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AS AUDIENCES left the premiere of the new Star Wars film, “The Force Awakens”, in Los Angeles on December 14th, its lastimage still alive in their imaginations, it became obvious that the hit of the year had arrived. Those at the screening saw plenty that is familiar from the original three episodes of the saga. Old characters from the 1980s Star Wars films are joined by a fresh generation of heroes to battle stormtroopers of a new evil galactic order. There is even a new hope of mysterious parentage on a desert planet, though now it is a woman, Rey, instead of Luke Skywalker. After three disappointing prequels the film is a return to form. If “The Force Awakens” evokes the past, but on a grander canvas, Bob Iger, boss of the Walt Disney Company since 2005, has also set about remaking an original formula on a more ambitious scale. An intricate flowchart drawn in 1957 (see next page) elegantly lays out the company’s strategy, with films at the centre surrounded by theme parks, merchandise, music, publishing and television. Each piece of the business provides content and leads to sales for the others. Putting films back at the heart of the business is a reboot of the Disney family’s original scheme to dominate the entertainment industry by using content to appeal to a bigger, global audience. In remodelling itself to prize content over the means to distribute it, Disney has become the envy of the industry. Profits have more than doubled over the past five years, to $8.4 billion, and Disney’s share price has risen nearly fivefold in a little over a decade, easily beating its rivals. Comcast comes closest. Its share price has tripled in the same period; that of 21st Century Fox has doubled. Time Warner’s is up by only 20% and Viacom’s is lower. Disney is the most valuable ofthe lot, worth a starstudded $187 billion. […]