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

[SpectreJordan]

I'm rooting against Iger. I think he needs to go, just like Eisner needed to go. If you read DisneyWar, you'll see so many parallels between current Iger and late-stage Eisner. I don't claim Peltz to be the Roy Disney in this situation, but I want Iger out. So long as Peltz doesn't want to sell Disney, which I'm not convinced Iger won't do, my priority is getting Iger out of there.

I think it's time for Iger to go too. But this business rat isn't what we want. This dude has bad news written all over him.

 

[MaximumEd]

I’ve not been here as long as a lot of people, but I’ve either been lurking or posting as a member of the forums with an account for a dozen years. People were saying the same things in 2012 they are now about how lack of investment in the parks is not sustainable. I don’t like it either, but if the question is how long can they run the parks like this, then the answer is at least a dozen years and counting.

 

[_caleb]

We fully agree they spend too much on production and marketing for both their movies and DTC content.

I can’t speak as to if they are releasing the right mix of content. It’s my opinion, it appears to me the content is one thing and return on investment is another thing and TWDC knows this and is fine with this apparently?

Disney will create the content it creates period. If it makes ROI appears to be of no concern to the company apparently.

As for the viability of their DTC, this an unknown at this point. Only time will tell.

But can’t you see how these things are connected? It’s not “Disney doesn’t care about ROI” (they’re a business, of course they do!), it’s that they’re investing in a monumental shift in their business. They’ve known that to be viable in DtC they were going to have to invest like crazy, so they have. Now they’re doing what any business does and lowering margins, raising prices, and adding revenue streams.

You make it sound like everything is disparate, haphazard, and disconnected. But they’ve had a plan all along and been public about their strategy.

“ROI appears to be of no concern to the company…” Bingo! What is their concern then?

The answer may be subliminal even to the creators and it may indicate this company (unless something changes) is in big trouble.

No need to assume a wild ideological conspiracy. It’s just business.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

“ROI appears to be of no concern to the company…” Bingo! What is their concern then?

This is just simply not true. If it were, we'd see more and more expansion in the parks with less IP infusion. ROI is of no concern to the Studios & D+ as they have the parks to supplement their income.

With D+ though, they at least plan to be profitable by Q4 of this year, whether or not that will come true is another story.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

One thing is for sure. Iger does not know how either.

I have really soured on Iger over the last few years also, prior to about 2016 I was a fan of pretty much everything he did, DCA 2.0 was amazing, Pandora was amazing, buying Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel set up endless potential for Disneys movie division and D+… he had the Midas touch… had he retired then I’d have said he was the best leader since Walt.

The last few years have been a disaster though, Galaxies Edge was underwhelming, Avengers campus is underwhelming, they’ve damaged the Star Wars brand, the Pixar brand, the Marvel brand, and even the Disney brand, there’s next to nothing coming to the parks, the movie division is in turmoil, the new Cruise ships are underwhelming, the majority of the horrible parks decisions I blamed on Chapek are still in place a year after Igers return… he’s overstayed his usefulness and until he’s replaced I don’t see much hope for a revival of Disney.

 

[lazyboy97o]

ROI is of no concern to the Studios & D+ as they have the parks to supplement their income.

Even this isn’t true. At most, they’re not obsessed as people arguing in bad faith about a rudimentary formula that only measures one revenue stream.

 

[Disstevefan1]

But they’ve had a plan all along and been public about their strategy.

Thinks for the correction. What is happening right now is all part of a plan they (Iger) had all along.

Time will tell how this plan (Iger’s plan) works out.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I still think Disney expected everything they made last year to make money, they just horribly misread the audience. Disney isn‘t an art house studio only concerned with making art, they are all about profit.

D+ was intended to lose money for a few years to gain subscribers, the intention was still long term ROI though.

 

[_caleb]

I still think Disney expected everything they made last year to make money, they just horribly misread the audience. Disney isn‘t an art house studio only concerned with making art, they are all about profit.

D+ was intended to lose money for a few years to gain subscribers, the intention was still long term ROI though.

There is one other option— that Disney knew recent offerings might perform poorly (maybe just not how poorly) at the box office, but released them anyway because they are looking bigger-picture at the investment in their Direct-to-Consumer strategy to try to get a good mix of content for D+ viability.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

There is one other option— that Disney knew recent offerings might perform poorly (maybe just not how poorly) at the box office, but released them anyway because they are looking bigger-picture at the investment in their Direct-to-Consumer strategy to try to get a good mix of content for D+ viability.

I also don't think Disney is interested in the not releasing to tax write off pipeline with their studio projects, I think they'd rather just release it D+. These films have been in production for years, they weren't just not going to release them.

 

[_caleb]

Thinks for the correction. What is happening right now is all part of a plan they (Iger) had all along.

Time will tell how this plan (Iger’s plan) works out.

I mean, you’ve been around and followed the news out of Disney long enough to see that, right? Way back when Disney announced they were going all in on Direct-to-Consumer, they made it clear this was how it was going to play out.

I’m not saying it was some genius move by Iger. I’m not even sure it’s going to work. But it’s not like some secret plan or like I’m making things up. They’ve communicated this all along (which they are legally required to do).

 

[SpectreJordan]

I still think Disney expected everything they made last year to make money, they just horribly misread the audience. Disney isn‘t an art house studio only concerned with making art, they are all about profit.

D+ was intended to lose money for a few years to gain subscribers, the intention was still long term ROI though.

They thought they'd make money because of brand loyalty. Then rushed them into production with half-baked scripts from inexperienced writers & largely inexperienced directors (Indy 5's James Mangold excluded).

 

[lazyboy97o]

There is one other option— that Disney knew recent offerings might perform poorly (maybe just not how poorly) at the box office, but released them anyway because they are looking bigger-picture at the investment in their Direct-to-Consumer strategy to try to get a good mix of content for D+ viability.

Just, no. They weren’t looking for box office duds and underperformance to somehow magically support Disney+. Negativity doesn’t drive that sort of interest.

 

[_caleb]

Just, no. They weren’t looking for box office duds and underperformance to somehow magically support Disney+. Negativity doesn’t drive that sort of interest.

I didn’t say they were looking for box office duds. That would make no sense!

Not sure why you’d interpret my post like that.

My point was that if they were still focused primarily on box office as the top line of their studios business, they might have done things differently. But they’ve made no secret about their focus on Direct-to-Consumer, which many here seem to overlook while fixating on box office as the only metric that matters for Disney.

ETA: I think you’re right in that they may not have anticipated the degree of aggressive vocal negativity recent movies have received.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I mean, you’ve been around and followed the news out of Disney long enough to see that, right? Way back when Disney announced they were going all in on Direct-to-Consumer, they made it clear this was how it was going to play out.

I’m not saying it was some genius move by Iger. I’m not even sure it’s going to work. But it’s not like some secret plan or like I’m making things up. They’ve communicated this all along (which they are legally required to do).

Totally angree. Everything Disney does is intended and planned and is decided by a room full of people, not just Iger. Disney is free to create their art as they wish and in my opinion, if they could control the budgets when creating content for the big screen or DTC, they would be In a better position.

Folks talk about the stock price. I think Disney is an $80 dollar stock, when it spiked to $190, that was an anomaly.

As for their try at DTC, in my opinion that was a mistake. They should have just kept selling their content to other streaming services.

I know Disney+ will take a long time (if ever) to make money. And I think they will miss the date Iger said Disney+ will reach profitability. And there is no worries there, Iger will just talk his way out of it. He is very good at that. That IS why he gets the big bucks.

 

[_caleb]

Totally angree. Everything Disney does is intended and planned and is decided by a room full of people, not just Iger. Disney is free to create their art as they wish and in my opinion, if they could control the budgets when creating content for the big screen or DTC, they would be In a better position.

Folks talk about the stock price. I think Disney is an $80 dollar stock, when it spiked to $190, that was an anomaly.

As for their try at DTC, in my opinion that was a mistake. They should have just kept selling their content to other streaming services.

I know Disney+ will take a long time (if ever) to make money. And I think they will miss the date Iger said Disney+ will reach profitability. And there is no worries there, Iger will just talk his way out of it. He is very good at that. That IS why he gets the big bucks.

Fair enough. I agree we’ll see soon enough. And I agree that if they miss the projection, Iger will talk his way out of it.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I know Disney+ will take a long time (if ever) to make money. And I think they will miss the date Iger said Disney+ will reach profitability.

In the real world, if a business loses money for several years, and then finally stop losing money that doesn’t mean they are profitable. They aren’t profitable until they make up what they lost for several years! Haha.

 

[MrPromey]

... Looks like I could inadvertently be getting more Disney. :/

 

[MrPromey]

In the real world, if a business loses money for several years, and then finally stop losing money that doesn’t mean they are profitable. They aren’t profitable until they make up what they lost for several years! Haha.

I totally agree and it irks me to no end because it feels like once a company gets big enough, there seems to be a lot they can get away with without consequence, somehow.

That's the weird thing about Wall Street these days - for some reason none of that seems to matter.

Maybe because a good percentage of the owners who are there when they make money weren't there for the full run when they didn't?

 

[the.dreamfinder]

... Looks like I could inadvertently be getting more Disney. :/

Nah, they seem like they’d end up with Paramount given how much they currently own of it, 15.4%.