How Josh D’Amaro Became Disney CEO Part II
Right now, we’re witnessing a demonstration that even a major corporation may learn from its mistakes.
The Walt Disney Company is currently running an exceptional PR campaign at a crucial time.
walt disney company
Everyone is watching Disney right now for signs of discord after a historic choice.
Disney has created a role specifically for its presumed favorite to succeed Bob Iger.
Disney
Right now, Dana Walden is saying and doing all the right things, but this one has to hurt.
At one point, the new President of Disney seemed like a heavy favorite to become CEO.
Disney
Then, she got overtaken in the final year by her friend and co-worker who is now her boss.
Here is the second part of the story of how Josh D’Amaro became Disney CEO.
Turning the Corner
In 2020 and 2021, the hapless Oklahoma City Thunder had a record 46-108. They were terrible.
As of this moment, the Thunder are the reigning NBA champions, a stunning ascension.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot in relation to Josh D’Amaro’s ascent.
When D’Amaro became Chairman of Disney Experiences, the company was at low tide.
Photo:visitorlando.com
For the theme park division, in particular, it was the worst moment in company history.
While all theme parks experience highs and lows, at least they’re always open.
Photo: WHO
In May 2020, only Shanghai Disneyland proved capable of safely hosting guests.
Oh, and that park would close again in March of 2022. Josh D’Amaro just couldn’t catch a break. He was thrown into the fire, stuck on a losing team and facing an impossible situation.
Now, he has risen to the top of the company, just as Oklahoma City did and at a similar rate of ascension.
(Photo by Ricardo Moreira/Getty Images for Disney)
Nobody in 2020 would have picked either of them to be winners five or six years later, yet here we are.
D’Amaro’s fortunes improved on June 17th, 2021.
Photo: Disneyplanning.com
That was the first day all six Disney theme parks had been open in more than a year.
Alas, as I just referenced, the next year would prove to be touch-and-go, with outbreaks forcing additional closures.
Credit: atlantaurgentcare.com
The pandemic didn’t officially end until May 2023, 38 months after it started.
Josh D’Amaro had been Chairman of Disney Experiences for 36 of those months.
Hong Kong Disneyland closed
Athletes train by using heavy weights on their bodies while they mimic game movements.
The idea is that the body will seem much more powerful once the weights are lifted.
Photo: Disney
That was Josh D’Amaro in May 2023, his third anniversary on the job.
For the first time, he found himself completely unrestrained and thereby emboldened and empowered.
Monetizing a Familiar Idea
Photo: The Walt Disney Company
One of the reasons people like me have championed Josh D’Amaro is simple.
He’s a Disney fan masquerading as a high-level Disney executive. In two words, he cares.
(Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
D’Amaro lives, sleeps, and breathes Disney Experiences, which is why his successor will have such big shoes to fill.
This devotion and conviction about the parks also cause the executive to think differently.
Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios)
D’Amaro understands that one of the keys to protecting the Disney theme park experience involves crowd management.
Disney just performed another fiscal quarter earnings report, and everyone was obsessed with attendance.
Comcast
Meanwhile, executives at Comcast, Disney’s competitor, blatantly said something fascinating during their earnings call.
Their new theme park, Universal Epic Universe, still isn’t running at maximum throughput yet.
COMCAST
More importantly, Comcast execs explicitly stated that they’re controlling attendance.
Based on their data, guests at Epic Universe are happier when they have more room to move.
Photo: Universal
Do you know whose idea Comcast was mimicking? Josh D’Amaro’s.
No, attendance management isn’t a new concept, but the Chairman leaned hard into the idea.
Comcast
As I’ve detailed in other articles, D’Amaro envisioned a new platformed approach to park visits.
He would leverage Disney’s virtual queuing system, now known as Lightning Lane, to his financial advantage.
Shutterstock
Under D’Amaro’s watch, Disney split the concept into Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass.
Now, for the first time in more than 40 years, guests were paying a flat fee to ride single attractions.
Photo: ABC 7
Walt Disney opened Disneyland under that concept, and once solved a problem similarly.
When he created the Disney Monorail, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and other attractions, he needed to pay for them.
Photo: Disney
So, Uncle Walt created a new ticketing tier, the proverbial E-ticket.
Lightning Lane Single Passes represent a modern version of that same concept from the 1950s.
Big Money Josh
There’s a lot of subtext hidden in that statement, as it also reinforces D’Amaro’s reverence for the parks.
He often questions Cast Members on whether changes could negatively impact Disney history.
Photo: The Walt Disney Company-
Still, the executive is bright enough to recognize that Occam’s Razor applies.
Disney is a business, and it must make money to succeed. Fans rarely consider that part.
Photo: Josh D’Amaro on Instagram
D’Amaro has somehow found a way to respect the past while protecting the company.
Initiatives such as Lightning Lane reflect a compromise solution of sorts for the park experience.
Photo: @joshdamaro
Guests get what we pay for, so to speak, during our park visits. You get more when you spend more.
That’s a divisive topic at its root, yet D’Amaro’s popularity played heavily in his favor. Fans directed their fury at then-CEO Bob Chapek instead, failing to notice something later.
Lightning Lane practices only intensified once Bob Iger returned as CEO.
Do you know Iger leaned on for theme park guidance? Yeah, it was D’Amaro.
Lightning Lane not only remained a paid program, but Disney added a new offering.
Photo: Disney
Lightning Lane Premier Pass caters to just a few hundred guests per park day.
Reports suggest a maximum of 2,000 daily paying customers, but that’s enough to matter.
Investment analysts have estimated that Disney added $230 million annually with this move.
In the process, Josh D’Amaro effectively added the equivalent of an airplane’s first-class booking.
Disney
Not coincidentally, the operating income in Disney Experiences has soared since 2023.
D’Amaro Won Because of the Numbers
As proof, here are D’Amaro’s division’s revenue and operating income since he took the job:
- 2020 — $16.502 billion with operating income of $-81 million
- 2021 – $16.552 billion with operating income of $471 million
- 2022 – $28.705 billion with operating income of $7.905 billion
- 2023 – $32.549 billion with operating income of $8.954 billion
- 2024 – $34.151 billion with operating income of $9.272 billion
- 2025 — $36.151 billion with operating income of $9.995 billion
Photo: Getty
As I mentioned in part one, here are Disney’s theme park numbers from 2019:
- 2019 — $26.225 billion with operating income of $6.758 billion
That’s the last year when money-obsessed Bob Chapek ran the division.
So, D’Amaro is somehow a people person who is night and day more popular than Chapek.
Photo: Wikimedia
However, D’Amaro’s business acumen has also empowered him to earn more than his old boss.
Josh D’Amaro can somehow out-Chapek Bob Chapek, even as everyone still loves him. And that’s how Josh D’Amaro became CEO at Disney.
He’s got Bob Iger’s charisma, but he’s even better at balance sheet management than Bob Chapek.
Photo: Getty
On paper, he looks like a once-a-generation kind of leader for Disney.
Will the next few years play out that way? We all have the highest of hopes…
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