Disney Headlines for March 16th, 2023
During the past week, Disney showed off its next big seller, won some awards, admitted a mistake, and made the right call on Marvel and Star Wars.
Let’s run through some big topics in this week’s Disney Headlines.
An Oscar Disappointment
If you’re an awards season lover and Disney fan, the glass is half-full if you want to be.
Still, I think it’s fair to say that Disney entered the 95th Academy Awards with modest expectations.
Most insiders recognized a likely sweep of the major awards by Everything Everywhere All at Once (EEAAO), which is exactly what happened.
For its part, The Walt Disney Company claimed 22 nominations heading into the event, but it wasn’t even a favorite in its most dominant category.
Since the inception of Best Animated Feature Film, Disney has won most of the time. In fact, it’d won the category nine out of the last ten times.
However, oddsmakers listed Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio as the heavy favorite over Disney’s best film of the year, Turning Red. And they were right.
So, Disney turned to technical awards and Best Supporting Actress as its best chances for victory…and those results didn’t go much better.
Two Disney films won awards. Avatar: The Way of Water won for Best Visual Effects, which was only right. It’d have been a tragedy if that film had lost.
Meanwhile, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever snagged an Oscar for Best Costume Design, with Ruth Carter making a lovely speech:
Unfortunately, Angela Bassett’s awards season hot streak couldn’t overcome the runaway momentum of EEAAO, as Jamie Lee Curtis won for Best Supporting Actress.
Disney won Best Picture for arguably the first time in its history two years ago with Nomadland, but the 2023 Oscars didn’t go very well overall.
It’s Real, and It’s Spectacular
I speak to a lot of people on a daily basis. I’m sad to say that many of them could care less about Disney, which hurts my heart.
Even so, I can use their indifference as a bellwether when something significant comes along.
For example, let’s say that a piece of Disney merchandise causes a buzz among my non-Disney friends. In that case, I know something will be massive.
Such an instance arose the other day when my film coverage friends reported live from SXSW. They couldn’t hide their excitement for this:
Disney shows off their “real” lightsaber at #SXSW pic.twitter.com/e3AqDRV53P
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 11, 2023
Yes, that’s Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro showing off an actual Lightsaber! I don’t mean a toy one, either. I’m talking about a functional Lightsaber.
We’ve known about this product for a while, with Disney providing few details about its availability as a product.
Still, I think it’s clear that Disney is getting a bit bolder in showing off this product, which gives me hope that it’s coming up for sale soon-ish.
Iger Makes the Hard Call on Marvel and Star Wars
A few years ago, director Patty Jenkins earned acclaim for Wonder Woman, an exceptional comic book movie that’s frankly better than anything else DC-related other than Batman titles.
As the hot name of the moment, Jenkins leveraged her blockbuster success into several opportunities, including a Wonder Woman sequel and a Star Wars film.
Alas, Wonder Woman 1984 didn’t do well, and a reshuffling behind the scenes at Warner Bros. led to the cancellation of Wonder Woman 3.
Then, word broke last week that Disney had killed her Star Wars project, too. That’s a rough run of bad luck, but it wasn’t just her.
Disney’s rock star producer, Kevin Feige, also isn’t making a Star Wars movie anymore.
The explanation for this decision ties into Disney CEO Bob Iger’s recent decision.
He recently acknowledged that Disney’s Star Wars movies haven’t all worked. Specifically, Iger admitted that Solo: A Star Wars Story was a bust.
In the process, he conceded that Disney’s strategy of making a Star Wars movie a year for a while wasn’t smart.
Instead, Disney plans to focus on its exceptional batch of Star Wars series on Disney+. Then, it’ll release a Star Wars movie when the right project finally comes along.
That’s the right approach, and it’s one Disney frankly should have employed all along.
The problem with paying $4 billion for something is that you want to get your money back ASAP.
Similarly, Disney will take a new approach to Marvel by prioritizing new stories over the third or fourth entry in the same franchise.
I’m calling the new policy Quantumania’s Law, as that film’s box office is in worst-case scenario territory.
From now on, Disney’s mantra is, “Less is more.” And I think we all know that’s for the best, at least in the short term.
Iger Admits Another Error
While discussing some of Disney’s other mistakes, Iger knew that he had only himself to blame, as those decisions happened on his watch.
However, Iger also sat on the sidelines for a while. From there, he watched his short-time successor, Bob Chapek, make some terrible decisions.
For this reason, Iger felt the need during a recent Q&A session to discuss Disney’s theme park pricing. And this was the admission Disney fans needed to hear.
Iger stated, ““I’ve always believed that Disney was a brand that was meant to be ‘accessible.’ And I think that in our zeal to grow profits, we may have been a little bit too aggressive about some of our pricing.”
Later, the CEO added, “And I think there’s a way to continue to grow that business but be smarter about how we price so that we maintain that brand value of accessibility.
And we made certain steps — we took certain steps when I came back to do just that, and they’ve resonated extremely well with consumers.”
Finally, Iger concluded, “we’re not only going to continue to listen to consumers, but we’re going to continue to adjust.”
By the way, during this same interview, Iger surprised most of us with a Disneyland expansion comment.
Yes, Disney’s CEO casually tossed in the tidbit that the company owns more land at Disneyland Resort than people realize.
That sure sounds like a hint at more attractions and amenities coming to Disneyland Resort.
Then again, Iger is such a savvy executive that he could be sending a message to Anaheim’s City Council about DisneylandForward.
You could even perceive these comments as a veiled threat that Disney would prefer to expand in California rather than Florida due to recent events.
Anything’s possible coming from a pro like Iger!
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond-level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!
Feature Photo: Disney