What Is the Current State of Disney (2022 Edition)
For the last few years, I’ve tried to evaluate how The Walt Disney Company’s doing with its theme parks.
Last year, I wrote this article in October, but I wanted to wait this year due to a Disney earnings call that was happening soon afterward.
Yeah, I’m glad I waited. Disney went kinda nuts after that. Even now, we’re still scrambling to pick up the pieces after a historic turn of events.
So, what is the current state of Disney in 2022? Let’s talk it through, but let’s also be honest that their brand is in crisis this year…and not intentionally.
What a Difference a Year Makes
In last year’s article, I pointed to comments Bob Iger made as he prepared to leave Disney forever.
The term forever apparently means “less than 11 months” in the Iger household. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
At the time, I noted that Iger’s advice dripped with wisdom but could also be interpreted as a “passive-aggressive parting shot” to Chapek.
I also pointed out that Wall Street liked Chapek more while Hollywood favored Iger, saying: “Running Disney is a tough gig, folks. You must try to please multiple masters, none of which have aligning goals.”
Hilariously, the new Disney Headlines article employs the same logic as part of Wall Street is pushing for a successor who would be just as bad as Chapek.
That brings me to an essential assertion from last year. At the time, Disney’s valuation under Chapek had exceeded its worth when Iger left.
Of course, that’s cherry-picking to an extent since Iger’s departure coincided with a wave of concerns regarding COVID-19.
Still, Chapek appeared to have Disney financially secure at this time last year. Now, that’s no longer the case.
Wall Street moved the goalposts on streaming services, now demanding profit rather than subscriber numbers.
Chapek’s out of a job because he built his entire 2022 campaign on a goal that no longer exists.
Yes, people are subscribing to Disney+ in record numbers. That’s not enough for investors now.
Meanwhile, something I referenced last year proved an even more pressing issue than any of us would have anticipated. It was Iger’s long goodbye.
Apparently, Chapek bristled that Iger interfered so often after he’d ostensibly stopped being CEO.
The two men had a falling out, Chapek iced Iger out as punishment, and here we are now. One’s gone and the other’s back in power.
Disney’s Brutal 2022
During the last week of the year, MickeyBlog always posts a series of Best of…/Worst of… lists.
I’ve already started doing some legwork on this, and I can tell you the Worst of… list is much easier to fill.
God help him, Bob Chapek is his own worst enemy in oh so many ways. Whereas Iger is gregarious and welcoming, Chapek is insular and paranoid.
So, when the two men had a falling out, Chapek closed ranks to prevent executives he didn’t trust from leaking information to Iger.
Many of Iger’s trusted advisors left, including his ace PR person. This left Chapek without good PR, and it’s a key reason why the dude got fired.
Chapek hired a new PR expert, Geoff Morrell, whose advice on Florida politics couldn’t have been worse.
Morrell suggested that Disney not take a stand on the Don’t Say Gay bill. This failed attempt at neutrality caused a revolt within the company.
When Chapek reacted to that by denouncing the bill, Florida’s elected officials voted to strip Disney of its longstanding Reedy Creek Improvement District powers.
In modern society, only the truly incompetent can alienate members of both political parties on a single topic. Somehow, that’s what Chapek managed.
Not coincidentally, Morrell’s tenure at Disney lasted roughly four months. But the ramifications of his incompetence won’t be known until the Reedy Creek situation resolves in 2023.
Meanwhile, Chapek also fell victim to his own base instincts. As the former head of Disney’s theme parks, the CEO clearly believed that guests weren’t paying enough.
Whenever Disney needed a bit more money, Chapek hit the shiny “Price Increase” button in his office. And guests hated him for it.
Iger starts his second tenure in a defensive position because he must undo so many of Chapek’s wrongs.
Iger’s Disney
A year ago, I discussed Chapek’s Disney, which I described as “the worst kind of management.” That was already the word within Disney’s halls.
Before you give me credit for that, I must also own up to this boner: “Chapek feels comfortable with delegation. He trusts people to do their jobs.”
Yeah, I got that one way wrong. Chapek’s inability/unwillingness to empower his staff is yet another reason why he’s currently sitting at his house wondering how things went so wrong.
Meanwhile, Iger faces so much upheaval that I honestly don’t even know where he should begin.
Iger obviously did, though. He immediately gave power back to the executives running the various divisions, thereby negating the growing influence of Disney Media and Distribution.
In this way, history repeated itself. As a creative, Iger hated overly important quants making such calls. He reset Disney’s infrastructure in 2005 and 2006 as well.
That’s merely the first step, though. Now, Iger must take a hard look at the legacy he had planned for himself at Disney.
After an epic career, Iger viewed his acquisition of the Fox assets as the cherry on top. He believed that he turned Disney into an intellectual property powerhouse.
With that structure in place, Iger expected Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu+ to anchor the new streaming medium and secure Disney’s future.
Iger meticulously plotted a post-linear television revenue structure for Disney that should have replaced the one in place since the mid-1990s.
Now, many of those plans have collapsed for unpredictable reasons. COVID-19 shuttered movie theaters, thereby disrupting Disney’s revenue streams.
Disney’s Media Problem
Since then, the company has awkwardly tried to find the balance between streaming and theatrical releases. And it hasn’t worked well.
Encanto, an absolute masterpiece, found tremendous success on Disney+, but it didn’t enjoy a strong theatrical run.
Still, that performance dwarfed what Strange World has done. It could finish as one of Disney’s worst bombs in its illustrious 100-year history!
Meanwhile, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has lost some of its luster during the pandemic.
Audiences have rejected a couple of clunkers like Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder (a film I quite liked).
The prevailing belief on social media is that Marvel’s in a slump.
Similarly, people were upset with Star Wars, although the high quality of Andor has quieted those complaints, at least temporarily.
Now, Disney faces competition on two fronts. A competitor, Universal Pictures, is gloating that its animated films are better than Disney’s now.
That’s laughably untrue from a quality perspective, but the pandemic box office results support the notion.
Is that because of COVID chaos? Probably. Still, it’s a growing concern.
Similarly, DC Studios just poached Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to run its DC Cinematic Universe.
This move could reduce Disney’s dominance in the comic book realm. I don’t expect that to happen for myriad reasons, but it’s still another concern Iger faces.
As CEO, he always emphasized the importance of story. Recently, Disney hasn’t distinguished itself in this area.
Based on early reviews, Avatar: The Way of Water may change that perception. We’ll have to wait and see on that one, though.
At the moment, Disney needs a string of hits to remind people why they revere the company.
What Is the Current State of Disney?
Let’s be honest that the current state of Disney is transitional…again. Last year, Iger was on the way out, while Chapek was asserting control.
Now, the opposite is true as Iger resets all of Chapek’s misfires. One of those matters more than the rest to theme park fans.
Iger faces several challenging questions about the future of the parks. Chapek announced no major initiatives other than Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Yes, Disney will add three new E-ticket attractions in its American parks this year, but those plans were already well underway.
Meanwhile, Chapek raised prices so often that you’d think he got paid per increase.
Conversely, Chapek also cut amenities like Magical Express, the Disney Dining Plan, and free FastPasses.
Iger must decide an acceptable level of make-goods for loyal fans. Chapek mistreated Disney’s best customers. Contrition must be shown.
So, Iger will spend most of his first year back at the company as a janitor. He’s in charge of Bob Chapek-related cleanup, and it’s a full-time job.
On the plus side, fans know that Iger is better at his job than Chapek ever could have been. That means Disney is trending in the right direction.
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Feature Photo: FT News