MrBeast has dreams of building the next Disney
MICHAEL TRAN/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
- The CEO of MrBeast's company has compared it to Disney in pitching prospective investors.
- Like Disney, Beast Industries is looking to proliferate its IP into different categories.
- MrBeast isn't pitching a theme park yet — but other YouTubers have.
MrBeast wants to build a Disney for the next generation.
The CEO of the YouTuber's company, Beast Industries, has explicitly made the comparison when pitching prospective investors interested in its latest funding round, two people familiar with the discussions told Business Insider.
Jeffrey Housenbold, who joined the company in May, is presiding over Beast Industries as it looks to raise hundreds of millions in funding at a $5 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported in February.
A representative for MrBeast did not respond to a request for comment.
Disney built its empire by proliferating its storied intellectual property into different categories. While its entertainment division — comprising its movie studios, TV networks, and streaming services — drove $41.2 billion in revenue last year, its experiences division, including parks, cruises, and consumer products, was close behind at $34.2 billion.
A February Beast Industries pitch deck obtained by BI illuminates how the kid-friendly creator and YouTube's top star, with over 380 million followers, is similarly looking to move beyond his roots.
"Beast Industries is the next generation diversified media, consumer product goods and services conglomerate," the first slide in the deck said.
The deck added that Beast Industries was exploring ways to "diversify away from MrBeast being on camera" via new IP within the "Beast Universe." It said that in the first quarter of this year, an in-house writers' room would begin to create IP for toys, gaming, animation, comics, and merch.
Simon Owens, an independent journalist, wrote in his Media Newsletter that MrBeast often costars with longtime friends in his YouTube videos, who could be ripe for picking in terms of fresh IP.
On the consumer products front, MrBeast's portfolio is dominated by food — namely, his chocolate brand, Feastables, which the deck said drove $215 million in net revenue last year — but his toy brand, MrBeast Lab, drove $65 million in sales in its first six months.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, isn't pitching a theme park yet, but other YouTubers have. The popular trick shot channel Dude Perfect, which raised more than $100 million in venture capital funding last year, previously teased a theme park project called Dude Perfect World and just unveiled its new Texas headquarters — complete with a putting course, basketball court, and production facilities.
The comparisons between Beast Industries and Disney come as the House of Mouse is losing its monopoly on kids amid YouTube's ascension.
The MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson recently projected that YouTube was on track to eclipse Disney — minus its parks business — this year as the biggest media company in the world.