Disney sells 500,000 movies via iTunes

Walt Disney has sold nearly a half of a million digital films--totaling about $4 million--through Apple's iTunes store since their debut about two months ago. The numbers translate to about 9,000 movie purchases a day through Apple's online music store. The company told investors during its fiscal fourth quarter conference call that it expects movie downloads to generate $50 million in revenue during the first year of its debut on iTunes. Disney, the only studio to currently offer digital versions of its films via iTunes, has made about 75 movies available on iTunes; it as also announced plans to make both the No. 1 animated film of the year, Cars, and the No. 1 film of the year, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest available on iTunes. According to AppleInsider, Disney's earnings per share for the fourth quarter increased 89 percent to $0.36, compared to $0.19 in the year-ago quarter. Profits doubled from $379 million to $782 million. Meanwhile, a Disney patent hints that it has considered streaming its wireless content to wireless-enabled (but not announced) iPods, PDAs, pagers, and other devices.

Filed under: industry
Other story tags: digital music/video