News Bob Iger is back! Chapek is out!!

[CaptainAmerica]

Is there anyone at TWDC you like?

Kevin Feige. Jon Favreau isn't an employee so he doesn't count. I think the ABC News operation is pretty solid. The college football production is consistently excellent. I love tons of the stuff coming out of FX, so kudos to Dana Walden.

I'm pretty happy with most of the company, actually. I'm much more positive on the parks than most people here. I don't hate the Disney Star Wars films. I didn't even hate Chapek. It's WDAS, Pixar, and Imagineering that I fear are broken (as well as corporate-y things like HR and overall leadership). Sadly, those are the core of what make Disney Disney.

 

[Rteetz]

Kevin Feige. Jon Favreau isn't an employee so he doesn't count. I think the ABC News operation is pretty solid. The college football production is consistently excellent. I love tons of the stuff coming out of FX, so kudos to Dana Walden.

I'm pretty happy with most of the company, actually. I'm much more positive on the parks than most people here. I don't hate the Disney Star Wars films. I didn't even hate Chapek. It's WDAS, Pixar, and Imagineering that I fear are broken (as well as corporate-y things like HR and overall leadership). Sadly, those are the core of what make Disney Disney.

So Jennifer Lee who has really been nothing but successful for WDAS is bad? Pete Docter who also has been nothing but successful for Pixar is bad? WDI is a different conversation.

 

[SirLink]

Is there anyone at TWDC you like?

Personally speaking there does need to be a clear out of every executive in the company from Iger all the way down to VP of Disney Springs

 

[Rteetz]

Personally speaking there does need to be a clear out of every executive in the company from Iger all the way down to VP of Disney Springs

Well good luck with that.

 

[SirLink]

Well good luck with that.

It needs fresh eyes from the outside to come in and evaluate everything top to bottom. Obviously that would never happen because the board is gutless hence why they didn't have a problem with Ren & Stimpy ... I mean Bob Bob.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Jennifer Lee who has really been nothing but successful for WDAS...

If you say so.

She took over in 2018. The last excellent WDAS movie was in 2016.

 

[Rteetz]

If you say so.

She took over in 2018. The last excellent WDAS movie was in 2016.

Ralph Breaks the Internet - Nov. 2018 $529M
Frozen II - Nov. 2019 $1.4B
Raya and the Last Dragon - March 2021 $130M
Encanto - Nov. 2021 $256M
Strange World - Nov. 2022 Still in theaters

Ralph was a decent sequel.
Frozen is a juggernaut.
Raya and Encanto are both pandemic movies that struggled due to that and I think poor management under the Chapek regime. Encanto has become a cultural hit tho.
Strange World is struggling but not done yet. Another film I think is poor due to the Chapek regime.

At the very least that’s a solid 3 out of 5 hits.

 

[_caleb]

It needs fresh eyes from the outside to come in and evaluate everything top to bottom. Obviously that would never happen because the board is gutless hence why they didn't have a problem with Ren & Stimpy ... I mean Bob Bob.

Chapek brought in McKinsey to be "fresh eyes."

 

[denyuntilcaught]

Ralph Breaks the Internet - Nov. 2018 $529M
Frozen II - Nov. 2019 $1.4B
Raya and the Last Dragon - March 2021 $130M
Encanto - Nov. 2021 $256M
Strange World - Nov. 2022 Still in theaters

Ralph was a decent sequel.
Frozen is a juggernaut.
Raya and Encanto are both pandemic movies that struggled due to that and I think poor management under the Chapek regime. Encanto has become a cultural hit tho.
Strange World is struggling but not done yet. Another film I think is poor due to the Chapek regime.

At the very least that’s a solid 3 out of 5 hits.

I was going to say, we've really got to stop mixing what makes something excellent to what makes something successful. And if something wasn't successful, was that Lee's fault or was there someone else - whose name rhymes with paycheck - who reduced marketing budgets to none, resulting in low awareness, ultimately tanking a film?

 

[Casper Gutman]

Folks need to stop making the mistake that all the things Disney has done wrong with the parks erases everything they've done right elsewhere.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Ralph Breaks the Internet - Nov. 2018 $529M
Frozen II - Nov. 2019 $1.4B
Raya and the Last Dragon - March 2021 $130M
Encanto - Nov. 2021 $256M
Strange World - Nov. 2022 Still in theaters

Ralph was a decent sequel.
Frozen is a juggernaut.
Raya and Encanto are both pandemic movies that struggled due to that and I think poor management under the Chapek regime. Encanto has become a cultural hit tho.
Strange World is struggling but not done yet. Another film I think is poor due to the Chapek regime.

At the very least that’s a solid 3 out of 5 hits.

If we're doing "hooray for absolute garbage that makes a lot of money," then Genie+ is a better theme park achievement than Spaceship Earth. Because that's what Frozen 2 is. It's cinematic Genie+.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Folks need to stop making the mistake that all the things Disney has done wrong with the parks erases everything they've done right elsewhere.

I *just* finished praising a ton of stuff they've done right elsewhere. But I'll die on the hill that animation is in worse shape than theme parks in 2022.

 

[CaptainMickey]

Ralph Breaks the Internet - Nov. 2018 $529M
Frozen II - Nov. 2019 $1.4B
Raya and the Last Dragon - March 2021 $130M
Encanto - Nov. 2021 $256M
Strange World - Nov. 2022 Still in theaters

Ralph was a decent sequel.
Frozen is a juggernaut.
Raya and Encanto are both pandemic movies that struggled due to that and I think poor management under the Chapek regime. Encanto has become a cultural hit tho.
Strange World is struggling but not done yet. Another film I think is poor due to the Chapek regime.

At the very least that’s a solid 3 out of 5 hits.

If you compare that list to the stuff the guy before her (John Lasserter) did, it doesn't look so great. I feel like Disney is in a creative dry spell.

 

[SirLink]

Chapek brought in McKinsey to be "fresh eyes."

Nah I mean like bring a new CEO to go over everything from an outside perspective like a Stacey Snider for example would make an excellent job. It would be better. Snider went at the merger of Disney and Fox and that was a travesty.

 

[Rteetz]

If we're doing "hooray for absolute garbage that makes a lot of money," then Genie+ is a better theme park achievement than Spaceship Earth. Because that's what Frozen 2 is. It's cinematic Genie+.

I like Frozen II better than Frozen in terms of movie. You can’t say they weren’t successes tho. Good or not, $1B+ isn’t something that every film does.

 

[Rteetz]

If you compare that list to the stuff the guy before her (John Lasserter) did, it doesn't look so great. I feel like Disney is in a creative dry spell.

It’s extremely hard to compare when she was working through a pandemic that shut down theaters and forced companies to reevaluate how they do things. These 45 days in theaters to Disney+ hurts theater numbers.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I like Frozen II better than Frozen in terms of movie. You can’t say they weren’t successes tho. Good or not, $1B+ isn’t something that every film does.

It’s extremely hard to compare when she was working through a pandemic that shut down theaters and forced companies to reevaluate how they do things. These 45 days in theaters to Disney+ hurts theater numbers.

To be clear, I was making a subjective statement vis-a-vis the quality of the films themselves, not a financial statement about their performance. Obviously Frozen and Frozen 2 have done gangbusters and the rest of the portfolio has been pretty much impossible to evaluate in light of COVID. I'm saying they suck, not that they're failures.

 

[Rteetz]

To be clear, I was making a subjective statement vis-a-vis the quality of the films themselves, not a financial statement about their performance. Obviously Frozen and Frozen 2 have done gangbusters and the rest of the portfolio has been pretty much impossible to evaluate in light of COVID. I'm saying they suck, not that they're failures.

You can dislike a movie but you can’t say she hasn’t had successes. Any company is going to measure success by the money. Frozen II was huge.

 

[Casper Gutman]

To be clear, I was making a subjective statement vis-a-vis the quality of the films themselves, not a financial statement about their performance. Obviously Frozen and Frozen 2 have done gangbusters and the rest of the portfolio has been pretty much impossible to evaluate in light of COVID. I'm saying they suck, not that they're failures.

If you think Encanto sucks, it’s because you really wanted to think that.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

If you think Encanto sucks, it’s because you really wanted to think that.

I don't think Encanto sucks. I think Frozen and Frozen 2 suck. I think Encanto is exactly "quite good." No more, no less.