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In what may be good news for a lot of companies, Disney said there were no adverse effects from the U.S. economy slowing down, as strong attendance at its theme parks around the world, along with big DVD hit "High School Musical, led them to a strong quarter.

For the profits at Disney (NYSE:DIS), they did drop from the year before, but that's for the most part based on their divesting of E! Entertainment and Us Weekly. For the quarter their net profit ended at $1.25 billion, or 63 cents a share, down from the $1.7 billion or 79 cents a share they enjoyed last year. Revenue grew by 9 percent to finish at $10.5 billion.

Earnings per share did top the Wall Street average by a healthy margin, coming in at 63 cents a share, where the Street was looking for 52 cents a share.

CFO Tom Staggs said there has been no indication people are tightening up their wallets in their theme park bookings or merchandise sales.

"Our bookings are modestly ahead of last year at this point and we are pleased with their performance so far," Staggs said. "Pricing on hotel (rooms) is slightly ahead of last year."
 
Staggs added that the advertising rates for their fiscal second-quarter are in the double-digits, as far as percentage rates go, in contrast to last year at the same time. Television stations owned by Disney are ahead of last year by about 5-6 percent in advertising percentage rates as well.

For their parks, profits increased by 25 percent reaching $505 million, while studio earnings fell by 15 percent to $514 million. For merchandise, profits grew by a healthy 38 percent to finish at $322 million. 

Taking into consideration the slowing economy and the writers' strike, this was a strong showing for them. Part of it was the costs of production dropping in conjunction with production dropping, and that advertising rates continued to rise even with TV ratings being lower.

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