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

BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Serpico Jones said:
The FX stuff is great but that’s John Landgraf. Shogun is the best thing I’ve seen this year but it’s also a show that cost $200m and got low viewership numbers.
Click to expand...

You seem to be confused on what Dana Walden is actually in charge of. FX is one, the film studios (which was the majority of the D23 panel), are not.

She’s been mostly navigating the one division within a company that has been notoriously difficult to weather (primarily original general entertainment) in a declining TV state. It’s kind of the one arm of the company that we can’t overly criticize. Abbott Elementary, the Bear, Only Murders, Shogun, Percy Jackson, etc. are very much her domain.

Whether she deserves a lick of credit or it’s merely luck is our best guess. But general entertainment is flourishing for the first time in decades at Disney.
 
Last edited:
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
denyuntilcaught said:
Why or how any show gets greenlit for $200M in this post-peak TV day and age is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Because the company spends almost 36 billion on content. Shogun was very successful, to the point it has had a two season renewal despite being a miniseries. The services still need prestige series. Post-peak doesn’t mean no prestige TV.

Shogun and Andor still justify their spend. Yes, we know instances where they clearly lost their minds; She Hulk and to a lesser extent Acolyte.
 
S

Serpico Jones

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
You seem to be confused on what Dana Walden is actually in charge of. FX is one, the film studios (which was the majority of the D23 panel), are not.

She’s been mostly navigating the one division within a company that has been notoriously difficult to weather (primarily original general entertainment) in a declining TV state. It’s kind of the one arm of the company that we can’t overly criticize. Abbott Elementary, the Bear, Only Murders, Shogun, Percy Jackson, etc. are very much her domain.

Whether she deserves a lick of credit or it’s merely luck is our best guess. But general entertainment is flourishing for the first time in decades at Disney.
Click to expand...
Ah, I thought she was in charge of the movie studio as well. My bad.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Serpico Jones said:
Ah, I thought she was in charge of the movie studio as well. My bad.
Click to expand...

No problem! That’s Alan Bergman that I think none of us are championing. Disney Studio General Entertainment is a mess.

I’m open to external, but I still haven’t really heard a clearly stronger suggestion than Dana. Who at least has a foot in the door of originality and creative general entertainment. Which is a terrible Iger weak spot. I also think the next CEO needs to come from media in some form. Not consumer products. A semi outside-inside hire with most of her career external to Disney.

The list of quality existing CEOs that would want to make the jump from a smaller semi relevant company seems limited. I don’t think we’ll get a good CEO from a company bigger than Disney. At best one of their secondary level execs. If it’s a secondary executive they really really need to come from a clear media competitor. Barbara Dewoody seems not a bad choice, but again not meaningfully better than Dana, because she’s been overseeing primarily their studios franchise factory.

I think the board is exclusively down to either poaching an existing CEO with experience or elevating their own executives. Rather than poaching and elevating an external exec.
 
Stripes

Stripes

Premium Member
peng said:
creative output of the parks has been bad and a lot of the parts of the parks divisions have gone through massive brain drains under his reign
Click to expand...
I don’t chalk that up to D’Amaro. In fact, since Iger‘s return we‘ve seen Imagineering basically do a complete 180 and they are doing what they can to bring back talent. The parks output we’ve been seeing lately is the product of the Chapek era.
peng said:
Only obvious person outside of the company that seems like a good fit is Donna Langley, as she's been running Universal well and turned it into a hit factory.
Click to expand...
Alan Bergman has been leading the studio for a long time and under his leadership Disney is the highest grossing studio almost every single year. Universal has been doing well too, but I much prefer Disney’s movies over Universal’s output.
peng said:
I agree with the TV division being in a good creative place, the film state, especially the main Disney studios slate, isn't that good.
Click to expand...
I’m very excited about the upcoming film slate. I think it looks great! They’ve gone through a rough patch recently, no doubt, but I’m optimistic.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Stripes said:
I don’t chalk that up to D’Amaro. In fact, since Iger‘s return we‘ve seen Imagineering basically do a complete 180 and they are doing what they can to bring back talent. The parks output we’ve been seeing lately is the product of the Chapek era.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I think he's been unfairly saddled with Chapek's legacy. Chapek was both the lead of the division for quite some time and then micromanaged it immediately as Iger checked out. Iger didn't give the reigns for a lot of things, but he seemed happy sidelining parks immediately in 2020. We also know Parks are a division that largely requires 5-7 years to manifest its pivot in the macro sense. We're only rounding out year 2.

That said, Disneyland MMRR, Luminous, the newest DVC's, the very latest iterations of pricing and lightening lane systems are starting to fall on his feet.

DCL (including Lighthouse point) is still lingering from Chapek. The broader 2023-2026 parks major investment lull is very much on Chapek's decision making as CEO.

I think we're more clearly seeing Josh's true colours at D23. Which is fairly capital intensive and meant to appeal to millennial Disney adults. Investments very driven by returns on lightening lanes. In tune with, but not unwilling to p*ss off the uber fans. He seems to be the only modern parks exec that knows how people will react. Not that the decision making is going to be better. But a lot of his predecessors seemed quite clueless. What was and was not shown at D23 was very clearly related to his sensibilities. Even down to the Villains show, which wasn't a bad announcement, but he clearly did not want to cause angst in his presentation regarding his one more thing announcement. Chapek would have never understood that. Staggs barely, but he was a wet paper bag and everyone else had more documented disdain for their portfolio. Chapek did actually seem to like the parks, even if he was a bad manager, bad public figurehead, bad communicator and decision maker.
 
britain

britain

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
Indeed. I think he's been unfairly saddled with Chapek's legacy. Chapek was both the lead of the division for quite some time and then micromanaged it immediately as Iger checked out. Iger didn't give the reigns for a lot of things, but he seemed happy sidelining parks immediately in 2020. We also know Parks are a division that largely requires 5-7 years to manifest its pivot in the macro sense. We're only rounding out year 2.

That said, Disneyland MMRR, Luminous, the newest DVC's, the very latest iterations of pricing and lightening lane systems are starting to fall on his feet.

DCL (including Lighthouse point) is still lingering from Chapek. The broader 2023-2026 parks major investment lull is very much on Chapek's decision making as CEO.

I think we're more clearly seeing Josh's true colours at D23. Which is fairly capital intensive and meant to appeal to millennial Disney adults. Investments very driven by returns on lightening lanes. In tune with, but not unwilling to p*ss off the uber fans. He seems to be the only modern parks exec that knows how people will react. Not that the decision making is going to be better. But a lot of his predecessors seemed quite clueless. What was and was not shown at D23 was very clearly related to his sensibilities. Even down to the Villains show, which wasn't a bad announcement, but he clearly did not want to cause angst in his presentation regarding his one more thing announcement. Chapek would have never understood that. Staggs barely, but he was a wet paper bag and everyone else had more documented disdain for their portfolio. Chapek did actually seem to like the parks, even if he was a bad manager, bad public figurehead, bad communicator and decision maker.
Click to expand...
Yes, Josh seems to know exactly what announcements the fans would like, and to bury (but still push forward) what they won’t like.
 
LSLS

LSLS

Well-Known Member
So, Chapek was responsible for everything bad when he was the head of the parks, but once he was the CEO and someone else was the head of the parks, that head of the parks was no longer responsible for all the bad decisions with the parks, and now that the CEO is gone, it is the former CEO who is STILL responsible for all the issues at the parks? Is it really not possible that Chapek was executing the overall plan of Iger (albeit maybe worse than Iger would have had it, but still his overall plan), and Josh the overall plan of Chapek (though more people friendly when doing it), which is why he transitioned well into the overall plan of Iger?
 
denyuntilcaught

denyuntilcaught

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
Because the company spends almost 36 billion on content. Shogun was very successful, to the point it has had a two season renewal despite being a miniseries. The services still need prestige series. Post-peak doesn’t mean no prestige TV.

Shogun and Andor still justify their spend. Yes, we know instances where they clearly lost their minds; She Hulk and to a lesser extent Acolyte.
Click to expand...
I understand the spend on content, but I also think the $36B represents the bloated budgets Disney issues on each of their titles - Indiana Jones as a particularly noteworthy example.

To your point, Shogun helped to deliver on the FX brand during a period it desperately needed a prestige win. Lets also not forget that Shogun was greenlit years before premiering during a time when everyone was going all in on TV.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
britain said:
Yes, Josh seems to know exactly what announcements the fans would like, and to bury (but still push forward) what they won’t like.
Click to expand...
Josh is a ham-handed panderer with only the most surface understanding of what fans love about Disney and little to no grasp on the core of the IP itself. A genuine understanding of an IP and its fans and an ability to cater to that without cheapening the product is vanishing rare - Feige has that understanding, and that’s about the only example I can think of. Joshes are a dime a dozen in board rooms.
 
Stripes

Stripes

Premium Member
LSLS said:
So, Chapek was responsible for everything bad when he was the head of the parks, but once he was the CEO and someone else was the head of the parks, that head of the parks was no longer responsible for all the bad decisions with the parks, and now that the CEO is gone, it is the former CEO who is STILL responsible for all the issues at the parks? Is it really not possible that Chapek was executing the overall plan of Iger (albeit maybe worse than Iger would have had it, but still his overall plan), and Josh the overall plan of Chapek (though more people friendly when doing it), which is why he transitioned well into the overall plan of Iger?
Click to expand...
I mean the difference is shocking in terms of what was announced at D23 2024 vs the Chapek-era D23 announcements.

There’s not a single parks project that I’m not excited for. I definitely could not say the same during the Chapek era where there was multiple projects that left a lot to be desired, IMO.
 
britain

britain

Well-Known Member
Stripes said:
I mean the difference is shocking in terms of what was announced at D23 2024 vs the Chapek-era D23 announcements.

There’s not a single parks project that I’m not excited for. I definitely could not say the same during the Chapek era where there was multiple projects that left a lot to be desired, IMO.
Click to expand...

One was an era of timid investment. Another is an era of robust investment.

Neither have much by way of good taste or long term foresight.
 
M

MR.Dis

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
Josh is a ham-handed panderer with only the most surface understanding of what fans love about Disney and little to no grasp on the core of the IP itself. A genuine understanding of an IP and its fans and an ability to cater to that without cheapening the product is vanishing rare - Feige has that understanding, and that’s about the only example I can think of. Joshes are a dime a dozen in board rooms.
Click to expand...
In a leader you want someone to stand up to their core values. Josh never seemed to have any core values. I read there were decisions Josh did not like, but he never stood up and said no, this is not the way Disney Parks should go. Famous statement is "Lead, follow, or get the heck out of the way". Josh needs to get the heck out of the way.
 
Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
Stripes said:
I mean the difference is shocking in terms of what was announced at D23 2024 vs the Chapek-era D23 announcements.

There’s not a single parks project that I’m not excited for. I definitely could not say the same during the Chapek era where there was multiple projects that left a lot to be desired, IMO.
Click to expand...
The new attractions themselves look great. The problem is moving away from each park having a different theme to all becoming very similar.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom