Walt Disney Pictures released under this brand. "Pirates of the Caribbean" is the studio's most successful franchise, with two of its sequels, released in and , earning over $1 billion in worldwide box office gross. The studio's predecessor (and the modern-day The Walt Disney Company's as a whole) was founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, by filmmaker Walt Disney and his business partner and brother, Roy, in 1923. The creation of Mickey Mouse and subsequent short films and merchandise generated revenue for the studio which was renamed as The Walt Disney Studio at the Hyperion Studio in 1926. In 1929, it was
The Walt Disney Company Fox for $52 billion. The bid was later increased to $71 billion on June 20, 2018 in the wake of Comcast's $65 billion bid for Fox. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled "Alice's Wonderland", which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Roy O. Disney. Film distributor Margaret J. Winkler of M.J. Winkler Productions contacted Disney with plans to distribute a whole series of "Alice Comedies" purchased for $1,500 per reel