The Disney Thread | Happy 90th to Donald Duck!

[filmlover]

I have to laugh that these news comes right as Disney is about to unleash what is expected to be a major write-off with Strange World. I'm guessing Chapek will still be made the fall guy for that one.

[Legion Again]

Iger  will postpone Strange World to Jan and open it to 50M off an unparalleled earned media strategy 

[grim22]

 

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

On Screenwriting Twitter, they joke about Hollywood offices "winding down for the year" around November 7. It's absolutely wild that Disney announced an out-of-nowhere CEO switch (back to Iger!) on the Sunday night before Thanksgiving. They really felt the change couldn't wait another six weeks. Unbelievable!

 

John Campea's popping the good champagne tonight...

 

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[charlie Jatinder]

29 minutes ago, Potiki said:

 

 

😂

Quick Kevin, change the  name to Bob Feige.

[lorddemaxus]

So more interested with whats happening to Chapek? Completely kicked out?

[excel1]

Bob needs to get under the radar MVP Zenia Mucha back asap. She largely crafted his image.

[excel1]

The timing is beyond odd. This type of thing usually gets many months put into it. But, if they had any inkling that Chapek would be leaving, they wouldn't have allowed the Rice departure most likely & may have not extended the contract. Add in the "Sunday before thanksgiving" stuff and its pretty crazy. 

 

Really wondering if something happened with Chapek's life that made him say "enough".

[Porthos]

4 minutes ago, lorddemaxus said:

So more interested with whats happening to Chapek? Completely kicked out?

 

[Morieris]

13 minutes ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

John Campea's popping the good champagne tonight...

 

Betting he says "Papa Iger" no less than 5 times tomorrow.

[Porthos]

4 minutes ago, excel1 said:

The timing is beyond odd. This type of thing usually gets many months put into it. But, if they had any inkling that Chapek would be leaving, they wouldn't have allowed the Rice departure most likely & may have not extended the contract. Add in the "Sunday before thanksgiving" stuff and its pretty crazy. 

 

Really wondering if something happened with Chapek's life that made him say "enough".

 

Dude, I'm telling you, it was the reaction to the earnings report.  In a "starw that broke the camel's back" sort of way.

 

Even a couple of weeks before that, he was out making major press appearances without a hint of backroom drama.  Remember that infamous WSJ interview about adults and animation?  Someone who says that isn't working on a way out in the background.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Porthos

[Potiki]

20ish minutes into rewatching the interview: 

 

Picking a buzzword (more of a buzzterm) is "movie quality television" 

 

Also pretty sure Iger will hasten the move from Broadcast/Cable to streaming. 

 

Paraphrased a bit but this is Bob Iger's take on movie going:

 

"the wound that the movie going business has suffered was hastened by COVID resulted in a permanent scar. So I don't think that movies ever return in terms of movie going to the level they were at pre pandemic, it's competition, it's choice, it's the fact that a lot of what on the platforms is very good and its movie quality television, sometimes it's a movie given series or story every week and I think consumers have learned as they got comfortable with app based television they've learned to find and love shows, it gives them flexibility from a time perspective and it replaces movie going. It doesn't mean movie going goes away, I'm a big believer in movies, I love big movies, I love going to the theatres and watching, the communal experience that won't go away but it doesn't come back to were it was... It's not a dead business... it's smaller.

 

The movie industry used to argue you couldn't create cultural impact without having everyone go to a movie theatre on the same weekend everywhere in the world, that you couldn't create franchises without that, I don't agree with that anymore, I probably made that argument at some point, it was an old world argument it wants rooted in reality. I mean you are finding now plenty of people who watched the Games of Thrones prequel the same night and talked about that the next day, Disney had that with The Mandalorian, The Beatles Get Back, Hamilton on Disney+ I could name a lot of different things."  

[YourCake]

9 minutes ago, excel1 said:

The timing is beyond odd. This type of thing usually gets many months put into it. But, if they had any inkling that Chapek would be leaving, they wouldn't have allowed the Rice departure most likely & may have not extended the contract. Add in the "Sunday before thanksgiving" stuff and its pretty crazy. 

 

Really wondering if something happened with Chapek's life that made him say "enough".

 

My gut tells me that Disney higher execs and the boards made the decision a long time ago when Chapek claimed they "don't need China market", not to mention the media also reported that somehow Zaslav managed to meet Feige  in order to lure him to DC. I guess even Zaslav knew Chapek is no better than him and Disney has to face a lot of unnecessary drama thanks to Chapek's decisions

[Porthos]

This was indeed VERY quick and sudden:

 

 

Quote

Ms. Arnold called Mr. Iger on Thursday and asked him to consider returning to the company, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. In recent months, Mr. Iger has made no secret of his extreme disappointment with Mr. Chapek, telling people close to him that he was “devastated” by the downward direction that Disney had taken and that it felt that Disney was losing its soul.

 

 

Thursday!

THURSDAY!!!!!

 

Also in that NYT piece:

Quote

Disney shares dropped 12 percent the next morning, in part because investors — and many people inside Disney — were shocked by the happy-go-lucky tone that Mr. Chapek struck while discussing the earnings report on a conference call with analysts. Mr. Chapek’s demeanor struck many as tone deaf, in particular when he started to implausibly talk about how great the response had been to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, a relatively inconsequential event at Disneyland. At least one adviser had warned Mr. Chapek ahead of time that his prepared remarks were inappropriately sunny.

 

Immediately, the CNBC host Jim Cramer began to call for Mr. Chapek’s firing during comments on his show. On Friday, Mr. Cramer said that Mr. Chapek was “incapable of running a fantastic company” and “we need someone new at Disney.”

Mr. Cramer added, “That balance sheet is the balance sheet from hell.”

 

The comments by Mr. Cramer ricocheted among senior executives at Disney, who became increasingly irate, with a few telling each other that they had lost confidence in Mr. Chapek’s ability to lead Disney out of its slump. Disney shares have fallen 41 percent since January, to about $98, and much of the compensation of senior creative leaders at Disney comes in stock options.

 

[Porthos]

5 minutes ago, Porthos said:

This was indeed VERY quick and sudden:

 

 

 

Thursday!

THURSDAY!!!!!

 

Also in that NYT piece:

 

 

As I think about it, if this gossiping/reporting is accurate, kinda ironic that his tone deaf commenting style is indeed what (helped to) kill him in the end. 

 

@Cap @Potiki

Edited November 21, 2022 by Porthos

[grim22]

12 minutes ago, Porthos said:

This was indeed VERY quick and sudden:

 

 

 

Thursday!

THURSDAY!!!!!

 

Also in that NYT piece:

 

I swear I'll never get the stock market. It's full of people who over react to everything.

[Porthos]

3 minutes ago, grim22 said:

I swear I'll never get the stock market. It's full of people who over react to everything.

 

Me? I'm not surprised at people overreacting, I'm just surprised that people still listen to Jim Kramer. 

Edited November 21, 2022 by Porthos

[CaptainJackSparrow]

49 minutes ago, filmlover said:

I have to laugh that these news comes right as Disney is about to unleash what is expected to be a major write-off with Strange World. I'm guessing Chapek will still be made the fall guy for that one.

I had to remind myself right now what Strange World is. I'm guessing everybody is expecting the film to flop?

[Potiki]

4 minutes ago, Porthos said:

 

Me? I'm not surprised at people overreacting, I'm just surprised that people still listen to Jim Kramer. 

you mean you don't trust this man:

 

 

A broken clock is right twice a day and now he probably won't shut up about it lol. 

 

Also as far as overreacting to news on stocks that is true on after-hours but usually after a couple of days rights itself.

 

Disney earnings were troubling mostly due to the future outlook of Pay TV and that wasn't really mentioned on the call (outside of looking at cost savings throughout the company) which is probably why Susan Arnold felt Chapek was out of his depth if I had to guess. 

[filmlover]

Just now, CaptainJackSparrow said:

I had to remind myself right now what Strange World is. I'm guessing everybody is expecting the film to flop?

Pretty much yeah. Lots of "Disney+ killed another one" articles probably on the way but this felt like an underperformer in the Atlantis/Treasure Planet mold from the beginning.