the walt disney co’s shares closed wednesday at their lowest price since before the house of mouse began releasing star wars films as a massive 2022 decline wiped away all their pandemicera gains and a bit more disney dis stock closed 26 lower wednesday at 8416 the second worst performance of the day for a dow jones industrial average djia component behind only apple inc aapl it was the first time disney shares have closed lower than their 2020 nadir and shares are now down 457 on the year as disney heads for its worst annual stock performance since 1974 according to factset the last time disney stock closed lower was on oct 14 2014 as “guardians of the galaxy” was wrapping up a surprising run at the box office and disney was preparing to launch “big hero 6” into theaters it would be more than a year before disney released “star wars the force awakens” the first star wars movie produced and released by disney the launch of “the force awakens” completed an acquisitionfueled reshaping of disney’s intellectual property that propelled shares to new heights which were only briefly interrupted by pandemic fears in march 2020 disney acquired pixar in 2006 marvel in 2009 and lucasfilm in 2012 leading to years of big boxoffice returns those acquisitions looked just as prescient when disney sought to challenge netflix inc nflx in streaming just before the covid19 pandemic sent consumers toward televisions instead of movie theaters the company has produced several television shows based on marvel and star wars intellectual property that have helped propel disney and its other streaming offerings to a larger total subscriber base than netflix read more disney overtook netflix as the streaming leader and is expected to widen its lead that success sent disney stock to a peak of more than 200 a share in march 2021 after thenchief executive bob chapek revealed early streaming success for disney but 2022 has been a very different story eventually hitting its nadir when disney missed revenue expectations by nearly 1 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter and executives offered a disappointing forecast for the new year disney’s board reacted by dismissing chapek and bringing back his predecessor robert iger as ceo iger was at the helm when disney acquired the lucrative star wars marvel and pixar intellectual property and oversaw the creation and launch of disney before handing the reins over to chapek disney’s boxoffice success currently rides on a more recent acquisition the 524 billion purchase of film and tv assets from 21st century fox foxa  included in that move was the rights to “avatar” the biggest boxoffice success of all time the first sequel to the 2009 film “avatar the way of water” hit 1 billion in global boxoffice returns wednesday after just 14 days in theaters disney is the 46th sp 500 index spx component to close lower than its 2020 bottom according to dow jones market data following amazoncom inc amzn  which surpassed its 2020 low last week as of wednesday’s close 28 stocks on the sp 500 are trading below their 2020 lows including disney don’t miss streaming will look more like cable tv in 2023 here are 5 trends to watch for