Theme Parks – Cars/trucks – Movie makers

Disney's quarterly net income rose by 22% compared with a year ago. Despite the economic slowdown, the company recorded brisk trade at its theme parks and resorts, where revenue increased by 11%. The weak dollar was said to help, by making it more expensive for Americans to travel abroad and cheaper for foreigners to visit the parks.

Toyota said it expects to see earnings tumble 27% in the fiscal year ending March 2009. Toyota said the strong yen and weaker U.S. sales took a bite out of January-March earnings and projected worse was to come — a 27 percent plunge in its full-year profit.

An ill-timed bet on the U.S. truck and SUV market contributed to a 28% decline in Toyota Motor Corp.'s net profit for the fiscal first quarter. The Japanese auto giant expanded its truck manufacturing capacity in the U.S. just before a dramatic shift in American tastes away from trucks and sports-utility vehicles to small cars. A $1 billion Texas truck plant that Toyota opened in 2006 is operating well below capacity and eating into margins on the Tundra, a new full-size pickup.

"We are facing a severe business environment. However, Toyota considers this headwind as a valuable opportunity to turn into a more flexible and stronger company," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said.

Toyota, which last saw its profit fall on an annual basis seven years ago, is facing a deep slump in U.S. sales. The company is benefiting from higher sales of small cars, such as the Yaris and Prius, but smaller cars are less profitable.


Business Week reports that Iron Man, the blockbuster superhero movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. as an industrialist who fights terrorists and arms dealers in a red-and-yellow metal suit, pulled off a $100 million-plus opening weekend

Marvel took $150 million from its film fund to make Iron Man and is paying Paramount Pictures (VIA) 10% of net revenues from ticket and video sales on top of its fees for marketing and distribution. Still, Iron Man could generate $1 billion in box-office, home-video, and other sales. And profits (less expenses) could be nearly $200 million, projects analyst Alan S. Gould of brokerage house Natisix Bleichroeder.
Previously, Marvel has licensed Spider-Man and X-Men, among other characters, to studios for about 5% of the box-office take. Marvel also shared the films' lucrative merchandise revenues. This meant that Marvel left a lot of money on the table when it let Sony Pictures produce the Spider-Man movies. With Iron Man and other self-produced films, Marvel will rake in most of the proceeds and all the merchandise sales