have benefited greatly from you being their Chairman. Thank you. Here it is, John.
All right. Thank you very much. That was wonderful. Thank you, my friend. Now we'll get to Q&A.
Yes, we will get to Q&A.
This audience doesn't need to hear me rhapsodize about the joy of my experience being on this board and getting to know you, Bob, and all the board members and your staff. This has been a joy of a lifetime. As you can tell, I'm not what you'd call a spring chicken, but to have this opportunity to be part of this company for the last seven years and see it around the world. As I said at the beginning, to come to shareholders' meetings where you just feel the affection for this company that you do for people who we've been able to touch, it's great. I'll treasure this the rest of my life. Thank you very much.
Thank you all.
We're now ready to take some questions. Joining us up here will be Alan Braverman. Alan is a Senior Executive Vice President and the Chief Legal Officer for the company. With him is Jay Rasulo. That's Jay sitting to your left, Alan to your right. Jay is a Senior Executive Vice President of the company and our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, he was responsible for all the parks, cruise ships, and everything to do with Imagineering. We'll open it up now to your questions. If you'd like to ask one, please proceed to one of the microphones and wait to be recognized. When you are recognized, please state your name, tell us where you're from, and then proceed with your questions. I'd like to ask that you limit your questions to no more than two minutes so everybody will get a chance to be heard.
Also, please do not raise or repeat topics that have previously been raised. I'd also like to ask that speakers refrain from raising what would be a purely personal matter since it's really not fair to make everybody sit through that, but we would certainly entertain them privately and outside the main forum here. With that, let's go ahead and I'll start with the microphone number one.
Okay. My name is Eileen Braman, and I'm from Long Beach, California, 20 minutes from Disneyland. My biggest thing is as an annual pass holder for many years at Disneyland, my concern is about the cost of the parking with it. There are four levels of costs for annual passes, but there's only one, a $99 cost for parking. I'd like to suggest that maybe the company change that policy and have a proportionate cost of parking to go along with the number of days that we can attend to Disneyland. That's my suggestion and any input you have, I think it'd go a long way. There are thousands of us pass holders. Thank you.
Thank you for that. Thank you. I'm not familiar with our parking rates or our parking policy, but I will make sure that the appropriate people consider your suggestion and take a look at it.
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you for that. Let me go to microphone three, please.
Hello. My name is Dwight Morgan. I'm a shareholder, a Disney Chase Visa card holder from day one, a Premier Passport holder from day one, a longtime pin collector, and a relatively recent pin trader. I appreciate the discounts afforded by all of these different memberships. I'm also a D23 member from day one. What I find a bit annoying is that when I walk into a Disney operation, I'm told none of my discounts are accepted there. I can understand an operation where that's a lessee and they're just filling a Disney facility and maybe that's the way they're running things. When it's a Disney operation and those people are wearing cast member IDs, I feel that they are representing my company and I've got all of these discounts and none of them are any good. Pin trading specifically is obviously a lucrative source of income for the company.
It seems this part of the organization should be fairly simple to operate. It's become instead a seemingly very unprofessional operation. The soda fountain, for one, next to the elk buddy there is a Disney employee. There are no discounts for anything there. That doesn't seem right. That's the only place that soda fountain pins can be obtained. People come from all over to get them. None of those people get discounts. There's a website that Disney operates to tell when and where pins will be released, how many of them for limited editions, things like that. That website is sadly managed. It's always out of date. It's often incorrect on release dates. I've been at two minutes to run. I'll finish up just a second. I've been there when people have come from out of town specifically for released pins and those pins aren't there. That's not acceptable.
When people travel from Utah and Arizona to Disneyland specifically for that and are told that the pin will be there next week.
Sir, I think we've got the comments.
Bob, I don't know if there are any responses to those comments.
You raised a number.
Sorry, John.
You raised a number of different points. I would hope that where we do offer discounts, particularly to our most valuable customers, that we're providing them. If you have something specific in terms of a specific time or a location where you thought you would do a discount and we didn't provide it, you can perhaps have someone get me some of that info.
Not me. I live close to the park. That's not an issue for me. I'm worried about the guy that drove from Utah to be there for a release on 1,000 pins.
I'm not. Honestly, I'm not aware of how we discount the pins or how we communicate to our customers when pins are available and when they're not. I'll look into the whole process. I have been on the website, but I didn't actually notice any issues with it. I will look into all of that.
All right. I'd like to thank you for last year for the tickets. You managed to pull it off, and I thought that was great.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Hi, my name is James Hansen. I'm from Salt Lake City, Utah. I just wanted to ask Mr. Iger what the progress of the Avatar at Animal Kingdom project is.
We were fortunate to enter into agreement with Director James Cameron. We created Avatar. The design work is just beginning. I actually attended a meeting with Jay Rasulo the other day where we got pitched some of the creative on it. In all likelihood, we're not going to open up an Avatar land until sometime in 2015. The design work is just beginning. Very exciting too.
Thank you.
Microphone four.
Hi, ma'am.
Hi. My name is PJ Butler, and I'm from St. Louis, Missouri. I was wondering when the next phase of the Fantasyland expansion will open.
The Fantasyland expansion in Florida is actually going to open at different times. It's a huge project, as I mentioned earlier, the biggest that we've undertaken since that park opened in 1971. There are a lot of exciting components to it. The first phase, I believe, is going to open sometime in the spring, if I recall, before next summer, the first phase. It's going to take a couple of years before it's finished.
Steve, have you been to Walt Disney World before?
Oh, yeah, I'm excited.
Okay, how many times have you been there?
The next time I go, it'll be my fifth time.
Wow, that's good.
There's a great new coaster that's going in there.
Steve, I have another question for you. I guess I've lost Steve. I was going to ask you a question. What is your favorite ride or attraction there?
That's a very hard question to ask.
I agree. Okay.
Name one.
Thank you.
Steve, name one.
I like Splash Mountain.
Okay. I like Pirates as my favorite. I like Soren. Number three, please. Let me go back to number one here. Number one.
My name is Stephanie Young. I'm from Boss, Missouri. My question is, what are your plans to leverage the Marvel characters at the parks?
We've done some preliminary work. We've had a number of discussions, done some preliminary design work, yet we haven't announced any specific plans. We're working on some concepts, and it's our hope that in a few places around the world, Marvel characters will appear either in attractions or lands or in some form to provide entertainment like our Disney characters do. Thank you.
Number three, please.
My name is Elia Holub from Leawood, Kansas. First, I'd like to congratulate you, Bob, and the rest of your management team for taking the stock to within $2 of its 12-year high. I do have a question. It's a follow-up to the Avatar question. You have this great licensing agreement with Star Wars, which is like a cult. Everybody knows the characters. Not too many people know the Avatar characters. You spent this money with Cameron on an Avatar licensing agreement. Is that to replace Star Wars? Why Avatar and not follow through with Star Wars?
Actually, we invested a fair amount in our Star Tours attractions. The first one went in in California, and there's another one at Walt Disney World. They were both completely redone, providing a totally new experience last year. Members of the board of directors actually experienced that attraction just last June, and they're working really well. Not the board. I mean, the attraction is working really well. The board's working well too. We thought we had an opportunity. We have invested in Star Wars through Star Tours. We thought that Avatar, being the number one movie of all time when it comes to global box office, and there are plans in the works for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.
We thought, similar to the way we leveraged the Star Wars characters and stories and Indiana Jones, that we could take advantage of those great characters and the great world of Pandora that Jim Cameron created and use it to create new experiences, new entertainment. We're still investing a lot, by the way, in our own characters and stories. Cars Land is a great example of that, for instance. We just thought this was a unique proposition, something that we thought we could create a great experience with, and we're pretty excited about it.
Thank you.
Number four, please.
Hi, my name is Corey, and I'm a shareholder from Arizona. My question is, will there ever be a year when Pixar puts out more than one movie?
That's a great question.
That's a very good question.
There might be. They are very, very careful about the movies that they make, and their aim is for quality, not quantity. They have recently expanded their facilities up in Emeryville, California. They built another building, which will give them the ability to produce films a little bit faster, but just a little bit because we want to be careful there that we're still going to make great, we still make great films there. I can't tell you when that will be. By the way, we are re-releasing, though, in a year that we're going to release Brave, we're also re-releasing a Pixar film. Did you see the film Finding Nemo? You did? Okay, good. We are releasing that this year in 3D.
You get a chance to watch that in a completely different experience, and the Pixar creative team is the one that put that movie or changed that movie from its original form to 3D. Thank you for your question.
Thank you. Number three, please.
You call him number three? Yes, that is you.
My name is Jody Coleman. I'm from West Des Moines, Iowa. I've been a shareholder since 1977. My D23 membership is currently being processed because I just purchased it. My question is, are there any plans of taking the Newsies musical that's currently on Broadway and having it down at the Florida Studios park?
We haven't made any plans yet. We're thinking of a step at a time. Newsies was a movie that, as you know, Disney released I think in the early 1990s.
Yeah.
We tried it as an off-Broadway play last year, and it got pretty good reviews. There was a really nice stage available in New York that we decided we would use and remount the play, a slightly larger version of it. I actually went to a run-through of that last week when I was in New York and am very excited about it. It's opening the end of March on Broadway. We are going to keep our fingers crossed if it does well. If it does, then we'll probably leverage some of it in other parts of the company. Thank you for your question.
Thank you for the question. Number one, please.
Thank you.I'm
Dan Leits, a shareholder from Columbia, Missouri. I want to compliment you on the wonderful job you're doing of running this company and welcoming you to Kansas City. While you've been building for the future of The Walt Disney Company, a group of us here have been working to save the history and heritage of the company right here in Kansas City. The short film you showed earlier did an excellent job of outlining how The Walt Disney Company's roots extend to right here in Missouri and particularly to the Wafflegram Studio building here in Kansas City. We have been working with the help of Walt Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, who was with us last evening, to save that building. It would have been destroyed, undoubtedly. It would have been destroyed about a decade ago if we hadn't jumped in to save it from the wrecking ball.
With the help of Walt Disney's daughter, Diane, and her family, we've succeeded in saving and stabilizing that building. It's no longer on the dangerous buildings list. We think it has the potential to be an educational center, a museum perhaps, that would tell the amazing story of Walt Disney's life and work. We have often gone to corporate citizens here in the Kansas City area asking for their help, and often we get the question, "Why isn't The Walt Disney Company part of this?" I would just want to say that we would invite you to partner with us in this project, and we would welcome any input you may have for us.
Dan, thank you very much.
Excuse me.
I'm familiar with the building. I did not know of your efforts until we arrived here yesterday. We have a gentleman with us named Stephen Clark who works very, very hard at preserving the great legacy of this company and of its founders. I know Stephen may have spoken with you already.
He did.
He's the person for you to make the proposal to, and we'll take a serious look at it.
Great.
You just reminded me of something. Speaking of our heritage, I was remiss earlier at not recognizing one person. If the lights could come up. Walt's brother, Roy O. Disney, had a son, Roy E. Disney, and Roy E. Disney had a son, Roy P. Disney. See, I have my middle names right? So Roy Patrick Disney is here with us today. Roy, would you stand up, please? Did you turn the lights on? Roy is not just a family member. He is a real fan, and he does not miss an annual meeting. We don't make it easy because we move from place to place. Roy, it's really nice to have you with us.
Microphone 4, please.
Hi, I'm Lisa Hale from Aurora, Colorado, and a former Walt Disney World cast member. I'd like to know if there are any plans to update Tomorrowland in Disneyland or Disney World.
We don't have specific plans to update Tomorrowland. We continue to, I'll say, tweak things in Tomorrowland, make some adjustments, make some improvements. We're taking a look at a number of different opportunities. We're in the middle of a very, very large building and expansion and improvement phase. I mentioned Fantasyland, I mentioned Cars Land, the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland, the fourth cruise ship, and Star Tours, which opened last year. We're taking a look at just about everything at our parks to make sure that not only are they running right, but that they continue to give people great guest experiences. We're also creating a lot of new things. I know Tomorrowland's on a list of things to be considered, but I can't give you anything specific.
I just had one of the things that's most impressed me about your company is that not only building new things like another cruise ship or going into Shanghai, which is obviously critical, but the amount of attention that is being put against exactly what you referred to, that is taking things that already exist, like Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, and making them better tomorrow than they are today. The commitment to that is absolutely enormous. Number two, please.
My name is Karen Loftus. I'm from Lenexa, Kansas. My question is, will we be seeing more of the Muppets in the future?
I hope so. There's some work being done on future Muppet projects. One of them is a movie, but I better not say anything more than that. I always wonder, every once in a while, I forget what we've announced and what we haven't announced. I slip and sort of upstage some of the folks in our different businesses and make announcements at meetings like this that I'm not supposed to make yet. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know work's being done on a sequel. I guess that's an announcement.
Okay. Let's see. Number one.
Good morning. I'm Rod Learned from Wichita, Kansas, where Disney Store 509 was one of the best stories in the company its first year of operation. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask this question of the CFO, Mr. Rasulo. The media seemed to have had a heyday with the less-than-stellar box office for John Carter last weekend. Maybe you can tell us what the actual financial impact on the company might be.
I think that it's very early. Of course, we've only had, it's only been in the market four or five days. With movies now finding their home all around the world, with some markets yet to open, with some markets open before the U.S., it's very early to talk about the financial results for that film. I think it would be premature, and I don't really want to give any numbers out. Thank you for the question.
Yeah, I think it's too soon to say. Number three, please.
Good morning and welcome back to Kansas City. My name is Celine Schrankbarber from beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, and I just have a general message. As your trailer from The Avengers brings to us the party, may I remind you of a message from the Midwest. May the core of our company keep its message pure. May our stars and storytellers remain truthful and respectable, and may our company continue to produce tangible products compassionately. As a Missouri school board member of many decades of distinction in Missouri, please keep trailblazing for our youth to shoot for the stars, inspire, imagine, and invigorate our youth, our country, and the world to be the very best that we can be. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Wonderful statement. Years before I joined The Walt Disney Company Board, I had a placard in my office that said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." Little did I know I'd be part of the company of the person who wrote it. Number four.
Hi, I'm Angel Waite from Bellevue, Nebraska. We go every year to Walt Disney World. I have two boys, and we're always struggling for character meals other than like the Fab Five. Are there any plans to bring like Phineas and Ferb, Monsters, Inc.? Any of those character meals? We hear it every year that we're down there. They don't have anything for boys. I have two girls, so the princesses are all, you know, they're great. My little boy would like to do something too.
That's a great suggestion. I know we are hard at work at figuring out ways that we can bring Phineas and Ferb, in particular, into our parks. One of the most popular animated shows on television today has a very, very large boy audience and girl audience, by the way. We think there are some great opportunities there. We're also kicking around some other ideas for pirates, and we've got a few other projects in the works that should give us an opportunity. We're also thinking about how we can leverage Cars more as well in the parks. Tough to do walk-around characters with Cars, but they are drive-around characters, I guess. That's a great suggestion.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you. Number two.
Terrell Nelson, Payson, Utah, DVC member both in Florida and California. As instructed by you last year, Mr. Iger, now a current D23 member.
Thank you.
Disney stockholder, Chase Visa holder. My question is, last year when I addressed the board, I was concerned about the availability of the vacation units for the vacation club members at the Grand Californian. I'm excited to hear about the expansion of units at the Grand Floridian in Florida. I was wondering if there's any plans because of available land behind the iconic Disneyland Hotel, if there might be some option in the future of building some vacation units there also to increase capacity. I do recognize that a very rare occurrence took place recently where you have once again made hotel rooms at the Grand Californian available for vacation club members. Having stayed in the vacation units there the 1st of December this last year with 18 members of my family, what a wonderful place to stay. What a wonderful place to stay.
You mentioned a number of different projects. We are expanding the Grand Floridian vacation units. Construction is underway right now. We opened up a great facility in a great resort in Oahu in Hawaii called Aulani. A quick picture of it in that video, and half of that are vacation club units. You mentioned California. We do not have plans right now to expand more. We look at these projects on a case-by-case basis. We wanted to test out the vacation club concept, the Disney vacation club concept in California before we built something larger. We're still in the process of evaluating it. We do not have plans to build behind the Disneyland Hotel. I don't know if you've been to the Disneyland Hotel lately.
I have.
You like where we've just recently renovated it?
Yep. I used my membership so that my wife and her sisters could spend time in the Disneyland Hotel.
Thank you.
Mr. Pepper, I'd like to thank you for your distinguished service to the board and for making my family's stock worth something. That means something to me.
Thank you very much.
As a gesture, as in last year, as a parting gift for you, we'd all like tickets to Disneyland. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. That gets a little complicated. We talked about that, but essentially, the IRS is involved. Maybe I should leave it at that. I knew there'd be someone here who was at the meeting last year who would remember that.
Number three.
Hi. My name is Victoria Murphy. I'm from Platte City, Missouri. I've been to all the Disney parks, even the one in Hong Kong with my mom and my dad. A colonel in Fort Leavenworth was deployed in Kuwait for that year. I'm also a very avid fan of the very popular video game, Kingdom Hearts. I am asking on behalf of all Kingdom Hearts fans, when is the approximate North American release date for Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance? When are we going to have Kingdom Hearts 3? Sorry about that.
I don't know. That's a sumptuous CEO question. I don't know the answer to that. I'll have to find out.
will figure it out. We will get back to you.
Thank you so much.
There's somebody here who will answer that.
I'm also an Army brat or soon-to-be former Army brat, and my dad's fine. He'll ask his question.
Okay. Number four.
Hi. I'm Pat Benecke from Sunrise Beach, Missouri. I was wondering, have you looked at the feasibility of more 24-hour days at the Disney Park like you did for Leap Year?
That was a huge success. I must admit, we were all surprised by just how popular that was. To celebrate Leap Year, which unfortunately only happens once every four years, we kept Disneyland open 24 hours, and more people showed up than the freeways around Disneyland could even handle that night. The park folks may be talking about doing more of the same. I don't know. I haven't been involved in that discussion. I will pass along your suggestions.
Thank you.
Three.
Yes, you've met my daughter already. Tom Murphy, a 29-year Army veteran. Thank you very much for the veterans program. That's a great announcement. I did have a couple of questions on that. Beyond the first 1,000 in the first year, is there a long-term plan for a number per year? The second part of that is, is there a distribution plan? In other words, are they all going to be located in Los Angeles? Are they all going to be in Orlando? Is it distributed across the United States?
Paul Richardson, are you somewhere in the audience?
I'm going to let the person.
No, he's not here. Okay. I know that it is not targeted to just one site. All of the Disney businesses, ABC, ESPN, our parks and resorts, our Disney stores, our studio will all be taking part in fulfilling that commitment. We've not made plans beyond the 1,000 at this point. I am pretty convinced that this is going to be a real success, not just because it's the right thing to do, but I think we're going to attract some real quality employees with this company. I'm certain that if it is as successful as we think it will be, it will find a way to continue it. We're starting with 1,000.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for being here. Number four, please.
Hi, my name is Drew Davis, and I'm from Indianapolis, Indiana, and I'm a Disney shareholder. I just wanted to second what the lady said about character dining for boys. I visit Walt Disney World quite often, and it would be a nice option for younger boys. I'd also just like to ask about safety and character safety. When I visit the parks, I've noticed there are sometimes that guests abuse or physically assault characters. I just want to know if there's a specific safety policy or abuse policy on that type of situation.
Thank you very much for your support. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often. We do our best to provide the safety of not just our guests, but all of our cast members, particularly those that are on stage or are accessible to all of our guests. Frequently, characters that are in our parks have people that work with them or near them to assist them in carrying out their wonderful job, entertaining the millions of people that they entertain. Fortunately, those incidents don't happen very often.
Thank you.
We always try to learn from them, obviously. Generally speaking, we give our cast members who are characters a fair amount of support.
Okay, thank you very much.
Number three.
Hi, my name is David Ertractor. I'm from Jacksonville, Florida. I just have a comment. When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, it changed Florida. When Disneyland opened in 1955, it changed the industry. It created an industry. The emotional film that you showed earlier today with the two girls finding out they're going to Walt Disney World, I don't think they would have had that reaction if they were going to Six Flags. I can appreciate, and with a marketing and licensing background, I can appreciate the need for branding, and I can appreciate the need for a single message in today's crowded medium. Personally, I find the usage or the growing usage of the term Disney parks, at least in the United States, to downplay the greatness of Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I would encourage a different word.
Just like we created Imagineers from a word that didn't exist, I would suggest and I would challenge the marketing expert of Disney to come up with something better than Disney parks. When I'm at Walt Disney World, I'm at much more than a park.
All right. Thank you very much.
No, thank you.
Interesting suggestion. Thank you.
will take two more questions. Number two, please.
Hi, my name is Jerry Horn from Lee's Summit, Missouri, proud father of a cast member in Orlando. There's been a lot of changes on ABC daytime. We're just curious as to how well the new shows are faring compared to the shows that they replace, and what the future of General Hospital might be.
Actually, I started at ABC in 1974, working on All My Children and One Life to Live, so kind of near and dear to my heart. The business of daytime television changed a lot over the years. The soap operas were once powerful profit centers for ABC and for the company. Over time, because of changes in viewing habits, the profitability decreased substantially. ABC created a new strategy that it's in the process of implementing. They put on two shows in place of All My Children and One Life to Live. One is called The Chew, and one is called Revolution. The Chew is doing extremely well. Revolution is just getting started. They took some of the characters and some of the stories from One Life to Live and put them into General Hospital. That's actually breathing some new life into General Hospital, and that's a good sign.
I'm not going to make any more promises beyond that right now. This is all relatively new. We know that there are a lot of very, very avid fans, loyal fans, not just for seasons, but for decades of those two shows, All My Children and One Life to Live. It came down to a business decision on ABC's part to really work hard to improve its profitability, and so the shows of many decades ended up being canceled.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much.
Number four.
Good morning. My name is Robert Butler. I'm PJ's dad. I'm not sure which one of us is a shareholder, him or me. My add-on suggestion would be if we consider adding the 24-hour day, that the suggestion might be from my son, the Disney expert, that it be December 5, the anniversary of Walt Disney's birthday.
Okay. Thank you.
Interesting.
That's an interesting suggestion. Thank you.
On behalf of all of us, let me thank you all very much for this wonderful set of questions you've had. It was clear just from those of you who came to the microphone how many of you have come from distant places to attend this meeting. We appreciate that. It's just a mark of your support for this company, which is shareholders and just as participants in what we try to do. It makes a huge difference to us and to feel it in a room as we do today. On behalf of Bob, myself, all the management, and certainly all of the board, thank you for being here today. Thank you for your support. Like me, I'm sure.