This year Walt Disney lost an estimated $200m on the megaflop John Carter (Argh!). Now the world’s biggest media outfit by sales has The Avengers, which sold a record-setting $207m tickets in its first weekend (Kapow!). Action is desirable in films. Less so in business. Worse, the volatility comes with low margins. Since 2006, Disney’s studio entertainment business has had an average operating margin of 11 per cent. Its TV business generates 31 per cent, and grows much faster, too. So why does Disney bother? For the parties?
今年，華特迪士尼(Walt Disney)在票房慘不忍睹的《異星戰場》(John Carter)上估計虧損了2億美元（啊?。，F在，這家按銷售額計為全球頭號媒體巨頭的企業，有了《復仇者聯盟》(The Avengers)。后面這部影片在上映的首個周末就斬獲了創紀錄的2.07億美元票房收入（哇?。?。跌宕起伏在電影中是可取的，在生意上卻不那么可取。更糟糕的是，這種大起大落還伴隨著低利潤率。2006年以來，迪士尼電影娛樂業務的平均營業利潤率為11%。而該公司電視業務的平均營業利潤率為31%，增長速度也快得多。那么，迪士尼為何要費力從事電影業務？為了湊數嗎？