[Anil.HD]

The Walt Disney Company on Tuesday reported record earnings of 1.8 billion dollars in its third fiscal quarter, on strong revenues from its films and theme parks.

The earnings were up 31 per cent year-on-year in the three months to the end of June, thanks to a superhuman boost from the success of The Avengers movie and a rise in visitors to its Disney theme parks.

The entertainment conglomerate, said revenue rose 4 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier to 11.8 billion dollars.

“We had a phenomenal third quarter, delivering the largest quarterly earnings in the history of our company,” Disney chairman and chief executive Robert A Iger said in a statement.

In addition to The Avengers, which has now made almost 1.5 billion dollars at the global box office, Disney was also helped by the success of its animation unit Pixars’ Brave, which hit cinemas at the end of the quarter but still managed to rack up 342 million dollars.

Revenue from the company’s theme parks rose 9 per cent to 3.4 billion dollars, reflecting improved results from the Tokyo Disney facility, where attendance was low in the same period last year following the earthquake and tsunami.

Disney’s TV and cable stations, which include ESPN and ABC, saw revenue rise 3 per cent to 5.1 billion dollars.