Wires crossed it seems over who said what. I was familiar with what was being referenced with behind the scenes stuff and Igers recent interviews.
I think you're missing the larger picture.
Short version- yes, Disney has had some issues. I've documented them in many of my various streaming/Business posts.
However, there are people who then try to turn these different (and unrelated) business issues into
proof of their grander theories. By lumping in other things along with it that are unrelated at best, or unproven (or, perhaps, laughably untrue) at worst.
Let's take this list, for example (I have sorted the claims into categories in order to more easily discuss them)-
1. Lost $500 million in November alone. (
spelling corrected)
2. Interest on their loans rising.
-I'm putting these two together as an example of moronic commentary. Disney released its 4Q 2023 Earnings report at the beginning of November. They did pretty well, overall. Well enough that their stock is up sharply since that date. So a few things- in terms of interest, most of the corporate debt at Disney is
fixed-rate. Which means that the interest rate isn't rising (even assuming that the overall rates are rising). Instead, it was fixed at the time of issuance. The actual problem is in issuing
new debt to fund other things (park expansion, Hulu acquisition, etc.). So what is the $500 million statement from? It's from an idiot youtuber fishing for clicks and claiming that the entire production and marketing budgets of both
Wish and
The Marvels is a loss. Which not only ignores how accounting for projects in Hollywood works, but also ignores, um, the entirety of the Disney corporation. This is beyond stupid.
3. Failed movie after failed movie, with a couple of exceptions.
4. They had to radical cut back on their planned release schedule.
5. The main stream media after years of kissing up to Disney is now trashing them.
6. Bad viewership for shows on Disney+.
-I'm putting these together as examples of either questionable or irrelevant claims. They've had a bad year in terms of movie releases, but that's mostly in comparison to the bizarre and unparalleled success they had in the prior decade. And yes, they are cutting back on scheduled releases, but that's in conjunction with the structural changes to the movies. As for "viewership" numbers- these aren't readily accessible and verifiable, and more importantly, they don't really matter. What matter is that they are nearing the point of "break even" on streaming, while maintaining a large base of subscribers.
7. Bob Igor basically blaming everyone from Bob "CEO for 5 minutes" Chapek, to Nia DeCosta, to Corona, etc...
8. Peltz's proxy war.
-These are true comments, but also ... whatever. First, if someone can't be bothered to spell Bob Iger's name correctly, you probably shouldn't be too receptive to the comments that they make. But yes, every CEO blames the prior CEO for the bad decisions. In this case, he does have a point- Chapek was the one who restructured and massively expanded the tempo of releases, as well as doing a number of things with the parks that led to increased short-term revenue but decreased long-term viability. And Iger was brought back to fix it. Which is a struggle. Is he overplaying the "It was all Chapek's fault? Sure. But that's what he should be doing. As for Peltz (aka, Perlmutter) and the proxy war- this is disastrous for Disney, but just because they want to monetize it even farther. If you are interested, at all, in Disney ... then you should be incredibly wary of these vultures.
9. They are going to have to put out billions more for Hulu.
-This is true, but also a good thing (at least in the long run). Disney+ is great for families, but lacks the content to appeal to others. Hulu has that. Disney always needed to acquire it. Losing Hulu would be a devastating blow, long-term, to Disney in terms of the streaming future.
10. Disney's boycott of X is starting to backfire, as Elon fans are starting to boycott Disney+ and Paramount+ in retaliation.
-Nope. This is a major clue that this is an ideological list, and not a business list. Look, the mainstream companies that were still advertising on Twitter prior to the most recent debacle was small. And it's a lot smaller now. Whether it's a "pause" or just discontinuing the ad budget, you're not going to be able to buy a car, buy most food, buy your iPhone, buy the drugs you need, watch any movies or TV, or do much of anything if you are really "boycotting" these companies ... because it's most of them. This is just an empty signal, signifying nothing. No one, other than a few certain people, cares about Musk driving twitter straight into the drain.
11. Dr. Who special failed.
And there we have it! How did it fail? Was it viewership? Nope. Because no one knows, except for the UK numbers, which were record highs. So how did it fail?
Oh, that's right. It had a major character who was trans, and that character was treated with respect. And if you think that's a failure, then you're probably not the type of person I am going to be taking advice from.
deadline.com
