Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

Post by blackcauldron85 »

If the Board truly isn't happy with Chapek, then they could have a "Save Disney" moment and vote him out, right? But Disney 2003-2005 was a much different company than Disney 2021 ($$$), so as long as they're making $, they may love him.

So sad for Pete Docter and Pixar. I'm still so puzzled as to charging for Premier Access for some films and not Pixar films. If Docter truly is unhappy, do you think he'd jump ship? Or since some movies are premiering in theaters, it's kind of water under the bridge at this point?
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

Post by Jules »

I think I am starting to appreciate Bob Iger more.

Certainly his strategy for Disney to gobble up every conceivable entertainment behemoth was questionable, but I have a feeling he was more "creative" and cared more about quality than we may have thought.

Or maybe I'm just naive.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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That piece was... yikes (but none of it was too surprising for those following Chapek for a while). Thank you for sharing, Sotiris.


I like a song in Spanish that goes "no one knows what they have until they lose it in the end" and it's a tad dramatic for the corporate shufflings of a multi-billionaire company but I think I'm also starting to appreciate Iger more (I was always somewhat neutral tending to dislike him).


Here's the thing: can computers and numbers make humans more entertained than other humans to the point Chapek's data driven way may continue to make the same amount or even more than Disney has been doing so far? I don't think so.

Think about it: obviously they didn't have computers back then, but everybody thought Walt Disney was crazy for trying to make a full length animated movie. Did he believe the people, the "research" or did he follow his instincts? We know the answer and the spark it ignited. Chapek doesn't have that. People don't realize it, but they want to be challenged. You can paint the whole world in bland colors, and no one would be dissatisfied with that, but would they willingly pay you to paint even more stuff in bland colors when they can go see bright colors? I don't think so.


This might be even a worse creative period than Iger's, but maybe even a financial crisis is coming to Disney. I think it will be rather interesting to see Chapek trying to dance to an ever adjusting tune.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

Post by Sotiris »

rodrigo_ca wrote:Think about it: obviously they didn't have computers back then, but everybody thought Walt Disney was crazy for trying to make a full length animated movie. Did he believe the people, the "research" or did he follow his instincts? We know the answer and the spark it ignited. Chapek doesn't have that. People don't realize it, but they want to be challenged.
Good point.
rodrigo_ca wrote:This might be even a worse creative period than Iger's, but maybe even a financial crisis is coming to Disney. I think it will be rather interesting to see Chapek trying to dance to an ever adjusting tune.
I also believe that a financial crisis may be coming to Disney. Most of the Disney brands have lost part of their allure and appeal. From Pixar to Marvel to Lucasfilm, the public seems less interested now than before. Whether that's because of choices that veered from their core base or because of oversaturation in the market or because of competition, whatever the reason may be, I'm observing less enthusiasm and more fatigue for Disney's flagship brands nowadays. Also, the way Disney Plus operates is full of smoke and mirrors. The entire company has been restructured to chase after subscribers but profit generated from their streaming services have yet to offset the cost. Wall Street doesn't even take into account revenue anymore, but rewards and punishes the company solely based on subscriber growth. This will only continue to artificially inflate the company's value and increase its debt and may one day catch up with them.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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I'm sort of confused... What does Iger mean by saying Coco, Black Panther, and Shang-Chi? wouldn't have happened if Disney was a data-driven company??? Weren't those films all examples of them prioritizing diversity? How is that any different than what Disney's currently doing? :?
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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No data could have pointed these films were to be hits because there were no films like them before. If someone had to decide between allocating money on Coco or on an animated about a white family or animals, the data would have never pointed to Coco. If Marvel had to decide between Black Panther and a white hero, all the data would point to the white hero because those were what sold until those movies proved to them that if you were willing to do it, they will also sell.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Sotiris wrote:Most of the Disney brands have lost part of their allure and appeal. From Pixar to Marvel to Lucasfilm, the public seems less interested now than before.
I'm genuinely curious how you came to that conclusion. The Rise of Skywalker still made over a billion dollars, despite mixed reviews and divided fan reaction to The Last Jedi and both seasons of The Mandalorian have been very popular on Disney+.

Soul and Luca reportedly got extremely high viewership numbers on Disney+, as did WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki. Shang-Chi is the first movie released during the pandemic to make over $200 million domestic and that was even with growing concerns over the delta variant. It's also only the third Hollywood movie of the pandemic era (following Godzilla vs Kong and Fast & Furious 9) to make over $400 million worldwide and that was even without China. The trailer views and hype over Spider-Man: Far From Home have also been massive.

If there has been a lack of consumer interest in the newest Marvel and Pixar movies, I personally haven't noticed.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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I imagine interest in Marvel took a nosedive after Avengers: Endgame. They peaked interest building up to that. It'll be a long time before they reach it again.

Aside from that, I wouldn't be surprised if SW and Marvel are suffering from extreme overexposure, having been under Disney's management for a while now. We know how Disney likes to pimp things to the max to the point some people become overwhelmed. Fans of those studios probably weren't used to it being pushed to that degree pre-Disney.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

Post by thedisneyspirit »

Aint he the guy who ruined the Disney Parks? I've only been to the Paris one but I heard the American ones are trash now with all the catering towards woke types. I'm glad Europe doesn't have these issues that entitled and ignorant Americans do.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Retired Disney Imagineers petition Walt Disney Company to fire Bob Chapek
https://chipandco.com/retired-disney-im ... ek-450863/
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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More friction between Iger and Chapek. This time over Disney+.
Current and former executives tell me there is a heated debate in Burbank over whether to stick to core family-friendly Disney content or widen the aperture to bring in more subscriptions. Bob Iger “insisted on sticking to the narrow definition,” one of those sources told me. Chapek “intends to expand it,” but the anxiety among some insiders is that the famously data-driven Chapek lacks the creative vision to do it the right way. “Notice that Netflix spends insane amounts and makes a ton of crap,” the source said. “A handful of phenom hits in a giant pile of crud.” Is that what Disney wants for Disney+?
Source: https://puck.news/bloombergs-davos-and- ... sney-dish/
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Sotiris wrote:“A handful of phenom hits in a giant pile of crud.”
:lol: That seems to be a good description of most streaming services, imo. I'm sure Disney+ won't be the exception.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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“Notice that Netflix spends insane amounts and makes a ton of crap,” the source said. “A handful of phenom hits in a giant pile of crud.” Is that what Disney wants for Disney+?
They dare say this after they released a trailer for Sneakerella.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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^And Home Sweet Home Alone which was atrocious and universally panned.
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Chapek is getting Disney into the gambling business.

Disney Shows Its Cards in Pursuit of Sports Betting Dollars
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/busin ... 235048867/
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Iger seems to have regretted handing the reigns over to Chapek.
But Iger himself raised concerns with colleagues in the months after he handed Chapek the baton, according to three people familiar with the discussions. “He said the company was changing and he was concerned by the lack of innovation, the lack of strategy,” says one senior executive who spoke with Iger in the spring of 2020. When asked why he didn’t step in, Iger was said to have responded, “It’s complicated”.
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/69e1cc1e-9c6 ... e448107a5b
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Chapek is building the Disney metaverse. :eyebrow:
If Iger’s success was built on big acquisitions, Chapek sees his as being based on the convergence of entertainment and technology. This includes through the metaverse, a virtual reality space where users can interact that has been much discussed since Facebook announced it was reorienting itself around the concept and rebranding as Meta. “The PC was the first wave in the digital revolution, mobile was number two and the metaverse is the third,” explains Chapek.

To drive this message home, Chapek convened about 25 leaders from around the company — including “storytellers, creatives, technologists, imagineers and commercial people” — on November 16 to discuss the possibility of a Disney metaverse. “This is a pivotal point in the company’s storytelling history,” he says. The meeting was held in old-fashioned reality, with a few participants dialling in via video chat.

Chapek sees himself as a disrupter and wants the metaverse meetings to create “connective tissue” between Disney’s various micro-kingdoms. He wants them to be loose and open. “Given how broad the metaverse will be, we want people to go wild and dream,” he says. “We’re in the dreaming phase.”
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/69e1cc1e-9c6 ... e448107a5b
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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A "disrupter"? :?

Not to bring Kingdom Hearts yet again, but I see this as being good for KH... A lot of the complaints with the most recent games have been over how restrictive Disney had become over allowing characters from Disney films interacting in even the slightest of ways (think of how several princesses were gathered in one place in the first KH game or the interaction of villains, etc.) or of film plots being repeated almost verbated. Since he wants interaction between IPs, that one thing could be good for that series. On the downside, it might spell the entrance of Marvel and Star Wars properties into the franchise, too (as well as more interaction between all their brands in general...). :huh:
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Disney's CEO reveals his strategy for 2022
https://fortune.com/2022/01/14/bob-chap ... sney-plus/

Disney CEO Bob Chapek Lays Out 2022 Priorities In New Year’s Note To Employees
https://deadline.com/2022/01/bob-chapek ... 234907554/

Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s Pay Package More Than Doubled In 2021 To $34.5M; Bob Iger Took In Almost $46M In Last Year
https://deadline.com/2022/01/disney-ceo ... 234915726/
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Re: Bob Chapek Named CEO of The Walt Disney Company

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Amid all the frustration, an amusing little story from the recent WDW Marathon... :P

https://wdwnt.com/2022/01/hilarious-ant ... -marathon/
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