Bob Iger is the most confident man in Corporate America

Every hero’s journey has its downbeat second act — the part where many-headed monsters have to be fought back, where the road gets dark and twisty and teeming with threats — before the sun comes up and suddenly everything is, more or less, back on track.

Every hero’s journey has its downbeat second act — the part where many-headed monsters have to be fought back, where the road gets dark and twisty and teeming with threats — before the sun comes up and suddenly everything is, more or less, back on track. The Walt Disney Company understands storytelling better than anyone. And Thursday’s earnings amounted to a triumphant shift in the narrative for Wall Street. Monsters, slain. Obstacles, cleared (ish). Future, bright (also ish). See here: Two years, nearly to the day, since Bob Iger returned as CEO, Disney surprised investors Thursday with better-than-expected earnings, and — in a twist no one saw coming — the company offered investors guidance for the next three years. Three years! That’s almost unheard for any company. But it’s especially odd coming from Disney, which typically doesn’t offer any future guidance. What it means is that Disney is confident in a way that few other media companies are right now, given the “uncertain macro environment,” as industry wonks like to say. (Translation: No one knows what the heck is going to happen with Donald Trump in the White House again. But more on that in a moment…)