Disney posts its first quarterly loss since 2001

The global coronavirus pandemic has been hard on everyone, particularly those of us in the U.S. who have to deal with a shocking level of stupidity from some of our elected officials, but it’s time for us to acknowledge the real victims: Giant corporations, which the supreme court determined are like people but better. As reported by Cartoon Brew, the Walt Disney Company is being hit especially hard by the coronavirus, having apparently lost $4.72 billion from April through June. That makes this the company’s first quarterly loss since 2001 and brings Disney’s total revenue down 42 percent, which is the sort of thing you should expect when a company makes a lot of its money from movie tickets and theme parks—none of which have been able to open in the U.S. until recently, and even then it probably hasn’t been an entirely good idea. (Though, to Disney’s credit, Walt Disney World has actually been making money since reopening, despite being in one of the most virus-ravaged states of the country, which is probably a net loss for America’s continued fight against COVID-19.) Also, Disney did just buy 20th Century Fox and laid a bunch of people from that studio off, so it has severance checks it needs to pay for.