Year |
Notable Business Events |
Notable Releases (See List of Disney feature films for complete listing) |
---|
1984 |
- Touchstone Films is created after the studio narrowly escapes a buyout attempt by Saul Steinberg, and releases its first film Splash.
- Roy Edward Disney and his business partner, Stanley Gold, remove Ron W. Miller as CEO and president, replacing him with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells.
- The Walt Disney Classics video collection starts up.
|
1985 |
- The studio begins making cartoons for television beginning with Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles.
- The home video release of Pinocchio becomes a best-seller.
|
- The Black Cauldron (Disney's first PG-rated animated film)
- Return To Oz
|
1986 |
- The company's name is changed on February 6 from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company.
- Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, is released under the Touchstone banner.
|
- The Great Mouse Detective
|
1987 |
- First Disney Store opens in Glendale, California.
- The company and the French government sign an agreement for the creation of the first Disney Resort in Europe: the Euro Disney project starts.
- The company opens up a Hall of Fame called Disney Legends with Fred MacMurray as the first induction.
|
|
1988 |
|
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit, from Touchstone Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
- Oliver & Company
|
1989 |
- Disney offers a deal to buy Jim Henson's Muppets and have the famed puppeteer work with Disney resources.
- Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World.
|
|
1990 |
- Jim Henson's death sours the deal to buy his holdings.
- The anthology series is canceled for the second time. The Disney Afternoon block debuts.
|
- Dick Tracy, from Touchstone Pictures
- The Rescuers Down Under
|
1991 |
|
- Beauty and the Beast, the only animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
|
1992 |
- Euro Disney Resort opens outside Paris.
- The company is granted permission for a National Hockey League expansion franchise.
- The team is named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to coincide with the release of The Mighty Ducks.
|
|
1993 |
- Disney acquires independent film distributor Miramax Films.
- Winnie the Pooh merchandise outsells Mickey Mouse merchandise for the first time.
- The policy of periodic theatrical re-issues ends with this year's re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but is augmented for video.
|
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
|
1994 |
- Frank Wells is killed in a helicopter crash.
- Beauty and the Beast opens on broadway.
- Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns to co-found his own studio, DreamWorks SKG.
- Plans for Disney's America, a historical theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, are abruptly dropped.
- Euro Disneyland is renamed Disneyland Paris.
- The Classics video line is unofficially canceled and replaced with the Masterpiece Collection.
|
|
1995 |
- In October, the company hires Hollywood super agent Michael Ovitz to be president.
- Disney purchases DiC Entertainment, and owned rights to shows, including Inspector Gadget (which eventually would be made into a live-action film in 1999) and dubbing of the first two seasons of Sailor Moon.
|
- Toy Story (the first computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios)
- Pocahontas
|
1996 |
- The company takes on the Disney Enterprises name and acquires the Capital Cities/ABC group, renaming it ABC, Inc.
- To celebrate the pairing, ABC's first Super Soap Weekend is held at Walt Disney World.
- Disney makes deal with Tokuma Shoten for dubbing and releasing of Studio Ghibli films in the U.S. In December, Michael Ovitz, president of the company, leaves "by mutual consent".
|
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
|
1997 |
- The anthology series is revived again.
- The home video division releases its first DVDs.
- Disney takes control of the Major League Baseball franchise the California Angels of the American League, renaming the team the Anaheim Angels in order to coincide with Disney's hockey team the Mighty Ducks and to draw more tourism to Anaheim and nearby Disneyland.
|
|
1998 |
- Disney's Animal Kingdom opens.
- Kiki's Delivery Service is released on video.
- Disney Cruise Line sets sail with its first ship, the Disney Magic.
- Toon Disney begins.
|
|
1999 |
- Disney Cruise Line ship Disney Wonder sets sail.
|
|
2000 |
- Robert Iger becomes president.
- Disney-owned TV channels are pulled from Time Warner Cable briefly during a dispute over carriage fees.
- Disney begins its Gold Classic Collection DVD line.
|
- Fantasia 2000, released to IMAX theaters
- Dinosaur
- The Emperor's New Groove
|
2001 |
- Disney's California Adventure and Tokyo DisneySea open to the public.
- Disney buys Fox Family Network for $3 billion in July, giving Disney programming and cable network reaching 81 million homes.
- Disney changes Fox Family Network to ABC Family.
- Fort Worth billionaire Sid Bass is forced to sell his Disney holdings due to a margin call caused partially by the stock market fall that followed the 9/11 attacks.
- The fact that Bass had bought his shares on margin was a shock when it was revealed.
- Losing Bass was a blow to Eisner; Bass was one of his major backers and had recruited Eisner to Disney.
- Disney begins its Platinum Edition DVD line with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as the Walt Disney Treasures DVD box set line for the collector's market.
|
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire
- Monsters, Inc.
|
2002 |
- Walt Disney Studios Park opens near Disneyland Paris (renamed Disneyland Park). The entire area is now called Disneyland Resort Paris.
- Disney finishes negotiations to acquire Saban Entertainment, owner of children's entertainment juggernaut Power Rangers.
- Miramax acquires the USA rights to the Pokémon movies starting with the fourth movie.
- Disney teams up with famous video game company Squaresoft (later known as Square-Enix) to release their first ever role-playing game with various Disney characters, Kingdom Hearts.
- Disney releases Spirited Away in the United States, which goes on to be the first anime film to win an Oscar for Best Animated Film.
- Disney begins joint venture business with Sanrio for Sanrio's greeting cards.
|
- Lilo & Stitch
- Treasure Planet
|
2003 |
- Roy E. Disney resigns as the chairman of Feature Animation and from the board of directors, citing similar reasons to those that drove him off 26 years earlier. Fellow director Stanley Gold resigns with him. They establish a group called "Save Disney" to apply public pressure to oust Michael Eisner.
- Pixar ends distribution agreement with Disney.
- Disney buys the Power Ranger franchise from Saban.
|
- Brother Bear
- Finding Nemo
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (the first film released under the Disney label with a PG-13 rating)
|
2004 |
- Comcast makes an unsuccessful hostile bid for the company.
- Eisner is replaced by George J. Mitchell as chairman of the board after a 43% vote of no confidence.
- Disney turns down distributing controversial documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, which ends up making $100 million.
- On February 17, Disney buys the Muppets, excluding the Sesame Street characters.
- Disney creates Jetix the children's block that mainly consists of Fox Kids shows and original programming on ABC Family and Toon Disney.
- Disney Store chain licensed to The Children's Place.
|
- Home on the Range (Disney's last traditionally animated film)
- National Treasure
- The Incredibles
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
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