Entertainment giant Disney (DIS) had a winner on its hands with the release of Moana 2, but as it turns out, it may have exposed the company to more liability than it expected. It made Disney the target of a $10 billion lawsuit, as it turns out, and investors got concerned. Sufficiently so that they sent Disney shares down fractionally in the closing minutes of Monday’s trading.
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The lawsuit traces back to animator Buck Woodall, who put together a screenplay for a title he called Bucky, over two decades ago. The original Bucky screenplay came to Jenny Marchick, formerly of Mandeville Films and now head of development with Dreamworks. Woodall gave Marchick a screenplay, as well as trailer, for Bucky in 2003, and Marchick, intrigued, began requesting more materials.
Woodall seemed to score a hit, and Marchick assured Woodall—a report from The Independent noted—that she would “get the film greenlit.” This material, the report noted, then was allegedly used in the building of the original Moana. That was when Woodall first decided to sue, but a California court ruled that his filing was too late, and was dismissed. The release of Moana 2, meanwhile, gave Woodall the opening he needed to launch a second attempt, which he did.
Fire Recovery Pledge
A press release from the Disney company itself, meanwhile, notes that it stands ready to help in the wake of the disastrous wildfires currently hitting the state, or at least as far as $15 million will go. That is how much, the reports note, Disney is looking to put up for “fire relief and rebuilding efforts” in the area, once the fires actually go out.
Most of Disney’s support will be going to back up organizations, like the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and the American Red Cross, as well as contributions to its own Employee Relief Fund, to help support its own employees. Though Disneyland did not close during the fires, noted ABC News, it is still likely that Disney employees were impacted in some way by the fires sweeping the state.
Is Disney Stock a Buy or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on DIS stock based on 17 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 16.92% rally in its share price over the past year, the average DIS price target of $126.84 per share implies 17.38% upside potential.
