Aiming for a New Box Office Record

Disney's consumer products division, one of the Disney Group's core revenue streams, sold through 728 Disney Stores worldwide;

Not to mention licensing for classic IPs led by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Winnie the Pooh; coupled with licensing for the various characters in Disney Animation's lineup, it brought Disney enormous profits every year.

In the Asian market alone, Disney's IP licensing sales exceeded 5 billion US dollars!

For Dawn, over the past few years, with the rise of Universal Studios and Pixar's emergence, it had made rapid strides in the consumer products market;

Last year, Toy Story 2's smash run turned products such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear dolls, clothing, and mugs into bestsellers, making it the runner-up in the annual consumer products market behind only Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

However, compared with Disney's direct-operation model of chain stores, it was difficult for others to replicate it. They could only open their own specialty stores at certain major theme parks and amusement parks;

Disney's North American chain stores were directly operated, while those in overseas markets were licensed franchises, and their numbers were still growing. According to Disney's plans, they would reach 1,000 stores by the millennium!

But now, Dawn had partnered with Amazon to launch an online sales model. With tech stocks exploding, even Amazon's market capitalization had surpassed 20 billion US dollars.

The NASDAQ Composite Index continued to fall, dropping from its March high of 5,048 points to the current 3,321, a decline of 34.2%;

The Dow Jones Index had also fallen 805 points, a drop of 8.16%. The United States stock market was experiencing its greatest turmoil since the 1987 market crash!

Meanwhile, as the NBA's 1999–2000 regular season came to an end in late April, the Houston Rockets ranked first in the