Disney 4Q Seen Down On Studio Weakness

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings for the three months through September on Thursday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: It was a busy quarter for the Burbank-based family entertainment company, which announced it was buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, and then replaced its movie studio chairman after a disappointing year.

This month, the company also won approval from China's central government to build a theme park in Shanghai in cooperation with the local government. The project is estimated to cost $3.5 billion.

Home video spending continued to decline industrywide in the third-quarter, but Disney may have a harder time at its movie studio because of a relatively weak opening for its 3-D remake of the classic "A Christmas Carol."

The movie, starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge, made $31 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters last weekend, but with an estimated $175 million budget, Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz expects the company to take a loss of $50 million to $100 million in the fourth quarter.