The Disney Thread | Happy 90th to Donald Duck!

[AJG]

56 minutes ago, Magic Eric said:

 

This scene really locked Michael Bay into my "where there's smoke there's fire" box with Leonardo DiCaprio.

[WittyUsername]

1 hour ago, dobrevv said:

 

like how much do they want from marvel,they are doing like 8 projects a year 

 

Wasn’t it stated that Marvel was going to try and scale back on their content after the shaky way that Phase Four turned out?

[Porthos]

4 hours ago, dobrevv said:

 

 

3 hours ago, JWR said:

The big takeaway is that the creative heads are regaining the power they had within the company.

 

As long as Iger has truly learned his lesson about listening to creative heads when they say they want more time on a product, Iger can "lean even harder into Star Wars" all he wants, as far as I am concerned. 👍

[keysersoze123]

I dont see anything different here at all. what else is there on D+ anyway !!! I am not certain he is going significantly expand his audience base only having fan base based content. Those folks are already on the platform. 

 

I thought he would talk about making Hulu more attractive but its looking like Iger might sell it off and focus on D+. Managing multiple streaming apps aint no  joke. I thought they will consider merging them but this also works. 

[kayumanggi]

14 hours ago, Verrows said:

Wait a second...

 

I'm kind of confused about the Disney animation sequel/franchise complaints. Aren't we actually due for sequels? 

 

Back in 2019 I remember Iger (or someone else from Disney, I don't know) saying that after Frozen 2 they were going to focus on original stories. Well, pretty much all the Pixar and WDAS's streaming and theatrical titles (the streaming titles were only such because of covid) since then have been original. 

 

Soul 

Raya and the Last Dragon

Luca 

Encanto 

Turning Red 

Strange World 

 

We've got Elemental and Elio coming. Lightyear and Wish are the exceptions, and they aren't even sequels. One is a spinoff and the other is a sort of celebration of all things Disney.

 

So yeah... I know we'd all ideally like more originals but I think it's fine that they're circling back to do some big sequels, especially if it's with the intent of rebuilding their theatrical audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's also strange when people always ask for original movies and yet do not watch them when they are made, and then complain later on when studios give them sequels. 😂😂😂

[Morieris]

People aren't obligated to watch something original if it doesn't catch their interest (or if the studio doesn't bother to let us know that it exists), as well as the people who ask for original movies aren't often the same people who don't mind sequels because it's a way to shut their child up for a few hours.

[Porthos]

52 minutes ago, keysersoze123 said:

I dont see anything different here at all. what else is there on D+ anyway !!! I am not certain he is going significantly expand his audience base only having fan base based content. Those folks are already on the platform. 

 

I thought he would talk about making Hulu more attractive but its looking like Iger might sell it off and focus on D+. Managing multiple streaming apps aint no  joke. I thought they will consider merging them but this also works. 

 

From a couple of days ago:

 

 

This "maybe Disney doesn't buy out Hulu" talk isn't exactly coming out of nowhere.

 

Now Disney/Star integration outside of the US does make selling off Hulu an... interesting wrinkle (as alluded to by the Grim Reaper).  But maybe a Hulu purchase isn't a slam dunk after all.

 

Be curious to get @Potiki's thoughts on the sudden (?) "Weeelllllll..."

[John Marston]

Disney Plus should put all Disney movies/TV shows on there including the Touchstone Pictures ones. They do that already in some countries

Edited February 10, 2023 by John Marston

[AniNate]

7 hours ago, Morieris said:

People aren't obligated to watch something original if it doesn't catch their interest (or if the studio doesn't bother to let us know that it exists), as well as the people who ask for original movies aren't often the same people who don't mind sequels because it's a way to shut their child up for a few hours.

 

I mean, I think Disney and Pixar are just an easy target for sequel grumbling. No other studio receives the same amount of complaining they do for it. I think much of it comes from people who aren't really interested in most of their films anyway but relish the opportunity to dunk on them just because of their rep as a sterile evil megacorp.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by AniNate

[Spidey Freak]

Ike was even more delusional than we thought

 

[Eric is Quiet]

11 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

Ike was even more delusional than we thought

 

This is why we call him DADDY Iger

[Potiki]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

 

From a couple of days ago:

 

 

This "maybe Disney doesn't buy out Hulu" talk isn't exactly coming out of nowhere.

 

Now Disney/Star integration outside of the US does make selling off Hulu an... interesting wrinkle (as alluded to by the Grim Reaper).  But maybe a Hulu purchase isn't a slam dunk after all.

 

Be curious to get @Potiki's thoughts on the sudden (?) "Weeelllllll..."

Hulu has a minimum value of about $27.5B if I remember correctly so a sale to Comcast or another party would give Disney ~$18B+ vs. paying Comcast ~$9B+. I don’t think Disney would turn down that money, especially if they were able to get their owned (20th Century, ABC, FX etc.) shows/movies back in a short timeframe and put them on Disney+ under the Star brand like you mentioned. The question is at a high $20B, low $30B range who would be the buyers Comcast is obvious (and they have talked about it, although that may just be to increase perceived value), Apple maybe but probably not, Amazon unlikely, Fox or Paramount as wild cards but I would say less than a 5% chance of either of them bidding.

 

You could argue Iger is posturing and trying to play down the value of Hulu, particularly as he mentions how competitive it is for General Entertainment platforms with so many of them around and not talking up the lead they have in advertising (although complicated now) as well as the Live TV competent (which really benefits Comcast if they were a buyer)

 

Also another variable is the fact that Disney is blending Hulu and Disney+ advertising capabilities in the near future so this would impact that some and make a sale more complicated and would disrupt those plans or impact the ad tech for a buyer if they had to start fresh, unless Disney was able to somehow split that business up.

Quote

Over the last several years, LaBerge’s team has created its own advertising-delivery stack from the ground up, centered on the proprietary Disney Ad Server. The company deployed the new Disney Ad Server on Hulu last year — and it’s now also powering Disney+ with ads, which launched last month. Currently, the Disney Ad Server delivers some 500 million ad impressions per day.

 

Source plus more info: https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/disney-ad-server-tech-disney-plus-yoda-1235497663/

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/25/disney-advertisers-will-soon-get-hulus-ad-targeting-capabilities/

 

A lot of variables but really it comes down to 2 likely buyers (the part owners Disney and Comcast) and of those I still feel Disney is the more likely.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Potiki

[filmlover]

If Disney+ sells Hulu I wonder what will happen to their Hulu shows, at least the ones they actually produce (some of them like The Handmaid's Tale and the occasional limited series like Pam & Tommy were mainly produced by non-Disney studios). Maybe they're planning on creating a whole different section on D+ that can only be accessed through certain settings like the R-rated Marvel movies. That or getting back into the business of licensing anything that doesn't really fit in with their overall brand to other services or premium channels like studios used to do via multi-year output deals which was as recent as...well, five years ago before everyone got greedy and wanted to get into the streaming biz.

[Potiki]

16 minutes ago, filmlover said:

If Disney+ sells Hulu I wonder what will happen to their Hulu shows, at least the ones they actually produce (some of them like The Handmaid's Tale and the occasional limited series like Pam & Tommy were mainly produced by non-Disney studios). Maybe they're planning on creating a whole different section on D+ that can only be accessed through certain settings like the R-rated Marvel movies. That or getting back into the business of licensing anything that doesn't really fit in with their overall brand to other services or premium channels like studios used to do via multi-year output deals which was as recent as...well, five years ago before everyone got greedy and wanted to get into the streaming biz.

Pam and Tommy well produced by Annapurna was distributed by Disney and was shown on Disney+ in most markets outside the US and Latin America (which has its own Hulu like product Star+). Most 20th Century, Searchlight and FX movies/shows as well as Disney produced Hulu originals are already shown on the service internationally. 

 

If they do sell Hulu I imagine Disney would use either the Star brand they already have internationally or another name if Star is too close to Starz as a 6th tile and distribute more adult and general entertainment. Also it would be really easy to move those shows over as they already exist on Disney servers as mentioned above. 

[Willowra]

This account also posts MCU scoops; if anyone is interested, they can check it out.

[Jonwo]

I did find it amusing that people on here looked at some of the not so successful films Disney released last year like Lightyear and Strange World and decided the company was dying or done for even though film is only one part of Disney, it would take a hell of a lot to kill off Disney and it's a company that been running for almost 100 years, they've had much worse times in their history.

[AniNate]

They did just lay off 7000 people, so it obviously wasn't a good thing. 

 

Iger mentioned on the call also that they were making an effort of "curate" their content better and reduce expenses on what they produce. Ideally WDA and Pixar could produce whatever they wanted to with however much money they needed for it, and the flops last year coupled with the COVID movies being moved straight to streaming certainly didn't help with that. Their production pipelines consist of multiple films spread out over 3-5 years, so they have some time to right the ship, but I still don't think they can afford another year like last and still maintain the budget allocations and creative autonomy they currently have. Elemental and Wish at the very least need to break even (and even more ideally be critically acclaimed) to restore some confidence in their futures. I definitely don't want to see them reduced to making only franchise sequels which may be the next move if their originals start flopping a lot. 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by AniNate

[poweranimals]

Never mind.

Edited February 10, 2023 by poweranimals

[Jonwo]

2 hours ago, AniNate said:

They did just lay off 7000 people, so it obviously wasn't a good thing. 

 

Iger mentioned on the call also that they were making an effort of "curate" their content better and reduce expenses on what they produce. Ideally WDA and Pixar could produce whatever they wanted to with however much money they needed for it, and the flops last year coupled with the COVID movies being moved straight to streaming certainly didn't help with that. Their production pipelines consist of multiple films spread out over 3-5 years, so they have some time to right the ship, but I still don't think they can afford another year like last and still maintain the budget allocations and creative autonomy they currently have. Elemental and Wish at the very least need to break even (and even more ideally be critically acclaimed) to restore some confidence in their futures. I definitely don't want to see them reduced to making only franchise sequels which may be the next move if their originals start flopping a lot. 

 

 

Realistically, WDAS and Pixar aren't in any real danger. The way people were going on, you think both studios were going to get shut down and that's not going to happen under Iger's watch or indeed ever. 

 

 

[AniNate]

I mean, Disney isn't above shutting down nostalgically beloved assets if they're not profitable, They were very close to doing that with WDA in the 2000s. They may not be in imminent danger of that kind of dramatic move at the moment, but I don't even want to see their brand power diluted to the point where it does become a realistic possibility.

 

However little existential danger the studios might be in right now, I don't think one should dismiss just how rough the last few years have been for them. If Elemental and Wish do break out I'll be more than happy to shut up about this but I do think this is the most vulnerable position they've both been in since that volatile mid 2000s era.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by AniNate