What Bob Iger Needs to Fix at Disney World & Beyond in 2024
One year ago, Bob Iger reentered the building as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. Late the previous night before the Elton John concert ‘streaming event’ on Disney+ at Dodger Stadium, executives found out that the board had pulled off a classic Bob Swap™️, replacing Chapek with once former and now current CEO Bob Iger.
Fan consensus at the time was that it was like an early Christmas present. Right away, Iger made clear that he had plans to clean up Chapek’s costly catastrophes, with a focus on building on the company’s rich history and legacy of “creativity, innovation, and inspiration.” Iger leaked to the media that he had been “alarmed” by price increases at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and was concerned that Chapek was “killing the soul” of Disney.
Sentiment has soured since. Fans expected colossal changes virtually overnight, with the undoing of bad decisions and more positive momentum. One year later, a lot has changed, but it’s still not to the satisfaction of many. This is not to say that fan expectations are unreasonable–Chapek expertly and efficiently inflicted a lot of pain, why couldn’t that be fixed just as expeditiously?
As a Detroit Lions fan, I would liken this to the abrupt retirement of Barry Sanders–destroying the team’s talent and decimating chances of contention overnight. It was thus to be expected that the team would enter a rebuilding year. Little did we all realize that rebuilding would take ~20 years, and the Lions wouldn’t be a bona fide contender until 2023. (I know, don’t jinx it!)
It would seem that Iger is quickly learning that he left the 1999 Lions and returned 2 years later to inherit the 2001 team. The company was in “worse shape than Iger realized” and he’s “overwhelmed and exhausted,” even privately questioning why he returned, according to Bloomberg.
Part of that is Iger’s own fault. He made many of the decisions that led Disney to where it is today, including choosing Chapek as his successor. Part of it isn’t. Outside forces and adversaries, including a suddenly shifting media landscape, have exacerbated every problem.
The good news is that Iger is a lot more like Brad Holmes than Matt Millen as a leader. Slowly but surely, Iger is turning things around–righting the ship and course-correcting the Walt Disney Company as it heads into its second century.
“Our progress has allowed us to move beyond this period of fixing and begin building our businesses again.” That was the message Bob Iger delivered during the most recent earnings call, suggesting that the period of course-correction from the Chapek era was over, and that Disney would begin moving forward.
In so doing, Iger identified four “building opportunities” for the Walt Disney Company that will be central to future success:
- Achieving significant and sustained profitability in streaming services
- Building ESPN into the preeminent digital sports platform
- Improving the output and economics of the film studios
- Turbocharging growth in Parks & Resorts
We’ve already discussed three of these four opportunities in a number of past posts, so we’re not going to fixate on them here. Suffice to say, figuring out the future of ESPN, stopping the losses of streaming, and reducing the company’s debt (via the first two entries, plus divestiture of linear and more) are all necessary prerequisites to future growth.
Additionally, we’d add that there are a few other things that Bob Iger and Disney need to fix–both high-level and more granular–before the company can truly start looking at the future. Here’s what makes the list for us…
Put Creativity First – Just about every movie or show I’ve seen made by the Walt Disney Company’s family of brands in the last two years seems like the script was written by manatees with idea balls. It’s no surprise that one sticking point of the strikes was AI–much of this content seems like the starting point was a ChatGPT prompt: “write a formulaic Disney script featuring x, y, and z.”
In reality, this paint by numbers quality of recent Disney releases is a result of the company’s by committee approach to manufacturing content. It’s not really a machine, but it sure seems like it. This is actually nothing new, but it’s starting to catch up to Disney as audiences tire of this approach and the studios haven’t had anything creative and unique like Coco, Inside Out, Moana, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Frozen, or even Encanto in the last couple of years to offset the sea of unoriginality.
Most of the “best” movies have been sequels, and all of the ostensibly original ideas have fallen flat. The live action remakes were never intended to be good, and that hasn’t changed, but it’s grown more tiresome amidst a sea of sequels and unoriginality.
Make an Actual Announcement for Walt Disney World – “Fish or cut bait.” That’s an expression my grandpa used to say to me all the time (well, what he usually instructed was to do something “…or get off the pot” but this is a family-friendly blog). Essentially, it means to stop wasting time talking, and start doing.
Grandpa Ron would’ve been a great adviser to Bob Iger. In the last year or so, Disney has tried to make splashy non-announcement announcements for its theme parks. This started at last year’s D23 Expo, while Chapek was still at the helm. The initial reaction to the Animal and Magic Kingdom expansion proposals was excitement. Once the dust settled and fans realized just what had and, more importantly, had not been announced that gave way to skepticism, pessimism, and downright dismissiveness.
It’s only gotten worse over the last year. First Disney shared that the company has $17 billion investment plans for Walt Disney World. Then came the SEC filing indicating that the company plans to double investment to $60 Billion in Walt Disney World, Disneyland & beyond. The reaction to this news was essentially crickets. Fans yawned, taking an I’ll believe it when I see it attitude. Investors, who want to see more investment in Parks & Resorts, responded with a collective shrug. The stock price didn’t move at all.
The response to the Destination D23 announcements was essentially the same. Despite being objectively the biggest slate of news at their off-year event ever, including official confirmation of the Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom, fans did not seem overly enthused. It was a similar story when it came to the most recent earnings call–the word “turbocharged” when talking about Parks & Resorts has practically become a punchline.
Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro said during an interview with EW that what fans saw at Destination D23 was not a final piece of concept art, but rather, “where our heads are” as Imagineers continue “dreaming” plans for Animal Kingdom’s future.
“We’ve got so many stories to tell, we have so many things we want to make even better in the theme parks. My plan is to continue to share that with the guests. I know people are like, ‘My gosh, I can’t believe he’s saying this. Is he serious, is he not?’ The answer is, we are absolutely serious.”
“We know what this business is capable of, we know what our fans expect of us, and we’re going all in. You’re going to see more and more of that. As we make our way through some of these ideas, some of them will become real, and we’ll say that’s specifically what we’re going to do, but I want our guests to be on the journey with us.”
I’ll admit that I actually like this approach, but I also understand that Walt Disney World is, realistically, in a holding pattern for the next couple of years while other priorities are sorted out. I also see the reaction and disinterest from the fan community and wonder whether Iger and D’Amaro are doing a good job of reading the room.
Perhaps they’re seeing and hearing feedback that’s different from what this site sees, but from my view, this approach is not working. It is arguably worse than saying nothing at all. In fairness to Iger and D’Amaro, it’s not all their fault. A big part of the problem here is the baseline from which the approach is starting.
This is occurring against the backdrop of several delayed or cancelled projects. If you look at what was announced during the 2019 D23 Expo, about half of that never came to fruition. The Mary Poppins attraction, key parts of the EPCOT overhaul, Reflections Lakeside Lodge, Play Pavilion, Spaceship Earth reimagining, and more. Some of that could certainly be blamed on COVID, but in other cases, that’s just a convenient excuse.
In other words, a lot of the goodwill and patience fans might otherwise have had with these non-announcement announcements was already exhausted prior to the start of the current process. Now, these public blue sky brainstorming sessions just feel like a tedious tease or even a brand withdrawal to many fans.
Make an Actual Announcement for Disneyland – It’s a very similar story with the California parks. The priority there, quite obviously, is getting DisneylandForward approved. For like the dozenth time, this is not a substantive plan or proposal, it’s more like a zoning proposal–everything you see in the DisneylandForward pitch is really just a placeholder of potential ideas or lands in international parks that they could, in theory, build. (C’mon, do you really believe Disney is going to spend OLC money to bring Fantasy Springs to life in California?!)
In the meantime, Disney seems reluctant to make any actual announcements for Disneyland Resort. They’ve done this song and dance with an undefined Avatar experience, and several years later, work still hasn’t started in earnest on the supposed Marvel E-Ticket. Then there are the walls still up at the Tomorrowland entrance (celebrating the 4th anniversary tomorrow!) and a number of other overdue updates.
We’re at the parks every week. Even as pent-up demand exhausts itself, it’s still very obvious that attendance and spending are sky-high, far eclipsing 2019. It’s absurd that this momentum isn’t being leveraged, and virtually the only projects that move quickly are Disney Vacation Club. Between now and at least 2026, it’s unlikely that there will be a newly-built ride (reimaginings excluded) on either coast.
Quiet Controversy – Rage farming has become a cottage industry, and one that’s going to exist no matter what Disney does. Sadly, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. Voices with a vested interest in manufactured outrage will find ways to misconstrue and contort everything into reasons to be angry. But those are not serious people, and just because they’re loud doesn’t mean they have influential voices.
For its part, Disney could still do a better job to quiet controversies. Having the foresight to know when something could become hot button would be a good thing, and help avoid an issue before it arises. (For example, why would you even touch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?! That’s an obvious minefield in every direction–before a single casting or creative decision was even made.)
To Iger’s credit, he has starting to steer the ship in the right direction when it comes to politics. Although the year started out rough and litigation is ongoing, DeSantis vs. Disney is no longer making mainstream media headlines or the nightly news. Sure, there are procedural updates to the lawsuits and assorted local-level stories, but nothing of national intrigue. Almost everyone has moved on. Thankfully. I would bet that Disney’s corporate ranking will actually improve for the first time in several years (see Disney’s Reputation Falls Further in 2023).
At the same time, Iger has made inroads improving Disney’s relationship with California, too. (It’s easy to forget, but Iger resigned from Governor Newsom’s Economic Recovery Task Force in October 2020 due to tensions between the state and Disneyland.) Newsom has since become an ally to Disney, making overtures to get the company to increase its presence in the state.
The next step out west is getting DisneylandForward approved, which should happen in 2024. Given the calming of tensions, our expectation and hope is that cooler heads prevail and Iger similarly repairs its relationship with Florida next year. Everyone loses and no one wins–except those who traffic in outrage–when these states and one of their largest businesses are at odds.
Brand Deposits Over Withdrawals – Bob Iger famously uses the term “brand deposits” or “brand withdrawals” when talking about managing the Walt Disney Company’s reputation and franchises. Perhaps infamously, as fans have bemoaned the use of these terms.
But he’s right. Iger came to view Disney in these terms thanks to the counsel of his late friend and board member Steve Jobs. It was Jobs who first advised Iger to think of “brand deposits” or “brand withdrawals” every time they made a movie, television show or consumer product. Jobs’ legacy and influence can be seen all across Disney, and some of the best decisions of the aughts were a result of the Jobs-Iger relationship. I suspect fans would be less harsh on the brand deposits and withdrawals lingo if they knew its origins.
Somewhere in the last decade, Disney has lost focus of this view. I don’t think anyone would sincerely suggest that Peter Pan and Wendy, Lightyear, Disenchanted, or any number of other streaming releases–the modern day equivalent of direct-to-video sequels–were brand deposits rather than withdrawals.
These are even worse than the live action remakes that I revile. As creativity bankrupt and soulless as those might be, at least the remakes serve a purpose–introducing new demos and markets to the stories and characters. Optimistically, I’d like to think that leads to international and younger audiences to discovering the superior originals. All of the above movies cannot justify their own existence at all–those were not stories that needed to be told. They are brand withdrawals.
Thankfully, it would seem that Bob Iger finally recognizes this. During the most recent earnings call, he didn’t mince words when asked about the studios’ losing streak: “As I look at our overall output, meaning the studio, it’s clear that the pandemic created a lot of challenges creatively for everybody, including for us…we were leaning into a huge increase in how much we were making and I’ve always felt that quantity can be actually a negative when it comes to quality. And I think that’s exactly what happened. We lost some focus.”
Here’s hoping he takes this to heart. One of the reasons that Apple TV+ is top-tier is that they’ve listened to Steve Jobs’ wise words, and created a streaming service befitting of the Apple name. They’re more like HBO than Max is, whereas Disney+ is starting to feel more like the Discovery brand.
Slash VFX Budgets – VFX now looks worse than it used to and costs much more despite that. Budgets have exploded as there’s been a lax attitude in shooting scenes and willingness to “fix it in post.” Reshoots and changes in creative direction have exacerbated this, as have crunch and overtime to ensure projects hit their release dates.
The end result is that a lot of scenes are aesthetically cringey. Entire movies look like they might have never been shoot in any real world location. While watching one of the studio panels at last year’s D23 Expo, trailer after trailer looked almost indistinguishable from cutscenes on my Playstation 5.
Movies that look like movies won’t alone fix the problem, but a concerted effort to correct that certainly wouldn’t hurt. It starts with a top-down approach and a mandate to slash VFX to get things right in camera or, better yet, shoot in the real world in the first place.
Rein in Spending – Bigger picture, Disney’s spending is absolutely out of control when it comes to content. There’s no reason that an episode of an awful Marvel show should cost $35 million. Heck, there’s no reason a good episode should cost $25 million! Same goes for movie budgets ballooning to the point that even projects that are relatively well-received by audiences still don’t break even.
Those who have read DisneyWar know that former CEO Michael Eisner famously had a “Singles and Doubles Philosophy” to tell great stories on modest budgets. This was incredibly fruitful, both creatively and financially, as it allowed the studio to take risks on ideas without as much to lose. (Interestingly, even back in 1991, Jeffrey Katzenberg wrote a memo warning of out of control and undisciplined spending.)
This isn’t just applicable to arthouse indie films. Rom-coms, horror, dramas, and coming of age movies are all mainstream genres that don’t cost as much to make as superhero, science fiction, action/adventure, or space people movies. With that said, even the tentpole Marvel, Star Wars, and other franchises would benefit from being forced to do with less. This constant game of one upmanship where every explosion is bigger and every villain is badder than the last movie needs to be reeled in. Tell good stories, Disney–not just expensive ones–or audiences won’t care.
Improve Guest Satisfaction – You might notice that this ‘wish list’ is higher-level things that are actually within a CEO’s purview. We recently shared a list of things Walt Disney World needs to fix or restore to improve the guest experience. All of that still stands, it’s just below Bob Iger’s pay grade and nothing he would handle directly.
Nevertheless, Iger should once again reiterate his mandate to leadership at Parks & Resorts to improve the guest experience. The work is not finished there, and this will become increasingly necessary as pent-up demand continues to exhaust itself and there’s more of a consumer spending and sentiment pullback.
Improve Cast Member Morale – Anyone who has Cast Member friends can tell you that there was an immediate improvement in morale when Chapek was fired and Iger brought back. A huge number of frontline Cast Members and other employees expressed their elation that Chapek was gone and Iger was back. It was significant, sudden, and–a rarity for this type of thing–on public display.
One year later, my outside-looking-in assessment would be that morale is still better now than it was on November 19, 2022. But probably not as good as it was on November 21, 2022. Part of this was to be expected–the honeymoon phase has come to an end. Just like fans had unrealistic expectations about what Iger would do or how quickly, so too did Cast Members.
But not all of it. As discussed above, it’s been a year of transition, which has meant the layoff of 7,000+ employees (albeit no frontline Cast Members in Parks & Resorts), along with wage negotiations between the company and Walt Disney World unions (that we categorized as an unforced error) and high-profile disputes in Hollywood. Iger’s initial comments on the writers’ and actors’ strikes weren’t exactly well-received, but he’s since course-corrected.
Iger has scheduled another Town Hall with Cast Members and employees on November 28, 2023–one year after he held one upon returning–during which he will discuss his vision for the future of the Walt Disney Company and field questions. He’s expected to use the discussion as an opportunity to further boost Cast Member morale, and he’ll undoubtedly accomplish exactly that.
We’d also suggest that Iger and D’Amaro spend more time together in the parks this holiday season (without escorts), making a point of soliciting feedback from Cast Members and guests. This is a little but important thing. Cynically, it could be interpreted as a PR photo op, but we’d argue that this can be immensely beneficial both for morale and for executives hearing firsthand accounts of what’s working and what isn’t.
Choreograph His Succession Plan – Over the summer, the board of directors extended Iger’s contract to serve as Chief Executive Officer through December 31, 2026. In so doing, they said it “provides continuity of leadership during the company’s ongoing transformation, and allows more time to execute a transition plan for CEO succession, which remains a priority for the Board.”
With Iger having another 3 years, it’s too early to name a successor. The same will be true at this time next year. However, it will not be too soon to choose and groom one (or two!) replacements and start telegraphing to Wall Street and fans that this is the future of the Walt Disney Company. Back when Chapek hastily succeeded Iger, we were surprised that hadn’t happened, especially with how Disney choreographs and telegraphs every decision. As Disney’s own board said, continuity in the transition is a priority.
Disney will soon bring aboard a new CFO who could be a future CEO candidate. As you might recall, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs were recently brought back as strategic advisers to Bob Iger. This could be a precursor to one or both succeeding Iger as CEO via a talent acquisition of Candle Media. This blog has been championing that duo or Josh D’Amaro-Dana Walden as co-heads of Disney with an Eisner-Wells or Walt-Roy dynamic. Basically, we just want someone at the top who cares about Walt Disney World and Disneyland!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
How would you grade Bob Iger’s first full year back as CEO? Think that he’s accomplished a lot or a little given where the company stood as of late last year? Believe that this year’s progress has allowed Disney to move beyond this period of fixing and the company will begin building again in 2024? What else would you like to see Bob Iger fix or accomplish in 2024 at Walt Disney World, Disneyland or beyond? Think things will get better or worse throughout the next couple of years? 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!
Simply returning to family values would be a big step in the right direction. Walt never wanted drinking in the parks. Having drag queens as “fairy-godmothers-in-training” at BBB is disgusting. Making movies like “Red”, using a red panda as a euphemism for a girl’s menstrual cycle is crossing a line. Or, are you classifying those who want a return to “family friendly” as “rage farmers”?
There’s one more thing I’d add to your list of things Disney needs to do: “Have Courage.” I went to Tokyo DisneySea last week and as I was standing in line for Journey To The Center Of The Earth, looking at the incredibly themed queue, the thought hit me: “There’s no way Disney would have the courage to build this.” They don’t have the courage today to build anything that’s in that park. It’s less about budget and more about courage. Something Immersive, incredibly themed, not tied to a formulaic movie, and bold. That’s why Journey still garners two hour waits that folks are more than happy to stand in line for. Yes, Imagineering moves faster on DVC construction, but the new properties are basically Marriott Couryards with vinyl stickers from formulaic movies. No originality. No theming. And smaller rooms. There’s no way I’d trade my Grand Cal villa for one at the Disneyland Hotel. Where’s the immersive theming? Original storytelling? You can’t feed folks the same formula all the time. Take some courage and do something bold.
I was so disappointed with Wish. The writing was what I would expect from Trolls Band Together. Very young writing, not crossover.
I’m a fan who likes the remakes, loved Halle Bailey in Mermaid, loved The Marvels, I’m not a review bomber or an anti-woke person (in fact I’d be described as a radical leftie by most people ) but the writing in Wish was too junior for me — where I adore Encanto, Moana, Elemental, most tentpole Disney Animation and Pixar releases.
Very excited for Boy and the Heron. I hope they don’t abandon their adult fans over the “my four year old couldn’t pay attention” reviews. Part of the magic of this studio for me is that the writing is interesting to any age level, not kindof over explanatory writing you see in properties aimed squarely at children.
“I hope they don’t abandon their adult fans over the ‘my four year old couldn’t pay attention’ reviews. Part of the magic of this studio for me is that the writing is interesting to any age level, not kindof over explanatory writing you see in properties aimed squarely at children.”
If you haven’t seen them, it’s worth watching the Hayao Miyazaki documentaries on NHK. It’s pretty clear from his affably-grumpy attitude that he has not interest in pandering. I can’t see that changing, especially in the twilight of his career.
Oh! I meant Disney I love Miyazaki! He’s a real character.
Chapek wasn’t great for the Parks, but any problems with the rest of the company are 100% on Iger.
Iger is responsible for the terrible decision to base Galaxy’s Edge and the Starcruiser in the sequel era. And, in general, allowing the Star Wars brand to become so damaged on his watch.
It was on Iger’s watch that he gave Feige complete control of Marvel Studios. In 2019, right before the movie quality began to drop dramatically. You only have to look at George Lucas with the prequels or any M Night Shyamalan movie after Signs to see that some people need someone able to tell them “NO”.
Iger was there was John Lasseter was fired in 2017. And then in about 2021, Pixar movies started failing. Did you know that Pixar movies tend to be in development for about four years?
Even the Reedy Creek fiasco is at least partially Iger’s fault. Chapek seemed happy to just stay out of things, but Iger made comments insisting that Disney get involved.
Iger’s achievements consists entirely of buying other companies. And then ruining their brands for short term financial gain.
I agree with some of your points, but a couple of things aren’t accurate:
1) Feige was the architect of the MCU. Its recent failures are at least in part on him, but so too are its successes prior to that. He’s the reason they managed to achieve such a massive and unprecedented success culminating in Endgame. The reason I’d say the failures are only “in part” on him is because Feige was not the one who made the decision to go so hard on MCU programming for Disney+. That started with Iger and accelerated under Chapek.
2) You do know why Lasseter was fired…right? While I agree that losing him (and others) was a damaging blow for the creative output of Pixar, I suspect that what we heard only scratched the surface of what happened, as Iger and co. are so good at controlling the narrative.
I think it’s a stretch to say Iger has ruined any brands that Disney has acquired. A lot of fans may not like the recent output, and they were undoubtedly milked too hard for streaming–but if Star Wars, Marvel or Pixar were spun off today, they would each sell for considerably more than their acquisition cost.
1) There was a recent book on the origins of the MCU. Feige was important yes, but giving him sole credit for the success ignores tons of people who were just as or more important than him in making it work. Ike Perlmutter, Joss Whedon, and the Russo Brothers are, in my opinion, just as responsible for the success. They’re all gone now.
2) Yes, I know the reason. I tend to think we heard the worst of the allegations rather than the tamest, but I think we can agree to leave the topic at that.
As for the brands, I’ll give you that I was being a bit dramatic. Their book value might be up, but I don’t think anyone would even want to buy Marvel or Pixar at this point. Marvel has lost hundreds of millions on their last few movies and Pixar is pretty much indistinguishable from the main Disney Animation studio at this point.
I’m a firm believer that Star Wars is down though. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Last Jedi alone tanked the valuation by over a billion dollars. My udnerstanding is that toy sales are way down. The fact that they haven’t released a movie in four years is, in my opinion, the best evidence that even Disney doesn’t think Star Wars has the value it once did.
I think that it is important to implement a WWWD filter on everything that is done at Disney (that is What Would Walt Do). And then think about how Walt would have gone about it. This has been sorely missing from Disney for several years and Chapek only made so many of us hate Disney to the point that we sold all of our stock.
What always brought us back to Disney World was just the fact that it was a place you could escape all the trappings of todays societal issues. The idea of a Fantasy Land that we can fanaticize living in an idyllic world for just a few hours or days made the trip all worthwhile. The moves made more recently have attempted to drive a rift between people rather than making everyone think they are part of the Human Race has permanently damaged Disney’s image.
I think that the ideological divides that Disney now supports are where the problems begin. Be Agnostic and let everyone know that forgetting about the evils in the world during your visit to the parks is a good thing. Then you are able to realize the fantasy world that Walt envisioned.
Exactly! Disney World was place you could go be taken care of (the ‘Disney Bubble’) when you booked a visit and were then comfortably in an alternative world (worlds!) when on site. That all changed when most of the advantages of staying on site were taken away and replaced with inferior and expensive replacements that make your park visit a stressful experience rather than a magical one. Much of the press, and comments on forums, seem to center on Disney’s movies and streaming services. For me, these have NOTHING to do with Disney’s reputation in the eyes of it’s most loyal customers. It’s the theme parks, stupid! That’s Disney’s face to the world and that face has a lot of egg on it as a result of focusing on raising prices rather than raising the customer experience. I strongly believe that the loss of loyal, repeat Disney World guests will eventually become larger than the addition of new, first time guests. I fear that by the time that happens, it will be difficult to reverse the trend.
Anyone that expected rapid changes was delusional. Sure Iger can say to stop doing something but then there’s nothing to replace that. In some cases nothing is better. Creating and implementing new policies/programs in the corporate world takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.
People also need to realize that Iger was brought back to salvage the stock price…that his return at least initially was for PR. Wall Street and the Disney community love him, regardless of what he does.
Also…here’s a news flash…something people have forgotten…a lot of what Chapeck instituted as started under Iger. Chapek just implemented them. His biggest downfall was a lack of understand on how to sell these policies or programs to the fans and Wall Street.
Someone had an idea that instead of live action remakes of movies, they should make Muppet versions instead. I know I personally would love that.
So would I, but we Muppets fans have to concede we’re very much in the minority. Disney clearly has some hardcore Muppets fans in influential positions who’ve greenlit all the Muppets stuff we’ve gotten on screen and in the parks in the last few years. Sadly, they’ve not garnered the popular response they need to sustain the output – especially not when Disney is looking to cut unnecessary costs. I suspect that, unfortunately, the brand is going to be rested for a while.
I would love to have your opinion Tom.
In your opinion, who is the driving force behind the Disney Empire? Is it the movies or the parks?
Let me explain. What is the trigger that makes us love Disney? Which makes us buy, spend more money, become a real fan.
At my age, it’s ridiculous for me to watch children’s films at the cinema, what am I doing here. But it’s since I fell in love with the parks that I’ve enjoyed everything Disney does. I have the impression that without the parks, the “magic” doesn’t happen. This is the showcase that Disney should pamper and invest in. The return on investment is there.
I don’t think that’s a question I can answer for anyone else. Heck, I don’t even know if I can answer it for me. The objective response is that the core assets are all part of Disney’s “flywheel” and they all pollinate one another, so to speak.
I’m a child of the 1990s who fell in love with Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Aladdin, and Toy Story. I absolutely adored all of those movies, and reenacted the films (with the addition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because turtle power!) at home. So you could say that’s what made me fall in love with Disney?
But at the same time, my parents started visiting Walt Disney World before I was born, and started taking me every year as early as I can remember. So maybe that’s it?
Either way, I love the parks much more today–even though I still enjoy watching the movies. But I honestly couldn’t tell you which caused which. It’s almost like a chicken/egg scenario, which I think is kinda the point.
Epcot needs to be “done”. Then look at animal kingdom. Succession planning seems to be a Disney problem. On the operations side, it is a mess in the parks. Hire more maintenance staff and keep the rides open.
Special effects can’t make up for mediocre storylines, and CGI is aging the effects quickly. When I watch the original original (original!) Star Wars, a lot of the effects use perspective tricks, which have held up incredibly well.
Art vs Finance is nothing new, with Walt and Roy butting heads constantly. As Katzenberg said in Waking Sleeping Beauty, “this is show business” meaning there’s a business perspective they need to respect. The movies have stupid budgets and they’re not good enough to bring in the audience to make a profit. I haven’t been impressed with Disney or Pixar starting in 2019 with Frozen 2. Did we really need more sequels, when TS3 wrapped things up beautifully, and at least I don’t feel we needed an explanation on Elsa’s powers. Frozen was extremely successful so obviously the audience bought Elsa’s powers from birth without an explanation. I’m definitely in the camp of not watching any new animated movies until they’re unmitigated successes.
I feel like Frozen is such an outlier that it should be considered separately. I also did not need an explanation of where Elsa’s powers came from, but when the original is the highest grossing animated film of all time, I can’t really hold it against Disney for saying “more of this, please.” For something that originated for business rather than creative reasons, Frozen 2 is a lot better than it has any right to be.
Definitely agree about the special effects though. There are clearly limitations on what they could do but those original trilogy effects have held up better than most CGI from movies that are only 10 years old. I wish Hollywood in general would go back to doing more things in camera rather than just using CGI for everything.
I agree with Jared that there should be space for both original films and sequels–even ones that we might deem “unnecessary” from a storytelling perspective. Perhaps more than any other media company, Disney is the intersection of art and commerce, and it makes complete sense to have franchises with sequels. Give parents and kids more of what they love.
The issue is the imbalance, real of perceived, between original ideas and sequels/remakes/universes/etc.
Totally agree. I’m of the belief that practical effects are always the way to go, whenever possible, because it’s impossible to know how VFX will evolve and make current visuals look bad as technology improves. But in the case of the MCU, a lot of the VFX looks laughably bad right now…even though it’s ridiculously expensive.
It’s wild to me how well Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, and Toy Story all hold up to this day. Those were all released around the same time ~30 years ago, and yet, they look better than a lot of brand new movies. Story-wise, they run laps around a lot of what’s being released now.
Frozen 2 is a beautiful movie with beautiful music. The sequels today aren’t like the direct to disney dvd ones when we were kids.
I totally agree with Tome! Some additional thoughts from a Roy perspective: 1. Movie advertising budgets seem to still be in line with pre-COVID budgets, which seemed designed to advertise movies not only in theaters, but also in digital rentals, home video, pay TV, and network TV releases that were occurring so quickly after movies left theaters. Now that those have basically been replaced by Disney+, it’s necessary to scale down advertising because there’s simply less opportunities to make that money back. 2. Don’t announce movies so far ahead. Not only does that take free advertising away from current movies, but it forces you to go ahead with movies that need more work in pre-production. Fixing movies – or replacing them – before you start shooting has always been cheaper than “fixing it in post” but it’s so much more now. 3. Same with theme park additions. Until now, I actually thought the Animal Kingdom expansion was a plan, not written in stone obviously because of the time needed to replace a big chunk of land, but I thought it was at least an idea and not a Blue Sky brainstorming session that will be chosen or not sometime in the future. Similarly, someone tell Iger if Disneyland can’t open Avatar-related entertainment in the next few years; while I expect the rights aren’t tied up, it’s not going to look good if the first announcement post-planning commission approval of the rezoning doesn’t include something Pandora related.
My family has gone from Annual Pass holders as recently as 2018 to, for the first time in over 20 years, not having a WDW vacation scheduled. Tom, you are spot on in your critique of Disney here. The amount of capital that Disney has lost with fans is amazing. At least that is the case with us.
I do hope that Iger will get things back on track but believe that it will take several years for that to occur. Tom, have you written an article on how you think Disney got into this predicament in the first place? Whatever happened to get us to the point did trickle down from the top. So I think it will take awhile for changes at the top to get us to where all of us Disney fans want it to be.
Good article. Thanks for your honest assessment of Disney.
I saw Wish last weekend. It’s actually pretty good, and the audience seemed to be into it. But, fair or not, I think the “DISNEY MOVIES ARE ALL FLOPPING” narrative has taken hold. It’s gonna take a few successess in a row to overcome that.
Good to hear. We have a couple of friends who saw it, and both of them and their kids loved it.
Hopefully the audience score is much higher than the critics’ one–and I could see that being the case, given that the main critic complaint is that it leans too heavily on nostalgia and references. If the music is great, characters are compelling, and the story is ‘good enough’, that’ll be a win in my book.
On a related note, I think Element is also a really good movie that got written off too quickly by the press because it didn’t have a massive opening weekend. More broadly, I think Disney has released some really strong things creatively in the past couple of years, those projects just have not been the ones that have gotten the big promotional push. For example, I would argue “Seeing Red” is the strongest film out of Disney/Pixar in the last 5 years, but it got sent direct to streaming instead of the theatrical release it deserved.
I think I’ve mentioned this in another post or comment, but several of Disney’s best original animated films essentially being buried on Disney+ was such a bad move in hindsight. I love Turning Red, but it’s not just that, either. What you count depends on personal preference, but I’d say there are at least 5 gems that didn’t receive proper theatrical releases or space for organic fan followings.
I’m honestly surprised Disney hasn’t tried re-releasing some of those 2020-2021 movies in theaters. I’m sure there’d be a market, and it might make sense next year with the theatrical slate starting to clear out a bit due to the strikes.
Thank you Tom! I always appreciate your analysis posts.
I was at EPCOT yesterday and it’s ridiculous that the construction walls are still up around the middle of Future World (or whatever that area will be called eventually), it’s been FOUR years, and it is a huge pain to navigate from The Land to Guardians of the Galaxy.
I understand why some projects were delayed due to the closure and COVID, but I will never get why THAT project was. It’s not like they could keep the center of the park as a dirt pit forever–that time should’ve been used to fast track the work.
It’s inexcusable that EPCOT has been torn up so long (and for what?!), but also, it’s counterproductive. They’ve undoubtedly lost out on visits because of the construction, even as new attractions started to open.
Agreed, leave the classic movies alone but most importantly- give us some announcements for our parks in the United States- it’s painful hearing about the cool stuff coming to international parks
In fairness, the stuff opening now at Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland (and in 2 years in Paris) was all part of the last development cycle, which also saw lands/rides cancelled at HKDL (Marvel) and WDSP (Star Wars). Walt Disney World got a lot during that same cycle.
Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea is really the only anomaly, and OLC does its own thing. Even then, entertainment at those parks has been slashed and they (arguably) didn’t see the same degree of expansion in 2010-2019 as the US parks.
The grass is always greener on the other side. Or perhaps, their new flowers smell fresher, because you’re not so used to hearing about or seeing them.
Bring this experience and joy back.
https://youtu.be/Q7Nhwt8GQAI?si=bWPE3Uij87pz41vU
I’ve seen that commercial like a half-dozen times this year, and it’s still tough to watch.
I’d pay all the money to go back to that Disney. It makes me really sad to watch that video.
That video is filled with so much happiness and wonder, they even dared use The Song Which Shall Not Sung as a finale.
That commercial described perfectly the “Disney Bubble” that you were in once you booked a Disney World resort. Sadly, that’s all gone and I continue to be flabbergasted that Disney doesn’t see the long term damage this is doing to Disney World. In fact, my contention is that it’s driving away a certain percentage of long term repeat guests and first time guests who might have become repeat guests. I’m a long term repeat guest (at least I used to be) and feel so strongly about the damage done by the elimination of the bubble that I did a detailed analysis that I believe demonstrates how these changes will cost Disney over a billion dollars per year in lost revenue. I published it on my personal blog and you can read it if you have some time to waste at https://tommcbroom.com/how-disney-world-is-alienating-guests/
I wonder if anyone at Disney ever did this sort of an analysis, or if they even care. Yes, my assumptions and figures may be off…but what if they’re not?
“(C’mon, do you really believe Disney is going to spend OLC money to bring Fantasy Springs to life in California?!)”
You’ve said everything that needs to be said right here. Disney has been out-Disneyed by OLC for decades now. And it’s unfortunate that we all know and have come to accept that.
In Disney’s “defense,” they have spent ridiculous amounts of money in the last decade at Walt Disney World…but a lot of it has been wasted.
When all is said and done, the difference between Fantasy Springs and the EPCOT overhaul is fairly insignificant, from what I’ve heard. And sure, WDW could have their Beauty and the Beast area, but might I interest you in a closed Star Wars hotel instead?! 😉
🙂 Manatees with idea balls….that was genius! I’m stealing that 1-liner 🙂
I say extend the monorail (suck it up, cause that cost is what they paid Chapek during his disasterous reign)
Don’t do gambling at ESPN or just sell it off.
I’m warming to the Candle Media buyout.
What is it with the 5yr construction mound in the middle of the MK parking lot?
He was referencing South Park. In an episode, they make fun of Family Guy by saying that’s how they come up with ideas for cutaway gags.
You are totally right about making concrete announcements, preferably with even vague dates, for the US theme parks. When I read about the new Frozen land at HKDL, or the incredible looking BATB ride in Tokyo that you recently featured, I’m so envious! Realistically, most Americans will not have the opportunity to visit these locations, and it is frustrating that we don’t get these incredible expansions here. I’m happy that guests at the international parks get to enjoy these additions, but it would be great to see a large expansion in the domestic parks as well. I’m looking forward to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but that is changing a ride that was already in place—not on the same scale as entire new themed lands.
Have a plan to keep the rides from breaking down so often