News Bob Iger is back! Chapek is out!!

[MisterPenguin]

It was a failure on all counts

Post your source of that claim.

I just posted the proof you are wrong. You said it trailed off. But, by the finale, the numbers increased greatly.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Forgive me, why is this particular shareholder a bad guy? I'm legitimately asking because I've never heard of him or his activist group.

I deleted my other comment because I didn’t explain it well.

It’s not an activist group in the sense we think of activism (social, political, etc), activist investing is a form of investing that tries to force a company to change how they run themselves, often involving rallying other investors to change the board.

This is the board trying to save their own skin.

Peltz is currently the CEO of Wendy’s, Sysco, and a few other major companies. They buy a minority stake, rally shareholders, and attempt to take over.

 

[Skywise]

Please ignore that note I dropped in your locker about meeting behind the gym after school.

We're good, now.

I know the Good Dinosaur had its issues in production and I didn't like it overall - and the final director tried to salvage the movie with the right beats and a few cute scenes but, ultimately, it doesn't work as I don't think the underlying thematic material works (though i like the human as the pup) I don't know what they were smoking with Home on the Range. Meet The Robinsons was a LOT of stuff that didn't work together that DID work individually and added to the whole (which is more than you can say for, say, The Black Cauldron or Chicken Little - both of which I like as well "Are you using the voice on me?!")

 

[Skywise]

Post your source of that claim.

I just posted the proof you are wrong. You said it trailed off. But, by the finale, the numbers increased greatly.

Chapek being fired.

if it did so well, why is Disney+ in trouble and why was Chapek fired.

 

[Raidermatt]

In a few short months (weeks… one week?) everyone will be back to complaining about Iger.

The cycle shall continue.

And for good reason.

Iger isn’t a savior for the fans. But he is far better than Chapek in just about every way. He’ll get a honeymoon, and if he plays it right and throws the fans a few bones it can last a while.

But eventually there will be complaints just as there were before Chapek. But it was NEVER anything like it has been with Chapek. So whether you consider Iger “good” or just the lesser of two evils, whatever. It would have been far worse for Disney in every way imaginable to leave Chapek in place.

 

[MrPromey]

Harmonious was the best thing to come out of the 50th…. Yes the bar was low.

Remember, we still have a month and a half, officially - this could still be completed by then if they really commit!

 

[Casper Gutman]

Chapek being fired.

if it did so well, why is Disney+ in trouble and why was Chapek fired.

Everyone, Wall Street and Hollywood, knew the streaming services would lose billions for years when they were launched. It was considered a price worth paying to build the completely new entertainment industry. Now the gilt has rubbed off the gold-hued vision of the "streaming future" and Wall Street has decided to panic about losses they anticipated and accepted. Its a great example that, despite Americans' reverence for them, investors and executives can be just as panicky, arrogant, illogical, and prone to groupthink as anyone else - arguably moreso. A bunch of stampeding gazelles.

And again, D+ is the streaming service that is coming the closest to making the "new" model of entertainment distribution work.

 

[MrPromey]

You mean the one film that performed like the good old days?

When I went to see it, I think I may have been the only person in that showing who wasn't in their 20s or 30s when the first one came out.

Not saying that is representative of the nationwide audience... but it wasn't 3pm on a Tuesday, either.

Still, I liked it!

 

[Skywise]

Everyone, Wall Street and Hollywood, knew the streaming services would lose billions for years when they were launched. It was considered a price worth paying to build the completely new entertainment industry. Now the gilt has rubbed off the gold-hued vision of the "streaming future" and Wall Street has decided to panic about losses they anticipated and accepted. Its a great example that, despite Americans' reverence for them, investors and executives can be just as panicky, arrogant, illogical, and prone to groupthink as anyone else - arguably moreso. A bunch of stampeding gazelles.

And again, D+ is the streaming service that is coming the closest to making the "new" model of entertainment distribution.

Doubt that. That's why Chapek is out.

 

[HMF]

Is there also hope for Splash Mountain to stay as-is now that Chapek is gone?

No.

 

[MrPromey]

I’m not disagreeing with you.

Remember what happened today: a gigantic media company just had to publicly admit that it was being poorly run.

That’s shocking on all levels

Even more shocking, the name of that gigantic media company wasn't Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., as nearly everyone would have predicted.

 

[Findus]

Many a year lurker and reader of this place but my first post.

In terms of the parks what are your opinions on what will change short and medium term with Bob’s return.

Does Iger need or have the power to implement “quick wins” for the parks? And if so what would you want to see first?

 

[HMF]

Many a year lurker and reader of this place but my first post.

In terms of the parks what are your opinions on what will change short and medium term with Bob’s return.

Does Iger need or have the power to implement “quick wins” for the parks? And if so what would you want to see first?

I would be surprised if much changed as far as the parks are concerned.

 

[MrPromey]

Let me be clear here:

Chapek was the worst executive in Disneys history and it’s not close.

But Iger needs to do better.

What?!?!?

Yes. BETTER.

Period.

Start with a line of succession…then get the creative houses in order…then get the parks reinforced as they face a threat at Least in Orlando…get over the China thing - it’s not gonna hold…
Then exit gracefully once they are more stable

Hopefully, that whole succession and graceful exit thing was a core part of the discussion.

For Disney, a chance to right the ship and for Iger the kind of do-over for his exit that only the blue fairy is usually capable of doling out.

 

[TwilightZone]

Does Iger need or have the power to implement “quick wins” for the parks?

I think he needs to. Now obviously, IDK what the budget for disney is rn, but the best thing he should do is remove all the unneccessary new D23 announcements that fans did not like:

No moana and zootopia in AK, no san fransokyo, no beyond thunder mountain (well except maybe Villain's land, I'm actually fine with that believe it or not, though I totally understand those who dislike it).

Announce a proper reimagining of Spaceship Earth and/or Figment at the very least. Also clear up what is happening to Play.

Open Tron for goodness sake!

IF and only IF disney does this and follows through. No more false promises.

 

[SamandplanningUK]

I could NOT be happier to hear this! Such relief this morning for WDW fans.

 

[MrPromey]

I’m still worried about the road signs.

I miss 'em too but they're never coming back.

 

[TwilightZone]

I miss 'em too but they're never coming back.

If Iger announces roadsigns 2.0 tomorrow I would, unironically, be so happy.

Also on a sidenote now chat has died down (for now), I think its super funny that this happened the same day as a new defunctland video.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Many a year lurker and reader of this place but my first post.

In terms of the parks what are your opinions on what will change short and medium term with Bob’s return.

Does Iger need or have the power to implement “quick wins” for the parks? And if so what would you want to see first?

I don't think there will be any positive changes to the parks. Quality/budget cuts and price hikes for the US parks (especially WDW) have always been Iger's go-to strategy for dealing with any sort of financial problem. He did it to cover the cost of his studio acquisitions, as well as when FP+ and Shanhai went way over budget.

 

[MrPromey]

Wall Street and Hollywood bet everything on cinemas dying. They didn't, and have confounded expectations by being incredibly resilient in the post-pandemic environment. Iger is absolutely in denial - he's clinging to the previous groupthink-produced notion of a permanent, total shift away from movie theaters and towards streaming despite mounting evidence that that didn't happen. There's money at the cinema but the studios (outside of Paramount and, to a lesser extent, Universal) aren't grabbing it, instead continuing to dump feature films onto streaming services that are losing billions.

For feature films, streaming is a new post-cinema distribution model. Its essentially a replacement for DVDs. Its a big deal, but the kind of change Hollywood has experienced periodically in the past, not the unprecedented revolution Wall Street and Hollywood convinced themselves was happening, burning billions in the process.

I really like going to movies.

I can't speak for others but the pause button gets way to much of a workout for me at home because my attention is split so I never see anything straight through.

Going and sitting in the theater is like a depravation chamber for me and I was one of those early people who went back as soon as they reopened (with my can of Lysol, just to be safe - Tenet didn't do poorly because of me!).

I still go to the theater, even for stuff that is simultaneously streaming.

My evidence is entirely anecdotal and local but of the three theaters I visit, I have yet to go to a movie that's even close to half full and I never see lobbies as busy as they were pre-pandemic. Often times, they're eerily quiet.

The studios seem to be making money but locally at least, I don't see how the theaters are.

I'm glad the ones around me are all open but I often wonder how they're managing to stay open, even with closing ticket booths to reduce staff and push concessions by forcing people who didn't buy in advance to those lines for their tickets.

Hopefully it's a lack of movies but it was me and six other people at The Menu Friday night and Black Panther was suprisingly empty the weekend before... though opening weekend for that, they had one starting every hour so that may have played into it a bit.