Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Kyle
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

Post by Kyle »

That's really not the kind of ai people mean when they talk about it, that was more a sim, was it not? That stuff is fair game.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

Post by D23ExpoVisitor25 »

Kyle wrote: Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:13 pm That's really not the kind of ai people mean when they talk about it, that was more a sim, was it not? That stuff is fair game.
Really.

Well in this case, be specific about the type of AI that people see as a concern for their future in jobs.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

Post by blackcauldron85 »

I just looked up the kind of AI used on Elemental:

Pixar Used AI to Stoke Elemental's Flame
https://www.wired.com/story/pixar-eleme ... ce-flames/
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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D23ExpoVisitor25 wrote: Mon Jun 03, 2024 5:58 pm
Kyle wrote: Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:13 pm That's really not the kind of ai people mean when they talk about it, that was more a sim, was it not? That stuff is fair game.
Really.

Well in this case, be specific about the type of AI that people see as a concern for their future in jobs.
generative ai.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Bob Iger Celebrates 50 Years With Disney: ‘Truly the Ride of a Lifetime’
https://www.thewrap.com/bob-iger-celebr ... th-disney/
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Took him long enough to join Instagram.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Sotiris wrote: Wed May 29, 2024 4:43 pmNelson Peltz sells entire Disney stake weeks after losing proxy battle
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/29/nelson- ... stake.html
Perlmutter got out too.

Perlmutter Sells Entire Disney Stake After Proxy Fight Loss
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock- ... k1S1EtJKhc
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Good riddance. Marvel Studios and Disney are better off without him.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Happy he made a billion for his troubles.
I called my financial advisor immediately and told him to buy more Disney for me and my partner if he thinks it’s a good move...
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Bob Iger Says He’s ‘Obsessed’ With Finding His Successor at Disney: ‘I’d Like to Retire Again’
https://www.thewrap.com/bob-iger-obsess ... successor/

Disney Taps James Gorman as Succession Planning Committee Chair
https://www.thewrap.com/disney-james-go ... tee-chair/

Jimmy Pitaro Says Disney CEO Succession Process Has ‘Not Changed Anything’ About How He’s Running ESPN
https://www.thewrap.com/jimmy-pitaro-es ... uccession/

He Raised Disney Park Prices—and Fans Still Love Him. Now He’s on the CEO Shortlist.
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/josh ... n-0dbdb13c
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Is James Gorman good for business though?
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Walden is seen by most Disney and industry insiders as the leading candidate to take over the entertainment giant when Bob Iger steps down in 2026. Officially, all four of Iger’s chairpersons—Walden, her fellow entertainment co-chair Alan Bergman, ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro, and Parks chief Josh D’Amaro—are under consideration for the job and will go through the requisite preparation and diligence, including formal mentorship from Iger. In truth, however, only Walden and D’Amaro are broadly seen as leading candidates for the position. Pitaro is still a dark horse, given his experience across Disney’s businesses—media, digital, consumer products—and strong support on the board. But Disney may also one day spin off ESPN (it’s already breaking out financials for the business) and Iger presumably wants to preserve his optionality and keep a great leader in a crucial seat. Bergman, who is fundamentally a finance guy, is seen as very unlikely to get the position.

Increasingly, the conventional wisdom among the creative community in-crowd is that Walden is Iger’s preferred candidate, especially given her formidable skills as a television executive, her deep ties to the creative community, and her recent leadership of Disney’s streaming operation. And, yes, they are also both moored in the Brentwood set: After all, it was Walden who came up with the ruse of a walk-and-talk with Iger so that Disney board chair Susan Arnold could reach him and offer him back his old job. Her office in Burbank has a side door that connects to Iger’s suite.

Her champions and acolytes are the very creators, producers, and agents who are so integral to Disney’s core entertainment business, many of whom she has cultivated and empowered—and whose weighted opinion helped drive Bob Chapek down the Matterhorn. Beyond Hollywood, however, there are many who question whether Walden has the financial experience to manage the myriad complexities of the rest of the business, especially at a time of massive disruption and competition.

Disney may be a Hollywood company, but the job isn’t just a Hollywood job anymore. It’s about content and creatives, yes, but also a whole host of other responsibilities: capital allocation to drive organic growth; M&A to shed assets and/or acquire assets; technological innovation; diplomacy with China over expansion, as well as the unions in Anaheim and Orlando over wages and health care deductibles. The list goes on and on. “In my circles, everyone is resigned to Dana getting the job,” one Disney veteran said. “No one disputes her TV bona fides or her style and polish, but no one believes she is capable of running a 225,000-person global business with such a complex set of strategic problems.”

Is that fair? Obviously, none of the four aforementioned candidates have Iger’s holistic and comprehensive understanding of the business—and can’t without actually serving as C.E.O. D’Amaro may have a far better grasp on dynamic pricing at the theme parks, for instance, but his acumen in Hollywood and his ties to creatives may be as limited as those of his predecessor, Chapek, who failed spectacularly in the position. Meanwhile, many of Walden’s defenders see some sexism at play here, and like to point out that Iger himself was seen as an empty suit before his own ascension—a handsome but boring guy without Eisner’s vision and dynamism. He went on to become one of the most revered and well-regarded C.E.O.s in Hollywood history.

The Iger precedent is a little more nuanced, of course: Iger spent five years as chief operating officer before he became C.E.O., so his range of experience was never in question. Then again, that might hint at the true source of anxiety among the Walden skeptics: not that they think she isn’t ultimately capable of the top job, but that the succession process itself might rush her into a position before she’s had similar experience across the company. “Many see Bob falling for Dana the way he fell for Chapek,” the Disney veteran said, “seeing what he wants to see—not tolerating dissent or criticism—and not actively looking for feedback.”
Source: https://puck.news/on-waldens-shores/
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Ah s—t.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Not sure what to think, but maybe Walden would spell good things for ABC and Disney+, which hasn't had many interesting new shows in a long time. Most of what I watch on the network are things they sucked up from elsewhere (Idol, 9-1-1). I've been doing a re-watch of Once Upon a Time the past month (the first 5 seasons + the musical episode + the last episode of S6) and was thinking how fun a revival of that would be either on ABC or Disney+, but only if they could get Morrison to come back. Same with Desperate Housewives, but I don't think Marc Cherry is interested. It's just a shame what happened with Ugly Betty's creator passing, I used to think a revival for that was more of a when than an if, but now it's chances are zero; the voice of the show wouldn't be the same without him.

I tried a little of the Percy Jackson show since I read the books back when, but I don't think it really nails it. Admittedly, the tone of the books is very comical and almost cheesy at times compared to more serious things like HP and LOTR, and that's hard to translate since most of it was Percy's inner monologue that made it that way. The show in comparison is ultra serious and so is Percy.... Feels very odd. I always saw those books as mostly a HP knockoff, only if you switched in Ron as the hero instead (Annabeth being the Hermione character who ends up with him). I remember Riordan did resolve the plots well most of the time though, which is why I finished to the end. Hopefully the series will finish all of those first 5 even if it's imperfect.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Here's a really long article on the Iger/Chapek succession/leadership. If it's behind a paywall, let me know and I can PM you a "gift" article of it since I'm a subscriber.

The Palace Coup at the Magic Kingdom
By James B. Stewart and Brooks Barnes
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/08/busi ... hapek.html

The article is pretty much summed up by:
From the outset, as Disney’s C.E.O., Mr. Chapek faced daunting challenges beyond his control: the onset of a global pandemic, upheaval in an industry being transformed by streaming and the overt hostility of a much admired and still-powerful predecessor.

At the same time, he certainly contributed to his own demise. Soon after he was named chief executive, he stopped ingratiating himself with Mr. Iger. And, by the end, nearly his entire executive team had turned against him, even people he’d hired and promoted. So did the board — not just Ms. Catz, skeptical of him from the outset, but also Ms. Arnold, once his strongest defender.
In the annals of corporate governance, there are surely few failures that rival the Disney board’s handling of Mr. Iger’s transition. The influential shareholder advisory service ISS called it a “failed succession” and cited “major missteps” by the board. Among the more startling were the board’s failure to formally interview Mr. Chapek for the job, its failure to fully consider the unworkable reporting structure in which Mr. Chapek reported to both the board and Mr. Iger, and its failure to curb the debilitating conflict that erupted between the two men.

Few feuds among top executives have ever reached the level of intensity and bitterness of the one between Mr. Iger and his handpicked successor. Mr. Iger has called hiring Mr. Chapek for the top job the worst mistake of his career. Still, the question lingers: How could Mr. Iger have so misjudged Mr. Chapek after working with him for nearly 30 years?
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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I should be in charge. I maybe young and am probably gonna need to be educated on how to run a company. But I’d be a better leader than Iger, Chapek, or Eisner.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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This is a very long article, so here are the juiciest bits for your convenience. :twisted:
Mr. Iger, who started his career as a weatherman on a cable channel in upstate New York, had vowed to never follow in Mr. Eisner’s footsteps. To friends, he mocked Mr. Eisner’s fears about leaving Disney — that his calls to power brokers would go unreturned, and that he wouldn’t be able to get reservations at top restaurants. He told Mr. Chapek and others that he would never stay more than 10 years.
Mr. Iger soured on [Tom Staggs]. He complained that Shanghai Disneyland, Mr. Staggs’s project, was behind schedule and over budget. Mr. Iger pushed out Mr. Staggs in April 2016.
Mr. Chapek was the consummate company man, loyal to Mr. Iger to the point of obsequiousness. Alone among Disney senior managers, he routinely called Mr. Iger “Boss” rather than “Bob,” which Mr. Iger found endearing.
On Feb. 24, the eve of Mr. Chapek’s announcement, the succession plan nearly fell apart. Alan Braverman, Disney’s long-serving general counsel, called Mr. Iger to say that under the company’s bylaws, the chief executive had to report to the board — not to Mr. Iger. For Mr. Iger, that was a nonstarter. He wanted to retain ultimate control. It was Mr. Braverman and Ms. Mucha who came up with a hastily conceived compromise: Mr. Chapek would report to both the board and Mr. Iger. That was OK with Mr. Iger since, from his perspective, Mr. Chapek still reported to him. Mr. Iger insisted that the announcement be made the next morning as scheduled — even though board members hadn’t discussed as a group, let alone approved, the new dual reporting arrangement. No one told Mr. Chapek about the change to the reporting structure. In another sign that Mr. Iger intended to maintain a visible presence, he decided to stay in the office that both he and Mr. Eisner had occupied as chief executives. Mr. Chapek was relegated to smaller quarters nearby. The arrangement only added to internal confusion about Mr. Chapek’s new status. Some board members weren’t thrilled with the office decision or the dual reporting change. But, as it had in so many instances, the board went along with what Mr. Iger wanted.
Two months earlier, when Mr. Chapek and Mr. Iger had appeared together on CNBC, Mr. Iger brushed aside a question about the potential for confusion over who was in charge. “Bob is going to be running the company,” Mr. Iger said. But now it seemed to Mr. Chapek that Mr. Iger was acting as though nothing had changed — Mr. Iger was still chief executive in all but name. Mr. Chapek’s wife told him he was little more than Mr. Iger’s “lap dog.”
Nearly everything Mr. Chapek did (or didn’t) do reinforced Mr. Iger’s sense that naming Mr. Chapek as his successor had been a huge mistake. Mr. Iger expressed his frustration with friends in Hollywood. Word spread, and someone contacted The New York Times’s media columnist at the time, Ben Smith, to say Mr. Iger was reasserting control. Mr. Smith called and spoke to Mr. Iger, too, who followed up with an email. On Sunday, April 12, Mr. Chapek hosted a belated late-afternoon party for family and friends at his home to celebrate his promotion. A friend emailed him Mr. Smith’s column, which had just appeared online. Mr. Chapek stepped out of the party and read it. “After a few weeks of letting Mr. Chapek take charge, Mr. Iger smoothly reasserted control,” Mr. Smith wrote. Mr. Chapek read with mounting disbelief. Mr. Smith called Mr. Chapek “the new, nominal chief executive” and even speculated that the choice of Mr. Iger’s successor “may be open again.”
Mr. Chapek immediately called Ms. Mucha, the communications executive. “What the hell is this?” he demanded. Trying to calm him, she argued the column wasn’t that bad. “He’s killing me,” Mr. Chapek responded. Mr. Chapek didn’t sleep that night. Early the next morning, he confronted Mr. Iger on the phone. Mr. Iger denied that he had spoken to Mr. Smith, which only further enraged Mr. Chapek, who pointed out that Mr. Iger’s quote came directly from an email. Mr. Iger said he didn’t understand why Mr. Chapek was so upset. What was wrong with saying he was reasserting control in the midst of a crisis? “You’ve cut my legs out from under me,” Mr. Chapek said. “I’ve never felt worse in my life.” The conversation became heated, and both men raised their voices. Mr. Iger told several people immediately afterward that he’d never been treated with more disrespect by anyone in his entire life. As far as Mr. Iger was concerned, his relationship with Mr. Chapek was over.
An enraged Mr. Chapek got on the phone with Ms. Arnold, the board’s lead independent director. This was the first time he’d broached the feud with a director. Ms. Arnold was taken aback by the vehemence of Mr. Chapek’s reaction to the column. She thought he seemed paranoid that Mr. Iger was out to destroy him. She urged him to calm down and defer to Mr. Iger, as she had advised before. “What will be left of my reputation?” Mr. Chapek pleaded. “This too shall pass,” she responded. Mr. Iger would be gone in 20 months, and the C.E.O. prize would be Mr. Chapek’s alone.
Mr. Chapek all but begged to be named to the board as a show of confidence in him. Ms. Arnold conferred with several other directors. None was aware of the depth of the hostility that had developed between Mr. Iger and his designated successor. But they agreed it could damage his standing. The board now felt it had no choice but to name Mr. Chapek a director as a show of support. Ms. Arnold called Mr. Iger and chastised him for the column. She told him it was the worst thing that could have happened to Mr. Chapek. She pointed out that, had Mr. Iger taken the board’s suggestion to initially name Mr. Chapek chief operating officer rather than chief executive, none of this would be happening. In any event, the sniping had to stop. Mr. Iger was taken aback by both the tone and substance of Ms. Arnold’s call. She seemed to be siding with Mr. Chapek — even though he had been C.E.O. for less than two months and Mr. Iger was still ultimately in charge. She and other board members should be happy he was stepping back up during a crisis, Mr. Iger thought, especially when Mr. Chapek’s leadership had been so lackluster.
In June, the board scheduled private sessions by video call with both men to address the conflict. Mr. Iger went first. He aired his complaints about Mr. Chapek’s leadership, including that he hadn’t sought Mr. Iger’s advice and counsel. Mr. Chapek had no standing in the creative community and hadn’t made any efforts to improve it. He’d skipped creative meetings that Mr. Iger had invited him to. Mr. Chapek said he was sorry their differences had become a board issue. But he was incensed when Mr. Parker, the board member who had led Nike, questioned Mr. Chapek’s lack of contacts in the Hollywood creative community, since that was supposed to be Mr. Iger’s jurisdiction. He insisted that he hadn’t skipped meetings but rather that Mr. Iger had scheduled them without telling him. Mr. Chapek said Mr. Iger had ceded little authority, something Mr. Chapek said he had accepted without complaining. “I was just trying to be a good soldier,” Mr. Chapek said.
In the ensuing months, Mr. Iger seemed increasingly cranky about the board’s reaction to Mr. Smith’s column. “Why are you so hostile toward the board?” Mr. Chapek finally asked during one of their calls, which had continued despite the tensions. Mr. Iger told him that he couldn’t handle the truth, and then proceeded to say that before the board had agreed to name Mr. Chapek chief executive, the directors had assured Mr. Iger that, if he didn’t think it was working out, he could fire Mr. Chapek and return as chief executive anytime he wanted. (Given the dual reporting structure, it is unclear whether Mr. Iger had that authority.) Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for Mr. Chapek, confirmed that account. She said Mr. Chapek “was shocked and surprised when told by Mr. Iger that he believed he could have his job back if and when he wanted it.” Immediately after the call, Mr. Chapek called Ms. Arnold. “What is he talking about?” he asked. Ms. Arnold tried to make light of it. “Well, you know Bob,” Ms. Arnold answered. “He may think so, but just let it go.” It wasn’t the answer Mr. Chapek was hoping for. For Mr. Chapek, it was a turning point. It wasn’t just paranoia: He was now convinced that Mr. Iger was trying to get rid of him and return as chief executive, and that the board might let him.
By early October, after a two-hour meeting at Mr. Iger’s house, Mr. Chapek thought he’d gotten Mr. Iger’s blessing. He was in his car heading back to Westlake Village when Mr. Bergman called him. “Iger just told me we’re not doing the reorganization,” Mr. Bergman said, according to Mr. Chapek. “He said he hates it.” Mr. Chapek was dumbfounded. He’d left Mr. Iger just 10 minutes earlier. “No, it’s on. We’re doing it,” Mr. Chapek replied. Mr. Chapek said he immediately called Mr. Iger, and asked if he’d said that to Mr. Bergman. “Yes, I hate it,” Mr. Iger confirmed. “Why didn’t you say that to me?” Mr. Chapek asked. Mr. Iger didn’t answer.
That fall, as his end-of-year retirement date approached, Mr. Iger said he didn’t want a farewell ceremony or party at Disney. The thought of Mr. Chapek hosting such an event was too galling. Instead, he and his wife decided to host their own party at their home in Brentwood. Mr. Iger chose a date when he knew Mr. Chapek would be in Orlando, Fla., for an event. Mr. Chapek canceled the trip. On Nov. 19, he arrived for the party at the same time as Thomas Schumacher, the longtime president of Disney’s Broadway division. Ms. Bay, Mr. Iger’s wife, was outside greeting guests as they arrived. “Tom Schumacher, it’s been too long,” she gushed. “I can’t believe you came all this way.” She embraced Mr. Schumacher. Mr. Chapek stood awkwardly by until she finally turned to him. “Hi, Bob. I see you all the time,” she said. She turned back to Mr. Schumacher. A guest who witnessed the exchange recalled Bette Davis’s memorable line in “All About Eve”: “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
Mr. Iger began a speech recognizing people who’d helped and inspired him. In one of his first jobs at ABC, Mr. Iger had worked as an assistant to the acclaimed sportscaster Al Michaels, who was at the party. Mr. Iger mentioned that back in the day he and Mr. Michaels had covered dirt-track racing in Terre Haute, Ind., for “Wide World of Sports.” Mr. Iger looked toward Mr. Chapek and went off script: “That’s your area, isn’t it Bob?” he asked, referring to Terre Haute, in rural southwestern Indiana. “You’d know all about dirt tracks.” Mr. Chapek’s hometown of Hammond is near Chicago. He seethed at what he felt was a put-down.
Mr. Chapek felt a chill. “It’s going to get worse,” Mr. Chapek told Ms. Arnold after lunch. He worried that, once he was gone, Mr. Iger would feel more emboldened to criticize Mr. Chapek. In conversations with allies at the company, he started referring to Mr. Iger as an “assassin.”
Mr. Iger insisted he’d put Disney behind him and vowed not to talk about Mr. Chapek unless others brought him up. Evidently, many did. Mr. Chapek fielded a steady drumbeat of unnerving calls from people who had met with Mr. Iger. They told Mr. Chapek that Mr. Iger had heaped criticism on him and wanted to talk about little else. Mr. Chapek complained about Mr. Iger’s whisper campaign to Ms. Arnold and other board members, some of whom had independently heard about Mr. Iger’s trash talk. But now that Mr. Iger had officially retired, the board had no leverage on him. No board member ever reached out to him, according to Mr. Jefferson, the Disney spokesman.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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The Shanghai quibbles really seem like such small potatoes compared to the scorched earth Chapek wrought upon Disney during the two years he was at the reins. He should have just gone with Stagg.

Though, to give some credence to Chapek (something I don't usually do), it doesn't sound like Iger's inconsistency was at all helpful to Chapek. Promoting him so quickly and tossing him all sorts of responsibility and then undermining him at every turn would have believably sowed distrust in his successor and confusion among his delegates.

I'd have a lot more fun with this exposé if it weren't covering such an agonizing car crash that's still unfolding. Oh, well. Maybe Adam McKay will make this into a Oscar-winning satire in the next twenty years, and then we can say we retrieved something out of this mess.

This is something I'll get to think about for a while.
As Covid shutdowns continued into the fall of 2020, it wasn’t just Disney’s theme parks that bore the brunt. Disney’s movie and television production had ground to a halt, just as consumers were staying home and turning to streaming services. Wall Street had been obsessed with subscriber gains, and Disney+ had delivered, surpassing 70 million, hitting its initial five-year goal after only nine months of operation. But it needed new content, which had all but dried up. Subscriber growth was slowing.

Mr. Chapek pleaded with his studio heads — Pete Docter of Pixar, Kevin Feige of Marvel, Jennifer Lee of Disney Animation — and encountered resistance: All of them wanted to hold back their best material for debuts in theaters with star-studded premieres. Mr. Chapek had no idea when, if ever, those days would return. In the meantime, Disney needed cash flow to meet interest payments on the enormous debt it had racked up under Mr. Iger to buy most of 21st Century Fox.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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I'm not sure Iger misjudged Chapek so much as he didn't want to leave when the ball actually started rolling, and maligning Chapek was the only way to undo it. I remember he had delusions about running for president at the time and when that (naturally) came to absolutely nothing, he wanted his cushy, powerful job back.
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Re: Bob Iger is Back!!!

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Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, still has a leading edge, according to nearly a dozen industry players, corporate rivals and Disney sources who spoke with Variety. She is the chieftain of television at the company, and the Emmy haul puts her at the top of the class (Iger sat with Walden at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles). A savvy executive with decades of talent relations under her belt, Walden is seen as the closest spiritual successor to Iger — an executive who projects a placid kind of perfection and prioritizes creative output. “Dana is smart, and all-in for this opportunity,” says one powerful show-business figure close to her. But Walden shouldn’t start rearranging the furniture in Iger’s executive suite. Walden has limited experience with parks, cruises and Disney’s valuable franchise businesses in film.

Then there’s Josh D’Amaro, the clean-cut Disney parks head. He isn’t as well-known as Walden but has the kind of operational experience that could appeal to board members and shareholders. Sources noted the plug D’Amaro gave himself at August’s D23 fan convention. While announcing a new “Villain Land” coming to Walt Disney World, the magic mirror from Snow White name-checked him personally onstage before hyping attractions that will go inside the lairs of Ursula (“The Little Mermaid”) and Maleficent (“Sleeping Beauty”). Others note his similar lack of experience facing Wall Street, but concede that it takes creative chops to program parks content and manage Disney’s vaunted Imagineers.

“Anyone beyond Dana or Josh is probably a stretch,” says one top talent dealmaker. Yet others would not immediately discount Alan Bergman, Walden’s co-chairman of entertainment (who sat at Iger’s other arm during the Emmys). His movie studio is back on track in 2024, and his portfolio includes Disney’s most coveted brands — Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar.
Source: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/bob- ... 236150806/
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