When Walt Disney opened an amusement park in the middle of Southern California orange groves in 1955, he changed the way that Americans, and the world, viewed such entertainment. Once the domain of carnival hucksters, amusement parks underwent a significant makeover at the hands of the head of the Disney Studios. Through shrewd marketing, including a tie-in to a national television program, Disney successfully marketed Disneyland as a unique entertainment experience and made his theme park world famous. In the mid-1960s, plans were made for a second park, this one located in Florida, which was significant larger than the Anaheim park and which opened in the early 1970s. A third theme park opened in the 1980s in Tokyo, and a fourth in Europe in the early 1990s. The company also operates resorts at each of the theme park sites (with the exception of Tokyo), and is a major supplier of entertainment content (television programs, filmed entertainment, audio/video tapes and Internet content). A cruise line was launched in 1998, and the company owns ABC/Capital Cities television. Having survived significant personnel changes in the early 1990s, including the sudden death of Frank Wells and well-publicized departures of Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Ovitz, the company is no longer one which its founder would recognize. This research considers the international theme park operations of the company, with a particular emphasis on the company's operations in Paris.
In 1997, the company had sales in excess of $22.4 billion and a net profit of more than $1.8 billion. The company is publicly owned, with more than 564,000 shareholders, including a significant number of small (fewer than 100 shares) shareholders. More than 100,000 individuals are employed by Disney throughout the world. The company's sales increased at an annual rate of 18.5 percent from 1993 through 1997; profits during this period increased at 11.5 percent. Both sales...