Operating income at Disney jumped from less than $300 million when Eisner and Wells took the helm to nearly $800 million in 1987. Though the live-action film and animation studios attracted most of the attention, curiously little of the revenue growth actually came from the company’s more creative initiatives. An internal analysis commissioned by Gary Wilson to help understand the company’s burgeoning profit found that nearly all of it came from just three sources: raising admission prices at the theme parks; greatly expanding the number of company-owned hotels; and distributing the animated
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