News The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors Extends Robert A. Iger’s Contract as CEO Through 2026

[Sirwalterraleigh]

A winner in my opinion, is a movie (made by any studio) that makes more money (meaning money that makes it back to the company) from the box office than they spent to make and market the move.

By Disney’s own standards…a movie also develops “brand loyalty”

It makes you want to watch haunted mansion again…not bury yourself in the graveyard

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What exactly do you qualify as a hit in the parks? Does Cosmic Rewind not count? Runaway railway?

It’s hard to tell when they’ve let capacity shrink relative to attendance for 20 years

You’re there…you spent a ton…gotta ride SOMETHING.

I would say guardians is a definite hit…smugglers run is not…and all the other stuff somewhere in the middle?…trying to be objective.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Did it?

Anything good released not named “avatar”?

Yeah, Strange and Panther. But if we can just discount films because we want to, let’s get rid of Mario (Nintendo should get credit, right?) and Disney is box office champ!

It’s this disingenuous rejection of history and absolute refusal to engage with evidence that really makes one wonder about ulterior motives.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

That isn't how this works. Sure, he starts outnumbered but getting on is the hard part. Once you are in, pushing your agenda is relatively simple in comparison. Access to the internal information alone can do all kinds of damage and if he is smart, he will use it to help get what he wants.

If that doesn't work, he can always fall back on the standard activist investor playbook and push, cajole, threaten, or out maneuver others to add more seats over time. It isn’t even all that uncommon for them to come back to the public to cry about being ignored and how if only everyone would listen to them the company would be in a much better place so they need another seat or two.

But who cares if activist investors have proven time and time again that their main concern is the stock price which, in the long run, generally leave companies worse off than before they got there because we get to stick it to Iger! A guy that is gone in a few more years despite the claims of some that he will live forever. So sure, that seems like a smart move, create a long-term problem for something that has a short-term solution.

Tall order for an 81 year old…

But let’s say he is Mr boogidee…and he’s off the radar

What is prudent now in your view?

 

[Casper Gutman]

It’s hard to tell when they’ve let capacity shrink relative to attendance for 20 years

You’re there…you spent a ton…gotta ride SOMETHING.

I would say guardians is a definite hit…smugglers run is not…and all the other stuff somewhere in the middle?…trying to be objective.

You think Guardians is a hit? The out-of-place, cost-cut coaster-in-a-box with an incoherent, uninteresting pre-show that completely fails to leverage its IP is a “hit?”

Man, you’ll defend anything Disney does. Guess your last stay at Port Orleans is all you care about.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yeah, Strange and Panther. But if we can just discount films because we want to, let’s get rid of Mario (Nintendo should get credit, right?) and Disney is box office champ!

It’s this disingenuous rejection of history and absolute refusal to engage with evidence that really makes one wonder about ulterior motives.

Yeah…they both can be taken as underperforming…so devil in these details

 

[Dranth]

No worries. Iger will cruise to victory. Business will continue as usual in all areas in TWDC.

Likely.

We will know soon enough but I was more addressing the logic being offered vs. the actual outcome of the vote because it seems a bit flawed to assume someone would spend a ton of their money to be put on a board so they could then be ignored.

Sure, I guess it is possible that Peltz sat down and thought to himself, "Self, you know what would be a real treat? Hear me out... what if I spent a ton of my money, my company’s money, my friend’s money, went on live TV and made all kinds of promises and talked about how great I am so I could get on the Disney board and then be told to shut my pie hole and to go sit in the corner every time I spoke up!"

or...

He isn't that dumb and there is potentially more to this than "a seat or two" over the long run.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Tall order for an 81 year old…

But let’s say he is Mr boogidee…and he’s off the radar

What is prudent now in your view?

The idea of an 81-year-old having power in 2024 America is ABSURD!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You think Guardians is a hit? The out-of-place, cost-cut coaster-in-a-box with an incoherent, uninteresting pre-show that completely fails to leverage its IP is a “hit?”

Man, you’ll defend anything Disney does. Guess your last stay at Port Orleans is all you care about.

The demand indicates it’s a hit. But opinions are gonna vary widely

And by the way…I told you to stay behind that woodshed until I told you otherwise

 

[Casper Gutman]

Yeah…they both can be taken as underperforming…so devil in these details

By absolutely no measure did Strange underperform and Panther did remarkably well given the conditions surrounding its production.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The idea of an 81-year-old having power in 2024 America is ABSURD!

One being spun as the mastermind of an elaborate longterm scheme with internal adversaries that does NOT have a staff of tens of thousands to do the actual work?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

What exactly do you qualify as a hit in the parks? Does Cosmic Rewind not count? Runaway railway?

Cosmic rewind is amazing but it started construction in 2017, they’ve finished a couple things but haven’t green lit anything in half a decade.

 

[peter11435]

It’s hard to tell when they’ve let capacity shrink relative to attendance for 20 years

You’re there…you spent a ton…gotta ride SOMETHING.

I would say guardians is a definite hit…smugglers run is not…and all the other stuff somewhere in the middle?…trying to be objective.

People aren’t enthusiastic about cosmic rewind because they “gotta ride something”

Smugglers opened in 2019 so not relevant to this point.

 

[Disstevefan1]

This is exactly what will happen, our best hope is that the battle will cause a change in how he manages the company and have a positive impact that way, just like it’s had a positive impact on the stock.

 

[peter11435]

Cosmic rewind is amazing but it started construction in 2017, they’ve finished a couple things but haven’t green lit anything in half a decade.

That’s actually not true

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

By absolutely no measure did Strange underperform and Panther did remarkably well given the conditions surrounding its production.

The MCU has had diminishing returns ever since…follow the line from endgame.

But that is likely not Disneys fault…at least not completely. Strange may have benefited from the shutin effect…

…but there are complications to this as you rightly pointed out with black panther. Cancer sucks.

The more simple question is this: have the Disney studios gotten Better or worst these last 5 years? And what can be the causation?

 

[WoundedDreamer]

If you have any knowledge of Hollywood history, you would understand that what Feige accomplished is unprecedented and breathtaking. No other Hollywood studio has been able to come close, and they’ve all tried. Marvels stumbles came when Feige stepped back, and that has been rectified.

Trying to give the directors equal credit to Feige reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how Marvel works. It is a producer-driven franchise. The directors have been chosen for their unobtrusiveness, malleability, and willingness to work within Feige’s system. That’s why so many are new directors and very few (only Gunn and Raimi excepted) have anything like a distinctive directorial voice.

Feige’s nemesis is Perlmutter. I’d love to here a defense of his creative track record.

We may have to agree to disagree on Marvel. You’re really trying to argue that individual directorial styles aren’t evident in the films? Is Branagh’s Thor is the same thing as Whedon’s Ultron? Is the Russo’s Winter Soldier the same as Waititi’s Ragnarok? Is Coogler’s Black Panther the same as Reed’s Ant Man? The often unpredictable style of the filmmakers was part of the fun of the MCU. The press who argue all the MCU films are the same are usually people who don’t like the MCU.

Feige likes to mythologize about how he has the next decade of movies all lined up with their stories. That is hogwash. We know serious planning for Avenger’s Infinity War and Endgame didn’t start until Civil War was in production. They didn’t know where they wanted to take the movies.

He was the nerd keeping track of continuity, while serious filmmakers were responsible for actually telling a good story.

Perlmutter, to his credit, actually did launch the MCU. He was willing to invest in some of my favorite movies. I don’t know everything about his style or leadership, though there is a lot of hearsay and insinuation. I’m not saying he’s a creative, but he never oversaw a bomb like the Marvels. And even Disney internally now acknowledges that many of Perlmutter’s critiques were correct in regards to the bloated spending on Marvel films.

I don’t need a history of Hollywood mergers and acquisitions- I’m very familiar. Disney is not a Coca-Cola style conglomerate. It is a vertically integrated entertainment company in which one division feeds another and the overall organization allows for the efficient exploitation of IPs at every level. No one is worried about losing divisions for sentimental reasons. The justifiable fear is that components will be sold off for short term gain despite the fact that it hurts the company’s long term ability to fully profit off successful content.

The idea that Peltz wants to streamline operations to increase creativity is utterly laughable. Nothing in his history indicates any such desire. He wants to dramatically limit creativity by restricting output to an even more tightly controlled group of IPs very narrowly defined - to minimize risk. The idea that he wants to open up creative pathways is pure fan projection. Peltz is not a blank slate.

No one can articulate how news reporters reporting from the front lines in a war torn country is the same thing as making UP or Inside Out. The synergy between ABC/ESPN and Disney’s movie and parks businesses are nonexistent. Ejecting them would be great for Disney.

And it doesn’t matter if the renewed focus comes from a financial motive. Either way the streamlined business will function better.

He said this in boilerplate PR designed to appeal to fans, just like the cloying pictures of Peltz in the parks. It was an utterly transparent lie. His more detailed proposals make clear he wants to dramatically limit any spending in the parks. Again, Peltz has a history, and nothing in it indicates any actual belief in the parks.

The man was on CNBC when he made these comments. Why would he lie on a business channel about his intention for the business? Disney fans love getting their daily CNBC in! You also seem to believe that business interest is fundamentally opposed to the health of theme parks. Disney Parks have never been a charity. Building expansions to the parks will help ensure longterm profitability.

There's been a strong business case to invest in Disney's parks business for years. I didn't find anything in Peltz's supplementary document calling for a reduction in CapEx. What he did ask for was specifics on how the $60 Billion is going to be spent.

It strikes me as naive to believe that Disney could not severely limit or cancel this expansion if they were motivated to do so.

It strikes me as naive that Disney would break a beneficial contract with Anaheim.

Searchlight just won a major Oscar. It’s the division producing the kind of unique, adventurous, non-IP content posters on these boards (many in this thread) claim to want. Eliminating it would be a huge blow to Disney creatively.

I can wait for Disney to leverage “Poor Things” in the parks! I bet there’s also opportunity to leverage it with retailers. Pretty soon kids will be buying “Poor Things” lunchboxes! It’s the next big original IP for families!

Disney crafted creative and original stories before Searchlight was acquired a few years ago. They can do so after.

 

[Dranth]

Tall order for an 81 year old…

But let’s say he is Mr boogidee…and he’s off the radar

What is prudent now in your view?

What will realistically happen is that Peltz will lose and we will all move on from this to argue about everything from the lack of quality of the quick service napkins to "major" D23 announcements. Meanwhile, Iger will stick around a bit longer and then retire, handing it off to someone we all hope is more competent than the last attempt.

As for Iger, the only way he pulls another extension without Wall Street and most of the fan base immediately turning on him is if the company is doing absolute gangbusters. Even then, I’m not sure he wouldn’t just leave as it would be the perfect time to walk away as “the hero” which seems like something he would very much like to do.

 

[WoundedDreamer]

Yeah, Strange and Panther. But if we can just discount films because we want to, let’s get rid of Mario (Nintendo should get credit, right?) and Disney is box office champ!

It’s this disingenuous rejection of history and absolute refusal to engage with evidence that really makes one wonder about ulterior motives.

I think this sums up a big part of your problem. As far as you're concerned, anyone who doesn't agree with you is stupid or evil. To you this is an objective reality. And you'll come up with reasons to explain why in fact the people who disagree with you are evil and stupid.

But on the issue of Wakanda Forever.

Wakanda Forever grossed $913 Million in 2024 dollars. By contrast, the original film grossed $1.658 Billion in 2024 dollars. The sequel grossed 55% of the original.

That was not the gross they were hoping for.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

People aren’t enthusiastic about cosmic rewind because they “gotta ride something”

Smugglers opened in 2019 so not relevant to this point.

No I think rewind is popular based on the one real metric we have: lighting lane often sells out.

The others I’m not as sure about beciawe the genie clouds the picture.

Would guardians have a 2+ hour wait if they dropped the virtual queue? Yes I think so. Probably same as tron…
Others don’t appear to have the same juice.

Also…notice something about bobs 7 year minilands? One of the rides is lauded beyond their substance because one is a joke. Slinky and alien is the best example…but fantasyland, Star Wars land, and to a lesser extent Pandora can fit in that argument as well.