Bob Iger Says Disney Can “Build 7 New Full [Disney]lands” Around World & More
Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in March 2024. It’s the second consecutive year he’s done an interview at the event, which features trends in the media industry–that was Iger’s primary focus, but he also said a few newsworthy things about Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
During the interview, Iger explained how the world’s largest entertainment company is evolving its approach to streaming and movie-making. He spent the bulk of the interview discussing Disney+ and the Hulu acquisition; the company’s wonderful relationship with the NBA, value of ESPN and sports betting; plus a bunch of other things.
Most of this was a retread of what Iger has said during other recent interviews or during earnings calls, but one new tidbit was Iger’s concession that it had been a challenging year for Disney at the box office, and that major efforts were being undertaken to address the “hard times” for the film business. While Iger had previously made indirect comments suggesting an awareness of these issues, he tackled them more head-on during this interview.
“You have to kill things you no longer believe in, and that’s not easy in this business…you’ve got to make tough calls,” Iger said. He noted that despite not being public about it, he has done precisely that, making those tough calls. “We’ve killed a few projects already, that we just didn’t feel were strong enough,” Iger indicated.
Iger added that he has been spending a lot of time with the creatives, watching films, giving detailed notes, and engaging in a respectful process that results in improvement. “Not only do you look at the films you’re making, you you look at every part of that process, who the directors are, who’s being cast, and reading scripts. I personally watch films three to five times with the team and just create a culture of excellence and respect which is really important in the creative community,” he added. “Again, [Disney’s] track record speaks for itself.”
This comes at a time when rival studios have been scrapping projects (most infamously, Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme over at Warner Bros.) and cutting back on content, a trend that is only likely to continue as streaming services pivot to profitability. The extent to which Iger has nixed projects is unknown, but Disney did have a couple of projects with Jonathan Majors that have been removed from the release schedule.
It was lost amidst the noise of the Iger vs. Elon feud, but last November during the New York Times DealBook Summit, Iger also admitted that Disney’s creators “lost sight of what their number one objective needed to be. We have to entertain first. It’s not about messages.” According to Iger, Disney’s prioritization of messaging over storytelling peaked while he was gone last year.
“We have entertained with values and with having a positive impact on the world in many different ways. ‘Black Panther’ is a great example of that,” Iger said. “I like being able to entertain if you can infuse it with positive messages and have a good impact on the world. Fantastic. But that should not be the objective. When I came back, what I have really tried to do is to return to our roots.”
So clearly Bob Iger knows they have an issue with the studio output and knows some of the source of the problem, and is actively addressing it.
During the March 2024 Morgan Stanley interview, Iger also pushed back on the widespread notion of superhero fatigue, pointedly saying that it was “not an accident” that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first 33 films were like a license to print money at the box office.
“It’s not audience fatigue. They want great films, and if you build it great, they will come. There are countless examples of that. Some are ours and some are others,” Iger said. “We reduced the output of Marvel. Both the number of films and television shows they make, and that has critical, but I feel good about the team. I feel good about the IP we’re making. I talked about a lot of the projects. We look years ahead, really. And it’s iterative.”
Iger also highlighted Disney’s upcoming 2024 film slate, calling Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes “one of the better films in the franchise.” He also pointed to Inside Out 2 and Moana 2, and the big Marvel release of the year, Deadpool & Wolverine, which Iger predicted “will be one of the most successful Marvel movies we’ve had in a long time.”
I’ll only add quick commentary here, since movie-making isn’t the focus of this site, but he’s right. With that said, if you’ve read Disney’s Reputation Falls Further, you already know my perspective on “movies with messages.” That it doesn’t much better. Quality will win out, regardless of all else. Lots of vapid blockbusters have been flops; plenty of movies that could have been the subject of culture wars have succeeded. (If you think Barbie or Dune or Avatar didn’t have messages…oh boy.)
Nevertheless, Iger’s previous comments about “messaging over storytelling” or messaging at the expense of storytelling cut to the heart of the actual issue. If the movie is entertaining or enjoyable, most audiences care if there’s a subtext–even one with which they may disagree. That’s been a key feature of art for millennia, it’s only now become an issue in our hyper-polarized times that also, not so coincidentally, feature a cottage industry for fanning the flames on culture wars. But if the movie sucks and it’s preachy…well, that’s a problem.
For me, the bigger issue is whether Iger is right in the sense that he actually “gets it” or just is saying the right things. It sounds like he understands the studio output has been low-quality, a bunch of superfluous and soulless big-budget movies.
However, Iger specifically cited Oppenheimer as a fantastic film and perfect example of audiences not having super hero or franchise fatigue. The only problem? Oppenheimer is neither of those things! It’s an incredible success story and does speak to his, “if you build it great, they will come” statement, but it doesn’t exactly rebut the notion of hero or franchise fatigue.
And honestly, it’s somewhat concerning that the ‘response’ to last year’s box office meltdown via the actual film slate is a bunch more sequels. Maybe it’s purely coincidental, but more Moana, Frozen, Toy Story seem like the ‘break glass in case of emergency’ franchises. It sorta says to me that they know those films will be box office gold, not necessarily that they’re leading with high-quality or creatively-compelling ideas.
Anyway, I really hope Iger gets it and isn’t just saying the right things while still not putting actual creativity and storytelling first. I’m really excited for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and cautiously optimistic about the Inside Out and Moana sequels. Oh, and Shogun has been phenomenal thus far. So Disney hasn’t completely lost its touch!
Turning to what most of you actually care about, theme parks, Bob Iger also had a decent amount to say about Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I’m just not sure how much of it is hot off the presses news. He started by touting Disney Parks as a “wonderful story” and hyped up the anticipated financial results that Walt Disney World and Disneyland would continue to deliver, outperforming pretty much all other aspects of the company.
Iger said that Disney Parks has “entered into a phase where we can start building.” These remarks echoed those from Disney’s company-wide town hall late last year and most recent two earnings calls, so not exactly a new revelation. Iger said the company is poised to begin building its business again, after a year of restructuring to responded to wrenching changes in the industry caused by streaming.
You might recall Iger laying out four building opportunities for the company that included “turbocharging” growth in Parks & Resorts. That was this. (We covered that previously in What Bob Iger Needs to Fix at Walt Disney World & Beyond in 2024.)
During this Morgan Stanley conference, Iger’s comment about Parks & Resorts that has received the most attention from the media and fans was saying that Disney has “thousands of acres of lands to develop, and we could actually build seven new full lands if we wanted to around the world.”
This is the headline quote that everyone is reporting, but the thing is, Iger butchered it! Everyone is focusing on the non-committal nature (that Disney could build if they wanted) rather than that he misspoke! How did no one notice this? The statement is about the potential for that land–thousands of acres! Would you really be impressed if all of that land amounted to only to seven new lands?!
Granted, Imagineering has gotten the habit of building absolutely massive lands with only 1-2 rides, so maybe that tracks. I know Iger misspoke because this is also something he and D’Amaro have touted before!
From the announcement of investing $60 billion in Parks & Resorts from last September: “In fact, Disney Parks has over 1,000 acres of land for possible future development to expand theme park space across its existing sites – the equivalent of about seven new Disneyland Parks.”
That’s right, it’s the equivalent of seven new Disneylands, not seven new Disney lands. One little space, but a world of difference! It should be obvious and go without saying that the company could build 7 new lands. There’s enough space for that in Walt Disney World alone, and probably every other destination once DisneylandForward is approved. (Minus Tokyo, but that doesn’t count since it’s not Disney’s land.)
Of course, Disney is not going to build 7 new Disneylands and even 7 fully new lands is probably a stretch, but it at least sounds plausible. Which is probably why fans are seizing on the (mis)statement? Had he repeated the (correct) seven Disneylands line, people would have (rightly) dismissed it as pointing out what is plausible, not what will happen.
Anyway, just a little bit of proof that Bob Iger is human, and he doesn’t always carefully stick to the script.
Iger added: “This includes the ability to increase the size of Disneyland in California–which everybody thinks is landlocked–by 50%.” (That last bit is a reference to DisneylandForward–see the above concept art that shows how both gates could be expanded into the entertainment and resort district.)
“You can look at every single location that we’ve got–there’s land, but most importantly, we have so much IP [intellectual property] to mine that there’s opportunity there to create experiences that we know people will love to have in our parks,” Iger said.
He continued: “If you look at our IP, you look at the land that we have, you look at the math and demand that exists in the marketplace, and you look at the return on investment capital. It’s a no-brainer to invest that way…growing Parks and Resorts beyond where it already is.”
Then came the portion that is also familiar to fans, where Iger spitballed about what some of these lands could be. He referenced the success of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland, and World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland. This isn’t the first time these single-franchise lands have been highlighted as blueprints for the future.
You might recall that during the grand opening celebration of World of Frozen, D’Amaro made similar comments: “We have a wealth of untapped stories to bring to life across our business. Frozen, one of the most successful and popular animated franchises of all time, could have a presence at the Disneyland Resort. Wakanda has yet to be brought to life. The world of Coco is just waiting to be explored. There’s a lot of storytelling opportunity.”
The big twist here was that Iger also revealed that (maybe, possibly) Pandora at Disneyland will be a fully-fledged land instead of just an “experience.” (Our updated post on the Avatar Experience Coming to Disneyland details why that’s probably still tentative, despite Iger’s offhand, announcement-adjacent comments.)
It’s also worth noting that at last year’s Morgan Stanley conference, Iger made nearly identical comments about “mining IP more effectively,” and talked about building out new capacity in order to service more guests. I mention this not to underscore that not much has changed or happened since (even if true), but because he also added this last year: “opportunity that is almost endless, but we obviously don’t have endless amounts of capital.”
Disney not having endless amounts of capital is the crux of all of this. It’s why Walt Disney World fans have been treated to two years of blue sky daydreaming sessions at D23 events, why there’s been no movement on Tropical Americas and probably won’t until the end of this year or early 2025 when DINOSAUR finally closes.
We’ve emphasized repeatedly how sorting out streaming, linear television, ESPN, etc. are necessary prerequisites to actual investment and construction commencing at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. (Lesser considerations are also the political standoff with the state of Florida and DisneylandForward’s approval.) The good news, as Iger indicated above, is that’s all finally starting to be settled. He’s ready to become Bob the Builder again!
Look, there’s every reason to be skeptical that’ll actually happen and this isn’t just more empty promises. I get it and don’t blame anyone who has a ‘wait and see’ attitude or indifference. But before doubling down on cynicism, look at it this way: Wall Street wants theme park investments. Disney Parks is the one big bright spot. The division has been resilient, even as literally everything else has faltered.
The company has every financial incentive to bet big and invest that $60 billion on theme parks! (And by theme parks, I mean theme parks. Disney Cruise Line is winding down an expansion cycle and given how shipbuilding commitments work, Disney couldn’t spend much of that on new ships even if they wanted.)
The issue isn’t a desire to actually spend money on theme parks. They have that! The problem has been the money part of the equation. They did not have the free cash flow. They do now, or rather, will by the end of this fiscal year. They’re not just making these expansion teases for the halibut, which accomplishes absolutely nothing. Fans aren’t spending money at nonexistent parks, and investors aren’t getting excited over them. As one wise CEO recently put it, “if you build it great, they will come.”
That’s the only thing that actually matters–not the talk, but what they will actually do. It’s also why I’m so bullish on the 2024 D23 Expo, and the likelihood of concrete news for Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and not just more “what ifs” and so forth. From my perspective, Iger and Josh D’Amaro both saying the same things about expansion and future developments for over a year now reinforces that there are substantive plans, and it’s not just posturing or hollow hype. The money has been the issue, not the appetite for expansion.
Nothing new came out of this conference, but consistently repeating the same goals, ambitions, and willingness to bet big on building new lands certainly suggests that there’s something on the horizon. My only hope at this point is that Iger and D’Amaro attend the opening of Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea before firming up the plans for Walt Disney World and Disneyland. I would love to see that be the blueprint for the future, instead of single IP lands.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s comments during the Morgan Stanley conference? Thoughts on anything he said–or didn’t say? Thoughts on his comments about movies or theme parks? Are you excited for the return of Bob the Builder and major investments in Walt Disney World and Disneyland, or still in ‘wait and see’ mode? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
What’s most frustrating is knowing that if something new were announced today, we’d be at least 5 years out from experiencing it in person due to Disney’s glacial construction pace,
I fully agree. Disney’s “glacial construction pace” may be connected to their very tentative confidence in their financial situation. They jury is still out on whether Disney+ is going to survive – failure here would be a huge blow – and the general public is not able to see the true condition of their financial situation. The same is true for investors. The Board, under Iger’s leadership and direction, has wasted billions of dollars by making lousy films, and getting into politics and taking cultural positions, and the parks are financially downstream from the studio and heavily impacted by these losses. The funny-but-sad-part is that at this time they are facing their stiffest competition ever from Universal, and seem unable to respond in a strong and decisive fashion. The timing for Disney, during these lean years, is so bad that they may be unable to slow or stop Universal from making huge market gains in Orlando and in other places around the world. I hope for the best, but expect things to remain fairly tough for the next 3 or so years. We will know more if Disney (again) builds some knee-jerk reaction lands more for effect than for long-term substance. I really do hope they allow Imagineering the freedom to innovate and spend in a way that makes everyone happy with the end results.
This “Disney takes too long to build” narrative ignores the time it takes to design new lands and attractions and overlooks the company’s long history of taking its time designing new attractions.
Take, for instance, the Haunted Mansion. Walt had been kicking the idea around since before Disneyland existed, circa 1951. Imagineers worked on that ride for 18 years before it opened. The ride was publicly announced in 1961, but didn’t open until 1969.
As for the “Disney is suddenly getting into politics” narrative, they joined 150+ major US corporations in opposing the Florida legislation, including Marriott, Hilton, American Airlines, AirBnb, StarBucks, etc. Corporations in the US have been weighing in on legislation since the country was founded, especially when it impacts their employees and customers. To suggest that corporations commenting on legislation was something unusual, either for the country or Disney in particular, beggars belief.
Mike C. — “Take, for instance, the Haunted Mansion. Walt had been kicking the idea around since before Disneyland existed, circa 1951.”
You’re right, and you’re cherry-picking. By this standard, we would not ever be able to say that “Disney construction is very slow.”
Additionally, design is DONE when construction begins. Many of us are making the point that construction in some cases takes an unusually long time at Disney, even before CFTOD got involved.
My thought is that the complexity of a theme park ride, and the many vendors involved, and the critical tolerances for ride tracks and controls, is partly to blame. Infrastructure has to keep lives safe. But there is also the complication of building on swamp land and all the remediation required. And – to go against what I said earlier – the sooner they finish building something, the sooner they can increase attendance to help pay the expenses and loans off. So there is quite a financial incentive to hurry things up even when they are having massive income trouble.
While I doubt it will happen (as somebody said, “Iger is the boy who cried parks.”), I would love to see something along the lines of at least one more Disneyland equivalent (more or less), perhaps a little smaller in the US. Particularly in the eastern part of the country where most of the population is at.
I am of the view that huge opportunity was missed when this was not built – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_America (disclaimer, I live in Maryland and I would love to have a Disney park less than two hours away).
My thinking is somewhere between Norfolk, VA and Richmond, VA is a great location for Disneyland East. It benefits from being close enough to the major cities on the east coast, you have Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion in that area already, and there is plenty of space. For the most part the winters are mild enough that people will still go during that time of year as well.
I always got the sense that Wall Street values the POTENTIAL for future growth more than it values any ACTUAL growth. As long as your business looks like it MIGHT grow in the future, your stock price goes up. So, mission accomplished!
That is true, some of the time. It’s why something in the future can already be “priced into” a stock value. A good recent example has been interest rate hikes or cuts.
In this case, it has not happened. The analyst notes that I’ve read give the sense that Wall Street, like fans, actually wants more ‘there there’ before buying what Iger is selling.
PLEASE, any expansion at MK, please add a second entrance/exit. Main Street is a disaster at opening and closing. I can’t imagine what it will be like when beyond thunder mountain is opened
Meh. I’m still in the camp of talk is cheap, and my kids will literally be in high school by the time anything of substance gets off the ground at WDW.
Honestly, the only thing I want to hear about at D23 is a Skyliner expansion to MK, especially the new Poly DVC tower area/TTC, AK, and Disney Springs.
Bob wants IP. That’s the vein he wants to mine. That nothing non-IP is being considered might be a stretch, but there is so much potential (and more longevity) with non-IP from Disney’s Imagineers. 20 years from now, are we really gonna remember Tiana? Need to think bigger, and better, Bob.
1000 acres – 7 Disneylands – that’s gotta be land around the edges of the current parks. And the unused show buildings already at Epcot too.
I’d love to see Park expansio but I’m at the point where Bob is the boy who cried Parks.
As to the ads, they’re more of a pain when I read on my phone than on the computer, but if the choice is between all the ads or you getting a real job I opt for the ads.
There’s a lot here to be excited about. If the money’s invested wisely and if genuine creativity is prioritized, there’s a lot of room for excitement.
There are still concerns for me – mostly the sequelitis, the IP-obsession covering everything. I’ve said for a while now that Iger can’t shake off his TV background. He treats every franchise like a TV show, renewing everything created for “another season” until we’re sick of watching and tune into something else. (There was a point, around… 2015 maybe? when I was convinced Disney *wanted* me to be sick of Frozen.)
It is nothing more than banter talk. Instead of building new things, how about focusing on bringing back high quality and value to existing properties in the US. The humor is when Disney builds one attractions, Universal builds 2-3 and bunches of new hotels, water park and now another whole theme park all the while Disney nickel and dimes at every corner. One can only hope for better.
The POSSIBILITY of Disney expansion is exciting but for many (my family), we will not return to the parks, cruise lines or ABD until the service, entertainment and food quality returns to pre-pandemic levels. We’ve been multiple times to Disneyland, Disney World, 3 DCL cruises and 1 ABD in the past 2 years and it has not improved. By service I mean cleanliness of the rooms/parks and responses to problems not of our making. By entertainment I mean the entertainers on the cruise ships and F&W at EPCOT offering more than just food kiosks as they did before. By food quality I mean variety of offerings in the number of locations and what is offered at a single location plus the quality of what is offered. Notice how the menus do not offer near the options as they did a few years ago? That was not uncommon everywhere as restaurants suffered from shortages in food and staff but most places elsewhere have or are returning to pre-pandemic levels. This has been our experience but maybe not everyone’s. It might not matter to others as well. Prior to the pandemic, we were exclusively Disney in all our vacations (parks, cruises, guided tours) and it was great. As things opened back up after COVID, we expected differences and it was different. We kept going back hoping service, entertainment and food would return to expected levels but they have not. We started spending our vacation dollars elsewhere (primarily cruising and guided tours) and have discovered excellent options that meet or exceed what Disney previously offered us. We shall see if Disney truly does return to it’s roots. I hope they do.
Agreed. I’m also extremely displeased with the amount of restaurants that have converted to family style or prix fixe menus–it is both expensive for the consumer and wasteful. My hope was when they added a Club 33 to each WDW park, that it would slow the price increases on food. You can have truly luxury experiences like that, and use the extra to subsidize costs for the average parkgoer. But instead, these price increases lower the overall VALUE people get from eating in the parks. Being honest, on many of our trips recently we’ve been more inclined to stock the fridge and opt out of the dining expenses altogether, with maybe a few snacks here and there.
I agree that mixed lands like Fantasy Springs are the way to go, rather than single-IP lands. For Star Wars, it works. It’s been almost 50 years, Star Wars isn’t going anywhere. But when you look at the waxing and waning popularity of other properties, a single-IP land seems too risky because it doesn’t afford easy retheming when, 30 years down the road, no one remembers what this thing was outside of this context (looking at you, Splash Mountain).
What’s interesting about Fantasy Springs is that it combines the traditional multiple story model of traditional Disney lands with the individual IP-land concept to make IP mini-lands/regions within a greater land. While it appears to be much better unified at a land level than in DCA’s Golden State, the original IP sub-land/region might have been created in 1983 at Disneyland when the Mad Tea Party was moved closer to the Alice in Wonderland ride and the Mad Hatter shop as part of the New Fantasyland.
(I agree with all your points, I’ve just thought the above was fascinating since I first went to Disneyland in the mid-1990s and have wanted to see Disney pull it off from the start elsewhere.)
Yes, like “Fantasyland” where you can mix in different IPs like Snow White and Peter Pan. Or “Tomorrowland” where you could have things as diverse as Tron, Star Tours, and Buzz Lightyear. Or maybe an “Adventureland” themed area! It’s a tried and true method. 🙂
Love hearing your thoughts and all the content you put out, and I understand that ads pay the bills but…the excessive ad scrolling and constant popups made it impossible to read this article. The ads change the paragraph you are reading making you scroll through more ads to try and find your location and the same ads after every 2 paragraphs is just too much.
I’d like to second that: the excessive page size and complexity, with the page content keeps jumping all over the place, makes it very difficult to read and definitely impossible to reply. To even make a reply I have to write it in an app, and then copy and paste my text into the box and hope I’m able to hit “Submit Comment” before the entire page reloads again.
Thanks for the feedback on this. I feel like I’m playing Whac-A-Mole with the ad server–I’ve repeatedly had them reduce the ads, things have gotten better for a few days to a couple of weeks, only to get worse again.
I will put in yet another request to reduce them. Sorry.
Please note that I am specifically not complaining about the number of ads on your page: I want you to make as money as possible to have an incentive to keep doing what you do.
As someone who’s customized WordPress before, it can be a giant pain to make reliable on every browser. You might try using a different template with a different layout, but my WordPress knowledge is quite out of date.
FYI, as I am writing this 3/4 of the page is still blank. This is using Safari on the latest macOS with a 500Mb/s fiber connection.
Two words: reader mode
At least on Safari and a 500Mb/s connection reader mode doesn’t do any good: between the huge pictures and the number of ads the website is mostly blank in reader mode. It’ll eventually load in five minutes or so, but then goes blank when an ad updates.
Tom, have you considered a Patreon or “pay-what-you-want” subscription model (maybe even no paywalled content, just an option for those that want to help support your efforts)? I’d think there is some quantity of people like me who’d be happy to chip in. Fine with ads generally, but agree the readability of the site is really suffering with the ad reload jumps.
This is actually the one website that I consistently read in Chrome instead of Safari. There are still issues with ads and loading speeds, but it seems like it’s better in Chrome than Safari.
The only thing that I can possibly disagree with that Oppenheimer might be considered a franchise if you saw any of the “from the mind of Christopher Nolan” advertising; everything else sounds exactly right to me. Most importantly, at the current rate streaming might actually be profitable by the Q2 FY24 earnings report in May, and can be even assuming a slowdown assuming Iger started with “low hanging fruit” savings that Chapek couldn’t “pick.” (Especially if they did find a way to stay streaming India without losing money hand over foot.) Exciting to me is the continued focus on building the current parks out so that each is a multi-day experience, and, yes, the apparent refusal to build half-day parks around the world.
Speaking of advertising, I’m wondering if anyone besides me blames Elemental’s slow start on that, or some other marketing failure like choosing the wrong release date. Given its box office, the quality and popularity was there; I’m convinced the slow start left money on the table which some higher ups should be thinking about.
Back on topic, I did not have the next big IP reboot from Disney being … Shogun! Wow, the original miniseries is almost as old as I am.
With regard to Elemental, that’s not just you.
Actually, I think the blitz for Wish *was* Disney’s response to Elemental’s marketing shortcomings. Only one slight problem–audiences didn’t like Wish nearly as much.
When is the 2024 D23 Expo?
August 9-11, 2024. Here’s our full overview/guide: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/2024-d23-expo-disney-fan-event-guide-dates-tickets/
I disagree that “Shogun” has been phenomenal so far. Episode 3 seemed a bit odd, especially in regards to the handling of the sexual discussions. Seemed like they are trying to be a GoT knockoff, while aiming to be less clearly demented. I get the feeling some of that vibe comes from the novel, but still, they could have made more adjustments. I could do with more palace intrigue about the hierarchy and the secret society of assassins. Could do with less awkward nudity. If Toranaga can already swim a significant distance, why does he need a diving lesson, exactly? If the diving is supposed to be a metaphor, they didn’t land the plane. If the point is supposed to be Blackthorne in his underwear, showing off his diving skill to the bored Japanese woman who was widowed like 5 minutes prior, that’s not the show I’m interested in. That’s a show more like “Outlander”, which has many fans but I’m not one of them. Oh and less boiling of people, please. I can’t really recommend a show that has that in episode 1, especially when it seemed so pointless. At least Bran going out the window in GoT actually connected to the story.
Ah, I didn’t realize episode 3 had been released–so I haven’t seen it. Stopped reading your comment after that, as it looked like it was going to get spoiler-ish. Hope I disagree with you, and didn’t speak prematurely in recommending a show that might go downhill quickly.
All good words from Bob for Disney fans. But lets be real here – he is only saying these things because he is facing tremendous competition from other companies who are 1) actively expanding and building theme parks around the world, and 2) doing so better than Disney while at the same time using Disney’s ex-Imagineers and former construction contractors. There are several very serious problems here with Bob’s comments. He is trying to recover investors who have determined that Disney has lost its luster. He is also very aware that Disney is no longer “the number one place to work” for Imagineers and animators – the horror stories of layoffs and lousy management and working conditions at Disney are a serious impediment at the moment. Yes, really, insiders are referring to the Studios as “Mouseschwitz” and “Duckau.” Many who are fresh out of school are going elsewhere to cut their professional teeth and avoid the pain and the robotic and stunted creative direction from Disney. And finally – cash. The corporate coffers are not flush as they once were, the Company is currently distant from former “most favored company” lending status, and a recovery is years away, if at all. Meanwhile, companies who once refused to produce certain movies because they clearly fell into Disney’s traditional realm are eagerly stepping in to fill the huge voids Disney has been so gleefully creating. And I’m not even touching on the clever concealments and outright lies Bob has been telling in the investor’s calls, townhalls, etc. all in an apparent and ongoing effort to put a positive spin on the dismal performance from the WDC leadership team as a whole. Disney MUST announce expansions to their parks even though there is little substance beyond just the hollow words from Bob. More of the same, I’m afraid. And we know that we’ve already seen this circus before.
It’s always been the case that talent bounced back between Universal Creative and Imagineering. So much of that is project-based, with the companies scaling up or down based on new gates in development. Most recently, a lot of the very same people designed the Universal and Disney parks in China. Incredibly common, and it’s not the least bit surprising that more of the same is and will happen after Disney cut way too hard with layoffs in 2020-2021.
Some of those horror stories about layoffs and mismanagement are absolutely valid and heartbreaking. It’s also fair to point out that Disney’s main competition on the studio side is doing the same things. Heck, Warner Bros. and Paramount are facing literal existential crises. Comcast is in a similar boat to Disney, although being dragged down in different ways. Layoffs are occurring throughout tech, which is the biggest (indirect) competitor for the type of talent Imagineering seeks to attract.
So a lot of this is certainly not good for Disney’s reputation…but it’s also disingenuous to pretend that this is unprecedented or only impacting Disney. A lot of similarly-situated companies have been rocked by the rapid increase in interest rates, among other things.
Exactly….blowing smoke to save his butt. He needs to go!
Bob Iger and his leadership team are the last people I want involved in designing park expansions and attractions. Iger and his team have worked hard to diminish the park experience and charge for the things that used to be included with regular admission. They take 5 years to build a land with two rides, one which need a virtual queue or extra cost (paid lighting lane). The Epcot underwhelming overhaul and the fact that the atrocious Figment ride and the decrepit Space Ship Earth are still unchanged are reason enough not to trust Iger and company.
In reading this im wondering how much of this is marketing in sayinh we are going to be doing big expansion to the stock holders which im guessing it is and how much is a real commitment
Having looked at the land disney has you could do 7 new lands in Epcot alone after all. that also probably means maybe 3-4 lands in the US with 5-9 new rides given the 2 attractions a land that disney seems to have atm. As i have to assume shanghai paris(yay for me!) and hong kong will get some of the money bar further deterioration(yoiks). Am i interested in what can be built yes! but im just tempering my expectations a bit at the same time.
Adding India and Brazil to World Showcase would be a nice start!
Curious if any expansion of “Disneylands” will include projects to one up Universal in TX and NV (even if Disney projects populate locations besides TX and NV).
Interesting. The bridge they have to cross would be something like “do we want to be super good at 10 parks, or mediocre at 30 parks.” We all know they hate maintenance and repairs because these expenses come directly from the bottom line. There is history here going back more than 30 years where lousy upkeep has actually killed guests. Disney pinches pennies HARD when times are lean. Profits, along with management bonuses, must be achieved and earned! 🙂
I don’t think there’s any chance Disney touches the regional park concept again–or builds fully-fledged parks outside of CA and FL. Perhaps Universal will push them to take a second look, but I just don’t see it. I think it’s a lot of fan wishful thinking.
Im sure they could but honestly its taking two years just to reimagine splash sooooo….
It’ll take less than 18 months from closure to reopening when all is said and done.
Maybe I’ve just become accustomed to Disney’s lethargic construction timelines, but I think that’s pretty good given that they transformed the exterior and how show scene-heavy the ride is. Now, if you used CommuniCore Hall, TRON, World Celebration, etc. etc., I’d be right there agreeing with you.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has been the biggest exception to that, though. It honestly makes me slightly optimistic about DINOSAUR once they finally get around to closing that.
That bodes well for the future, and it will be exciting to see what the actual announces of solid plans will bring us.
But I can’t see any announcements for Orlando with the current make up of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District having gone on record they are itching to bring culture wars battles to future development efforts. The last thing Disney wants is to announce construction plans only to have the board claim they will deny construction permits unless Disney capitulates to whatever culture war issue is hot that month.
I’m highly skeptical of that. I do think there was a point when Disney wanted to refrain from announcements for Florida in the hopes of using that as a bargaining chip to resolve the dispute–but that time has passed.
Disney has obtained, without issue, countless construction permits in the last year. Perhaps CFTOD would make a bigger deal of a larger-scale project, but I think it’s just a lot of bluster. They’re not really serious people.
The CFTOD does not want culture wars – they want Disney to stay out of classrooms and stick to their entertainment industry work. Remember that it was Disney that did nothing to stop the false “Don’t Say Gay” stuff. They asked for the battle, and they got it in spades. To say otherwise is intellectually dishonest.
But here’s another problem – bigger than the ever-growing CFTOD debacle. Disney can file and obtain construction permits all day long. And they can build stuff quickly too. The seat of the problem is that they are building scaled-down concepts and low-quality garbage comparatively speaking to achievements of the past. When was the last time we saw Disney build a non-IP “Pirates” or “Mansion?” They have given up those projects and are – in many cases – building new things based on the creativity of less-than-noble scriptwriters. These are not even truly “Disney” designs and concepts anymore. The concepts come from scripts they have been buying – and – using Star Wars as an example – running them into the ground. And look at Tokyo where the “Seas” park is great due mostly to the efforts and activities of the Oriental Land Company. OLC will not let Disney drop low-budget crap into their incredible park. We see time and again that OLC is not afraid to exercise their majority-owner muscle.
“They’re not really serious people” LOL. But we love them anyway.
No Christine, we do not love the CFTOD