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[YCoCg]

'Politics is bad for business.' Why Disney's Bob Iger is trying to avoid hot buttons

Walt Disney Co. and its chief executive have made a sharp pivot since doubling-down on diversity and inclusion efforts in the wake of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis four and a half years ago.

www.yahoo.com

Disney acknowledged that a transgender athlete storyline had been removed from an upcoming Pixar animated series, "Win or Lose," about a middle-school softball team. In a statement, Disney said it recognized “many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”

“Our primary mission needs to be to entertain,” Iger said during the company's 2023 investor meeting. “It should not be agenda-driven.”

Iger increasingly has stressed the importance of steering the company away from overt political messaging.

"The stories you tell have to really reflect the audience that you're trying to reach but that audience, because they are so diverse ... can be turned off by certain things," Iger said during an April appearance on CNBC. "We just have to be more sensitive to the interests of a broad audience. It's not easy."

 

[RCX]

No shit Bob.

Disney is just a legacy IP management company at this point. He can talk all he wants but the odds of being able to get rid of all the DEI acolytes in an organization that big, if indeed he really does want to - - which i doubt, are pretty low.

They're fucked and will remain so. They aren't going bankrupt or anything but their days as a truly cherished brand are completely over. Public goodwill is a finite resource, they spent too much of it

 

[WhiteWaterM00se]

Amazing it took a billionaire CEO this long to understand this concept. I actually think Iger is a really smart guy, and had to come clean up the other CEO’s mess and clean up the pandemic effect on Disney.

I’m all for bettering the world. But Disney is an entertainment business. Keep it simple stupid.

If Disney really wants to offend people, why don’t we talk about their ticket prices!?

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Too late to backtrack now..

 

[FeralEcho]

If only there was this large fanbase out there to have been saying that for years....Little Bob would've gotten it sooner.

It's too late now Bob,enjoy the madhouse you've raised.

 

[Gp1]

10 years too late.

 

[nush]

 

[winjer]

No shit sherlock.
Too bad your company burned so many bridges with audiences.
Good luck fixing this mess...

 

[BlackTron]

It is bad for business, but for some reason he was only just now blessed with this devastatingly obvious fact. Perhaps, it coincidentally entered his mind the same day he learned the election results.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

 

[Mistake]

If they wanted to repent, they'd fire Iger publicly and anyone else who made such bad decisions. I can't think of any other way to get trust back

 

[SJRB]

 

[archangelmorph]

This is the opposite of Bob’s sentiment though.

Going hard right wing is equally bad for business.

Ask Muskrat about Twitter’s revenue drop and share price since he took over…

 

[BlackTron]

Man...couldn't they have picked a different period to bring back Star Wars.

That ST is the most keenly felt gut punch from Disney. Just as the OT will never be forgotten. ST can never be forgiven. It has been written in stone and cannot be rescinded.

This thing is a giant steaming pile on the Mouse's legacy. Tragic.

 

[Rheon]

Polarizing topic is bad for business.

No fucking shit.

 

[Complistic]

First step is admitting you have a problem, now let's see you make actually good shit again.

 

[IAmRei]

Man...couldn't they have picked a different period to bring back Star Wars.

That ST is the most keenly felt gut punch from Disney. Just as the OT will never be forgotten. ST can never be forgiven. It has been written in stone and cannot be rescinded.

This thing is a giant steaming pile on the Mouse's legacy. Tragic.

Agree with this, if only time could be erased. Maybe with force artifact of something. To erase the timeline. Some discussed about it years ago. Before i left star wars for good.

 

[BlackTron]

Agree with this, if only time could be erased. Maybe with force artifact of something. To erase the timeline. Some discussed about it years ago. Before i left star wars for good.

We know they are bringing back Rey, forget it. (I like the actress and thought she was conceptually good. Writing and execution, no. They should have made a clean break from her as she stands for the ST)

 

[Doom85]

Good luck fixing this mess...

They flat out had the 1st, 2nd, and 4th highest grossing movies of 2024.

 

[IAmRei]

We know they are bringing back Rey, forget it. (I like the actress and thought she was conceptually good. Writing and execution, no. They should have made a clean break from her as she stands for the ST)

and then let us see, how it rolls now, maybe this time, they could do it right?
while i'm still being sceptic, well, one can only hope. SW is once my beloved franchise, i spent thousand dollars if not more (it is high value spent in my place), for lego star wars back before.
seeing them in display is bugging me if SW is not returned to their form like before.

 

[winjer]

They flat out had the 1st, 2nd, and 4th highest grossing movies of 2024.

Then why do you think Iger got this change of heart?
The reality is that many Disney movies and shows are failing.
And even those that gross a lot of money, it might not be enough to cover costs.
You might not know, but movie companies like Disney don't show to the public the real cost of making their movies.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

 

[Doom85]

And even those that gross a lot of money, it might not be enough to cover costs.
You might not know, but movie companies like Disney don't show to the public the real cost of making their movies.

I’m not interested in baseless speculation. I cited specific rankings and the box office gross is widely available for those movies, claiming, “yeah, but maybe not” is a nothingburger to me.

And those first two films made 1.6 billion and 1.3 billion respectively. No sane person is going to claim that STILL didn’t give them a profit from their budget spent.

 

[ManaByte]

It is bad for business, but for some reason he was only just now blessed with this devastatingly obvious fact. Perhaps, it coincidentally entered his mind the same day he learned the election results.

He said this in 2023 if you actually read the OP.

It was Bob Cheapek who steered them in this direction. Most people at Disney loved Iger almost as much as Walt. Everyone hated Cheapek. He was desperate to win over a segment of the company and torpedoed the company doing so.

 

[winjer]

I’m not interested in baseless speculation. I cited specific rankings and the box office gross is widely available for those movies, claiming, “yeah, but maybe not” is a nothingburger to me.

And those first two films made 1.6 billion and 1.3 billion respectively. No sane person is going to claim that STILL didn’t give them a profit from their budget spent.

Small remember that Disney claims that Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War cost 356M and 325M respectively.
But then we had the Director Joe Russo, saying in a interview, in public, that each of these movies cost 500 million plus.
So, it's not just speculation. Most Hollywood studios lie about the cost of their movies. Not just Disney.

Avengers: Endgame Director Clarifies Mega-Budget Reports

Veteran Marvel director Joe Russo revealed both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame each cost

thedirect.com

 

[V1LÆM]

Most Hollywood studios lie about the cost of their movies. Not just Disney.

hollywood accounting.

 

[Doom85]

Small remember that Disney claims that Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War cost 356M and 325M respectively.
But then we had the Director Joe Russo, saying in a interview, in public, that each of these movies cost 500 million plus.
So, it's not just speculation. Most Hollywood studios lie about the cost of their movies. Not just Disney.

Avengers: Endgame Director Clarifies Mega-Budget Reports

Veteran Marvel director Joe Russo revealed both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame each cost

thedirect.com

I don’t think a film director necessarily knows the full budget costs. Like, you do realize the marketing aspect of the budget is something that a director will rarely be involved with, right?

Regardless, we also pretty much never know how well a film does once it hits streaming. So those are numbers you’re not taking into account either.

Regardless, even if one can prove a studio has lied about certain past movies’ budgets, that doesn’t prove they lied about anywhere near ALL movies’ budgets, so there’s no proof they lied about these particular 2024 movies’ budgets.

So again, you’re only throwing out a speculative theory.

 

[winjer]

I don’t think a film director necessarily knows the full budget costs. Like, you do realize the marketing aspect of the budget is something that a director will rarely be involved with, right?

Regardless, we also pretty much never know how well a film does once it hits streaming. So those are numbers you’re not taking into account either.

Regardless, even if one can prove a studio has lied about certain past movies’ budgets, that doesn’t prove they lied about anywhere near ALL movies’ budgets, so there’s no proof they lied about these particular 2024 movies’ budgets.

So again, you’re only throwing out a speculative theory.

Seriously, now you are claiming a director has no idea of how much the movie he is making cost.
That is such a blatant lie.

 

[Doom85]

Seriously, now you are claiming a director has no idea of how much the movie he is making cost.
That is such a blatant lie.

Marketing, you know, something that costs money and thus is part of the budget, is done after a film has finished production usually. Why is a film’s director involved in that?

In fact, the showrunners of LOST had to defend themselves because there was a promo that said the next episode (Season 3, Episode 9 IIRC) would solve three major mysteries. When the episode aired and barely solved anything, the fans obviously got pissed and blamed the directors and writers, so the showrunners had to come in and basically say, “guys, the marketing team is their own thing. We’re focused on the scripts and the production on the sets, not what the marketing team is doing. So if you’re mad, take it up with them, not us.”

Like maybe learn a little about the industry before trying to weakly accuse someone of lying?

 

[Fake]

No shit Sherlock.

 

[winjer]

Marketing, you know, something that costs money and thus is part of the budget, is done after a film has finished production usually. Why is a film’s director involved in that?

In fact, the showrunners of LOST had to defend themselves because there was a promo that said the next episode (Season 3, Episode 9 IIRC) would solve three major mysteries. When the episode aired and barely solved anything, the fans obviously got pissed and blamed the directors and writers, so the showrunners had to come in and basically say, “guys, the marketing team is their own thing. We’re focused on the scripts and the production on the sets, not what the marketing team is doing. So if you’re mad, take it up with them, not us.”

Like maybe learn a little about the industry before trying to weakly accuse someone of lying?

Marketing and cinema ticket split are not accounted for the movie's cost.

 

[ManaByte]

I don’t think a film director necessarily knows the full budget costs.

Wat

Part of the director's responsibilities is to know the full budget...so they don't go over budget filming the movie.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Amazing it took a billionaire CEO this long to understand this concept. I actually think Iger is a really smart guy, and had to come clean up the other CEO’s mess and clean up the pandemic effect on Disney.

Wrong x100000.

Iger is the one that started this shit. Czapek was trying to back off from it, Iger used that to sabotage his since he had second thoughts about retiring.

 

[Nonehxc]

and then let us see, how it rolls now, maybe this time, they could do it right?
while i'm still being sceptic, well, one can only hope. SW is once my beloved franchise, i spent thousand dollars if not more (it is high value spent in my place), for lego star wars back before.
seeing them in display is bugging me if SW is not returned to their form like before.

Shut up Rei, nobody likes you.

No matter how much Disnei tries to force fed you up our throats.

And you'll never be a Skiwalker.

Over my dead bodi.

 

[ManaByte]

Czapek was trying to back off from it

Absolute 100% flat out bullshit lie.

Cheapek was the one who got the company involved with Florida politics because he was desperate to win over the vocal minority in the company demanding he do so.

He was also the one who mandated 2 hour runtimes for Marvel movies (because shorter movies = more showings a day at theaters), cutting out 20-30 minutes from Thor and Doctor Strange. Imagine telling Sam fucking Raimi how to make his movie? Iger never did anything like that.

The most interference Iger ever did was saying how he disliked the first cut of Rogue One (where everyone died like bitches on the beach), which resulted in the Tony Gilroy third act everyone loves.

 

[WhiteWaterM00se]

Wrong x100000.

Iger is the one that started this shit. Czapek was trying to back off from it, Iger used that to sabotage his since he had second thoughts about retiring.

What little i know about this, i disagree to some extent. I think Iger actually was thinking about running for President. I think Covid spooked Iger and he wanted out. Czapek or Chepik or whatever, took over…and it didn’t go well.

Then Iger came back and looked at the mess and first try to get Apple interested in buying Disney. When that was a “non starter” with Apple, Iger started to pivot. Iger is trying to restore Disney to pre-covid status quo. This will prove difficult.

I still don’t think Disney fully “get’s it” with streaming and trying to have one foot in traditional Cable and one in Streaming. But that is a different conversation. It is not just Disney.

There is no doubt, that Iger’s star is not as bright as it used to be. And he will retire off and that will be the end of Iger.

 

[diffusionx]

The whole idea that this stuff is "politics" is a total 180 degree turn from what they used to say about it, which is that they were putting it in because it wasn't politics. It's also hilarious to see Iger go out there and say, "well we're not doing this anymore" and the middle management women (who revolted against Chapek when he didn't say anything about DeSantis a few years ago) all fall in line - Iger might be a slimeball, but unlike the beta Chapek, he is a leader.

 

[Kacho]

This is old news but yes, welcome to the real world. Trans stories and lesbian kisses in kids movies are bad for business. So was the “force is female” nonsense. But that’s only part of their problems. They still need to figure out how to make good content. Removing controversial stuff will only do so much.

 

[BlackTron]

and then let us see, how it rolls now, maybe this time, they could do it right?
while i'm still being sceptic, well, one can only hope. SW is once my beloved franchise, i spent thousand dollars if not more (it is high value spent in my place), for lego star wars back before.
seeing them in display is bugging me if SW is not returned to their form like before.

I spent more than that on Lego SW lol...mostly in the past but I'll still bite once in awhile. I see Lego as your personal canon version. I just grabbed some discontinued Mando stuff after getting FOMO it'll go up in price soon. Now, Disney would have gotten more royalties out of me had I liked more of the movies, shows and characters.

I rearrange and replace the stuff on this shelf often and it's still an effective de-stressor. I'm leaning more into the quick fun scenes to tweak and redo style more than the 5000 piece ISD style lately...which is why I finally got the itch to actually dig out some prequel characters too.

Spoiler

Edit: Just realized you didn't spend 1k USD, maybe you spent as much or more than me! Also, god dammit that TIE Interceptor that just got discontinued Dec 31. I've wanted a Lego version of this classic SW ship since ancient times and we only got lucky now because it appeared in Mando finale...but they bundled it with that useless build to bump it to $100. So do I spend even more today on Lego before its value goes even higher? War never changes

 

[GulfCoastZilla]

No shit, they fucked around and lost their district, all to appease a vocal minority. Made zero sense.

 

[Drake]

This is old news but yes, welcome to the real world. Trans stories and lesbian kisses in kids movies are bad for business. So was the “force is female” nonsense. But that’s only part of their problems. They still need to figure out how to make good content. Removing controversial stuff will only do so much.

It's crazy to me to know that I could fix Star Wars, but Disney is refusing to do it. All I would have to do is put someone in charge Lucasfilm who actually likes the franchise and has good business sense. That's it, that would fix it. That person would then bring in competent writers who also like Star Wars to write stories that people would actually care about. If they really wanted to be bold they could make all the Rey movies non-cannon and start all over. Enthusiasm for the franchise would be through the roof. The problem is they keep hiring people who hate Star Wars and want to destroy the franchise. IDK, maybe that was the goal all along.

It also makes me wonder what dirt KK has on the higher ups at Disney where she has been able to keep her job this long. Unless like I said, the goal was just to destroy the franchise. If that's the case, she is doing her job splendidly.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Too late. Damage is now done.

 

[Kacho]

It also makes me wonder what dirt KK has on the higher ups at Disney where she has been able to keep her job this long. Unless like I said, the goal was just to destroy the franchise. If that's the case, she is doing her job splendidly.

Kathleen Kennedy has a legit resume as a producer so I understand why she was given control over Lucasfilm a decade ago. How she’s still in that position after years of duds is beyond me. She’s clearly unfit for her role.

Lucasfilms has been irreversibly damaged, so even if she leaves, that company is full of ideologically driven diversity hires. Disney can’t clean house and rebuild without meeting a bunch of arbitrary diversity quotas.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Too late. People just moved on to something else.

No shit, they fucked around and lost their district, all to appease a vocal minority. Made zero sense.

The reason for that is that the discourse and media made it think that the vocal minority was huge and enormous as essentially almost every outlet - TV, newspapers, academia - were dominated by LGBT, anti-patriarchy etc. discourse. Whole Hollywood was like that.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Haven't we heard this before?

And a time before even that..

 

[ManaByte]

No shit, they fucked around and lost their district, all to appease a vocal minority. Made zero sense.

Iger tried to warn Cheapek to not do that. Dumbass did it anyways because the blue hairs wanted it.

 

[Nonehxc]

What little i know about this, i disagree to some extent. I think Iger actually was thinking about running for President. I think Covid spooked Iger and he wanted out. Czapek or Chepik or whatever, took over…and it didn’t go well.

Then Iger came back and looked at the mess and first try to get Apple interested in buying Disney. When that was a “non starter” with Apple, Iger started to pivot. Iger is trying to restore Disney to pre-covid status quo. This will prove difficult.

I still don’t think Disney fully “get’s it” with streaming and trying to have one foot in traditional Cable and one in Streaming. But that is a different conversation. It is not just Disney.

There is no doubt, that Iger’s star is not as bright as it used to be. And he will retire off and that will be the end of Iger.

Disney is an embarrasment on many fronts today, and streaming is super gangrened.

It baffles me how the most valuable studio with the most valuable IPs chooses to go the streaming route...and bandwidth starves EVERYTHING to the point of dithering and elevated blacks into oblivion.

It amazes me how they come out and say they're fucked up with Disney+ when they're so hobos giving Dolby Vision HDR 2160p shows a bitrate that amounts to 2.5-4GB, or choose to colorize them like a grey smear that don't push up from 100nits in SDR(okai, SDR standard, nothing to see here)...then to say it's HDR, they just get that same master and...put it in a BT2020 container with the exact same specs so you have marvelous The Mandalorian episodes in 2160p HDR Dolby Vision that play in HDR but just up to that 100nits and are grey smeared to fuck it all, and look like hobo definition because someone decided 4gb max for 2160p HDR Dolby Vision was another great idea to go with the hobo mastering.

Disney's problems are summed up in one word: DISNEY. And they have been Disneyng the fuck up of all of it for at least a decade.

 

[ManaByte]

Kathleen Kennedy has a legit resume as a producer so I understand why she was given control over Lucasfilm a decade ago. How she’s still in that position after years of duds is beyond me. She’s clearly unfit for her role.

Lucasfilms has been irreversibly damaged, so even if she leaves, that company is full of ideologically driven diversity hires. Disney can’t clean house and rebuild without meeting a bunch of arbitrary diversity quotas.

Dave Filoni runs Star Wars now.

Dave Filoni Is Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, Will Be ‘Planning the Future’ of ‘Star Wars’ Films and Shows

Dave Filoni is now Lucasfilm's chief creative officer for Star Wars.

variety.com

 

[Kacho]

Dave Filoni runs Star Wars now.

Dave Filoni Is Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, Will Be ‘Planning the Future’ of ‘Star Wars’ Films and Shows

Dave Filoni is now Lucasfilm's chief creative officer for Star Wars.

variety.com

KK still calls the shots over there. Everything goes through her.

I remember being excited when he was given creative control. However, he’s been in the role for 4 years and the Star Wars brand isn’t doing any better. Not the W I thought it would be.

Did he oversee The Acolyte?

 

[TGO]

He said this in 2023 if you actually read the OP.

It was Bob Cheapek who steered them in this direction. Most people at Disney loved Iger almost as much as Walt. Everyone hated Cheapek. He was desperate to win over a segment of the company and torpedoed the company doing so.

Disney's problems started way before 2020, Iger is just as much to blame as anyone else.