Walt Disney handily beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations on Wednesday, lifted by report outcomes at its theme parks and continued cost-cutting efforts, because it introduced an funding in Fortnite-maker Epic Games. Even earlier than the corporate’s investor name, CEO Bob Iger introduced in a CNBC interview that the corporate would take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic and work with the corporate to create a “huge Disney universe.”

“This marks Disney’s largest entry ever into the world of video games and provides vital alternatives for progress and growth,” Iger said in a statement. Disney described an online world in which consumers will be able to play, watch, shop and engage with characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar.

The announcement signals another attempt at interactive entertainment for Disney, which in 2016 shut down its Disney Interactive Studios, publisher of the toys-come-to-life game series “Infinity,” and announced it would instead license its characters to outside game companies. Shares of Disney were up 7% in after-hours trading.

Disney’s board of directors also authorized a $3 billion share repurchase program for the current fiscal year, and declared a dividend of 45 cents a share, payable on July 25 to shareholders of record on July 8. That represents a 50% increase from the dividend paid in January. The company posted earnings of $1.22 per share, excluding certain items, ahead of analysts’ consensus forecast of 99 cents per share for October through December.

Quarterly revenue was comparable to a year ago, at $23.5 billion, but short of projections of $23.6 billion. Disney said it cut $500 million in costs across its business during the quarter, and that it remains on track to meet or exceed $7.5 billion in savings by the end of the current fiscal year.

The company is under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who is seeking Netflix-like profit for its streaming business, better performance of its movies at the box office, and more details about its plans to make ESPN a dominant digital platform. “Just one yr in the past, we outlined an formidable plan to return the Walt Disney Company to a interval of sustained progress and shareholder worth creation,” Iger said in a statement. “Our robust efficiency this previous quarter demonstrates we now have turned the nook and entered a brand new period of progress for our firm.”

The company’s Experiences unit, which includes its theme parks and consumer products, posted record revenue, operating income and operating margins. Disney reaffirmed guidance that its streaming business would reach profitability by September. It reduced streaming operating losses to $138 million in the quarter, a dramatic improvement over a year ago, when it lost nearly $1 billion. The average monthly revenue per Disney+ user, outside of India, rose 14 cents.

The Disney+ streaming service shed 1.3 million subscribers, nearly double the loss of 700,000 that analysts forecast, after an October price increase. The company forecast it would gain 5.5 million to 6 million Disney+ subscribers in its second quarter, with positive momentum in per-user revenue.

The Entertainment unit’s streaming business, which also includes Hulu and Disney+ Hotstar in India, reported revenue of $5.5 billion, just above forecasts, and marking a 15% improvement from a year ago. Overall revenue for the Entertainment segment, which encompasses Disney’s traditional TV business, streaming and film, dropped 7% from a year earlier to $9.98 billion.

The results were dragged down by lower ad revenue at ABC and lower fees from the continued losses of cable subscribers, partially offset by reduced programming costs associated with the Hollywood strikes. The weak box office performance of “The Marvels” and “Wish,” compared with the strong results a year ago from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” dragged content material gross sales and licensing to a loss. Disney’s sports activities division, which incorporates ESPN, the ESPN+ streaming service and Star in India, reported income of $4.8 billion, a achieve of 4% from a yr in the past, however an working lack of $103 million attributable to a deepening loss at Star in India.

Theme park outcomes had been buoyed by the opening of the World of Frozen attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland and Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort. Higher attendance at these parks helped offset a drop at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The unit reported income of $9.1 billion and working earnings of $3.1 billion.

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