Bob Iger is Back!!!

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I'm genuinely feeling frustrated by this announcement of the next WDAS movie being a sequel. And a huge part of me wants to call out people on Twitter with an "You idiots! This is all YOUR faults! If you had gone and supported Wish in theaters instead of crapping on it or being all "I'lL wAiT TiLl iT HiTs DiSneY+", this wouldn't have happened! But NOOOOO!!!"

The blame is two-fold. Yes the people who didn’t see Wish are responsible, but so is the people who changed Wish and rushed it out to please investors. So, it was sadly an incident that could not be avoided.

[DisneyJedi]

I'm also moreso mad that after how Wish has done, Disney and Iger will take it as a sign to never go outside their comfort zone or take creative challenges again and instead stick just with standard looking CGI forever.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I'm also moreso mad that after how Wish has done, Disney and Iger will take it as a sign to never go outside their comfort zone or take creative challenges again and instead stick just with standard looking CGI forever.

Unless films like The Boy and the Heron or Fixed win Oscars for Best Animated Feature and unless Tiana is a hit on Disney+.

[Avaitor]

I'm not happy about the news- even though Moana is the last WDAS film I really cared for, turning a TV series into a movie does not sound like a recipe for a strong project- but I understand the desire to focus on successful IPs. And frankly, their last few films just haven't been up to snuff. It's not a surprise that Wish, Strange World and Raya didn't catch on, none of them are very good. Encanto is fine, but hardly on Beauty and the Beast or Little Mermaid's level. I can't blame audiences for not showing up to these films when they're just not that good.

Personally, I think that we need stronger leadership and better movies.

[Sotiris]

As expected, Wall Street fell for it.

Disney Shares Leap 10% as Wall Street Cheers Positive Earnings, New Initiatives
https://www.thewrap.com/disney-shares-l ... itiatives/

Disney Stock Jumps as Analysts Boost Price Targets on “Epic” Quarter, Taking Wind Out of Activists’ Sails
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busin ... 235817621/

Disney Stock Gets Kick as Wall Street Rallies Around Iger’s Moves to Defang Activist Investors
https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/disne ... 235902067/

Wall Street Love Sends Disney Stock Soaring; Activist Investor Calls It “Déjà Vu All Over Again”
https://deadline.com/2024/02/disney-sto ... 235819114/

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

I'm not happy about the news- even though Moana is the last WDAS film I really cared for, turning a TV series into a movie does not sound like a recipe for a strong project- but I understand the desire to focus on successful IPs. And frankly, their last few films just haven't been up to snuff. It's not a surprise that Wish, Strange World and Raya didn't catch on, none of them are very good. Encanto is fine, but hardly on Beauty and the Beast or Little Mermaid's level. I can't blame audiences for not showing up to these films when they're just not that good.

Personally, I think that we need stronger leadership and better movies.

Well, who could they get to be a suitable replacement when Iger’s contract ends in 2026?

There’s no one.

[carolinakid]

Even though I really dislike what Disney has become, my boyfriend and I have quite a bit of Disney stock in our portfolio, so today’s news from Wall St makes us rather giddy! And we’re happy to hear they’re gonna start paying dividends again!

[reee9948]

https://twitter.com/ScottGustin/status/ ... 6733081940

The tweet says, "NEW: In a new video, Disney CEO Bob Iger addresses shareholders saying their vote is "important to Disney's future." He also said the "major distractions we're facing from activist investors are exactly what we don't need."

Interesting, very interesting.

[twihard]

How does anyone have respect for him? He's so flip floppy. pins all the blame on that other Bob guy when he was responsible for all those decisions. now he's pretending that he's not at fault everythign bad going on is cuz of activists when he's the one who made all the choices to appeal to them. If he means what he says bring back Splash Mountain.

[Sotiris]

Bob Iger Has a Brand Problem, But Does It Matter?
https://puck.news/bob-iger-has-a-brand- ... it-matter/

[...] All 29 companies have high favorability ratings (that’s consistent with most opinion surveys of major companies), and people actually carry pretty positive feelings about the major studios. But Disney clearly scores the lowest, with 21 percent unfavorable. No other entertainment company had an unfavorable rating above 11 percent, meaning Disney is nearly twice as disliked as any other Hollywood entity we included. (Hulu, which is owned by Disney, scored especially well at only 8 percent unfavorable, indicating the problem is the Disney brand, not any of its sub-brands necessarily.)

Obviously, Disney is a lot more well-known than, say Warner Bros. or Paramount, so people will harbor stronger feelings about Disney than the others. And we included the larger studio name, not sub-brands like Marvel or Pixar, or individual projects, which people might feel more strongly about. But we compared the media companies to other mass-market and potentially controversial brands like Google and Chick-fil-A, and the unfavorables for Disney are still higher. Respondents were also asked about ESPN, which is owned by Disney and is the second-least liked of the big media brands.

Worse for Disney, polarization by political party is especially apparent in the survey. Fully 30 percent of Republicans and 26 percent of independents have an unfavorable opinion of the company, compared to only 8 percent of Democrats. Republicans also have an elevated unfavorable opinion (about 19 percent) of HBO, and Democrats overindex on negativity toward ESPN. (Importantly, Fox News or Fox was not included in the survey; I think we know how that would poll.) Bottom line: When it comes to Disney, you are much more likely to view it negatively if you are conservative.

Okay, but does any of this Disney sentiment actually matter to moviegoing? The answer, in the aggregate, is probably not much. We asked people why they don’t go to theaters more often, and political messaging in the movies was hardly a factor at all. Overwhelmingly (43 percent) and not surprisingly, people said the cost of going to a theater is the No. 1 deterrent. Only 0.3 percent of those who are not frequent filmgoers said they stay away due to political ideology or “wokeness,” according to the survey. That’s less than half a percent, or four people out of 1,400.

Now, the study didn’t ask whether people stay away from Disney movies due to ideological differences, which might have yielded a much higher number. But with so few citing politics as a deterrent at all, it’s unlikely that specifying “Disney movies” would have moved the needle that much. “The data suggests a separation between the brand and the content,” David Herrin, the lead pollster, told me today. “While conservatives give Disney higher unfavorables, it’s not ‘perceived wokeness’ that’s keeping people from theaters. The more immediate issues facing the entire industry, not just Disney, is the quality of the content and the price of moviegoing.” Agreed. People don’t care about the “messages” in content, as long as that content is entertaining. Barbie could have been ignored or pilloried by the Fox News crowd for its feminist messaging. Instead, it sold tickets about evenly between Republicans and Democrats, per polling data.

I want to share a DM I got from a Disney executive in response to Thursday's column on whether the politicization of the Disney brand impacts box office.

"Everyone says ‘It’s the movies, stupid,’ which is an easy thing for people to say. More appealing movies are a great way to jump the political issues. But more and more, our audience (or the segment of the audience that has been politicized) equate the perceived messaging in a film as a quality issue. They won’t say they find female empowerment distasteful in The Marvels or Star Wars [the latest trilogy starring Daisy Ridley], but they will say they don’t like those movies because they are ‘bad.’ So ‘make better movies’ becomes code for ‘make movies that conform to regressive gender stereotypes or put men front and center in the narrative."

Source: https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/1 ... 3454670234

[Sotiris]

It looks like Dana Walden is the frontrunner for the throne. She is the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment who caused stir online after revealing she passed on TV pilots she didn't find diverse enough.

Inside Disney’s Shadow Succession Game
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busin ... 235831004/

How Dana Walden could defy critics and become Disney’s first female CEO
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/01/disney- ... story.html

[DisneyJedi]

… is that good or bad?

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Depends on your point of view. Saying she is unfit because of cancelling un-diverse shows is unfair to say why she shouldn’t be when Abbott Elementary on ABC one of the best shows of the 2020’s

[Lele]

She's the one who said to automatically reject shows if it's about a white family.

If she does replace Iger, then I hope Disney finally and totally burns.

[Sotiris]

Ex-TikTok chief Kevin Mayer: What Disney’s next CEO needs to succeed Bob Iger
https://fortune.com/2024/02/28/disney-n ... uccession/

[PatchofBlue]

Disney Working to Get Streaming Platforms on Technical Par With Netflix, Iger Says: ‘We Need to Be at Their Level’
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/disney ... 235930773/

Iger, as he has commented before, said that when he returned as CEO in November 2022 following the ouster of Bob Chapek, “I came back and discovered right away that it was a company in a lot of need of fixing.” According to Iger, under Disney’s previous leadership, “Creativity wasn’t really at the center… Most importantly, there wasn’t enough accountability” specifically from creative executives.

Iger said Disney’s studio group has “killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough” but has the company “not been that public about it.” (He didn’t identify the axed films.) He noted that Disney was the No. 1 studio at the box office for seven of the last eight years — with the exception of 2023, when the Mouse House was topped by Universal. Iger gave props to Universal’s “Oppenheimer” blockbuster, calling it a “fantastic film.”

Debated sharing this under the Disney+ thread, but it felt more relevant to this topic.

I wonder what the axed films were.

I want to share a DM I got from a Disney executive in response to Thursday's column on whether the politicization of the Disney brand impacts box office.

"Everyone says ‘It’s the movies, stupid,’ which is an easy thing for people to say. More appealing movies are a great way to jump the political issues. But more and more, our audience (or the segment of the audience that has been politicized) equate the perceived messaging in a film as a quality issue. They won’t say they find female empowerment distasteful in The Marvels or Star Wars [the latest trilogy starring Daisy Ridley], but they will say they don’t like those movies because they are ‘bad.’ So ‘make better movies’ becomes code for ‘make movies that conform to regressive gender stereotypes or put men front and center in the narrative."

Source: https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/1 ... 3454670234

I regret to say that I have absolutely seen this exact narrative play out many times.

[Sotiris]

News from the Morgan Stanley conference.

Bob Iger Pushes Back on Marvel Fatigue, but Says Disney Quietly Canceled Movies
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busin ... 235843133/

Disney Has “Killed A Few Projects” Amid Studio Overhaul, Says Bob Iger; “We’ve Not Been That Public About It”
https://deadline.com/2024/03/disney-bob ... 235846282/

Disney CEO Bob Iger ‘Working Hard’ to Avoid Getting Distracted by Activist Investors
https://www.thewrap.com/disney-bob-iger ... straction/

[Sotiris]

All horrible choices, but if I had to pick one I'd reluctantly go with Josh D'Amaro. Who would you choose out of the 4 as Disney's next CEO?

Walt Disney Co.’s board is focusing on four divisional heads as part of a formal search for an eventual successor to Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, people with knowledge of the matter said. The four are TV chief Dana Walden, ESPN’s Jimmy Pitaro, theme-parks boss Josh D’Amaro and Alan Bergman, who heads the film business, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. As part of the process, Disney may appoint a No. 2 executive — a chief operating officer or president — to serve for a time before Iger steps down, according to the people. His contract runs through the end of 2026, and no decision on a successor is expected this year, the people said. Iger is spending time with all of the internal candidates to help them understand how he approaches the job and give them exposure to business units they’re not familiar with, according to the people.

Walden is seen as a brilliant creative executive with strong talent relationships, but she is still learning the streaming business and has little experience in parks. D’Amaro has plenty of savvy with parks and almost no background in film and TV. Pitaro is leading the charge into streaming for ESPN, the largest sports media company in the world, but has a smaller portfolio than most of his peers. Bergman has spent much of his career at the film studio, with his earlier years in financial roles.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -successor

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

All horrible choices, but if I had to pick one I'd reluctantly go with Josh D'Amaro. Who would you choose out of the 4 as Disney's next CEO?

Alan Bergman

[Kyle]

"Everyone says ‘It’s the movies, stupid,’ which is an easy thing for people to say. More appealing movies are a great way to jump the political issues. But more and more, our audience (or the segment of the audience that has been politicized) equate the perceived messaging in a film as a quality issue. They won’t say they find female empowerment distasteful in The Marvels or Star Wars [the latest trilogy starring Daisy Ridley], but they will say they don’t like those movies because they are ‘bad.’ So ‘make better movies’ becomes code for ‘make movies that conform to regressive gender stereotypes or put men front and center in the narrative."

:/

I really don't think its unlikely that people actually mean what they say. Its not that fans don't want a female protagonist, they just dont want little miss perfect who doesn't need to make any effort to learn what took Luke a lot of hard training. to accomplish in an instant.