There are so many false assumptions you are making here.
Disney has always adapted and responded to cultural shifts in order to remain relevant. A company has to walk a tight rope between brand legacy and modern social expectations from customers and employees.
As the political and cultural winds have shifted significantly lately, you’ve seen many companies recently, including Disney, refrain from bringing attention to certain culturally/politically sensitive topics. Of course, Iger himself said “Disney’s mission is to entertain, not promote messages.”
The parks are doing incredibly well financially. Far, far better than Universal, which has seen 8 straight quarters of attendance declines in their domestic parks.
$30 billion in domestic park capex between 2024-2033 is not “ignoring” the parks business.
In an era of high inflation and significant travel demand. Much of the “price increase” has come from Lightning Lane, which is an optional purchase catered to those willing and able to sacrifice money for extra time.
Lightning Lane also significantly improves the ROI on new attractions, which is why we are getting so much investment in new experiences.
There have always been films that are “ridiculous.” Some of them do well, others do not. This is the nature of the film industry. Again, it doesn’t help that the company massively increased their volume of content to feed the launch of the streaming service (again, a necessary decision) which inevitably resulted in a decrease in quality.
This is revisionist history and absolutely absurd.
I beg to differ. A profitability pivot was necessary, but the Disney+ rollout achieved the distinction of the fastest any streaming service has reached 100 million subscribers. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed much at all about the rollout. I certainly wouldn’t call it “poor.”
And, of course, due to Disney’s strategy of going for massive subscriber scale first (which is critical for a streaming service) they have turned a $4 billion loss per year into a $1 billion profit in a very short amount of time. Many investors were uncomfortable with the excessive spending, but it was 100% necessary.
You mean booking Lightning Lanes on your phone as opposed to walking half way across the park to the FastPass Distribution kiosk to see about the possibility of nabbing a FastPass?
Or Mobile Order so I don’t have to wait in line when I already know what I want?
Not in the short-term. There’s been significant macroeconomic headwinds that have disproportionately affected the company. Have you noticed?
We’ll see about that