Price Increases and Melodrama: Inside Josh D’Amaro’s First Month

Any hope of new leadership providing a clean reset has evaporated.

The Walt Disney Company may have a new CEO and President, but it’s business as usual.

Disney has suffered some unforced errors and a bit of bad luck to boot.

We’ve had price increases and melodrama during Josh D’Amaro’s first month.

What has happened, and does any of it really matter in the greater scheme?

The Media Melodrama

Sarah Michelle Gellar became a Hollywood icon for her portrayal of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In March 2026, the actress managed to slay something else: the reputation of a Disney exec.

Gellar went public with her complaints about the handling of Hulu’s Buffy reboot.

Apparently, the person in charge of Buffy on the Hulu side was NOT a Buffy fan.

They reportedly made sure to tell Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao this fact. Repeatedly.

For this reason, Zhao and Gellar shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Hulu had killed the Buffy reboot.

They still were, though. In fact, Gellar was promoting a Disney movie the week that it happened.

Understandably disgruntled, Gellar provided enough clues that fans could figure out the exec’s identity.

Even worse, it was someone Disney promoted along with its new President, Dana Walden.

Within 48 hours of this reveal, Walden and Disney were on the defensive over an unforced error.

That…wouldn’t be the last one. I’m trying to stay out of the reality show drama, but it keeps being topical.

Disney tried to create a force multiplier effect on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

One of the stars of the Hulu show, Taylor Frankie Paul, anchored The Bachelorette.

Well, that had been the plan, but allegations and then a video showed she wasn’t reliable.

Disney canceled an entire season of The Bachelorette, an eight-figure mistake.

Currently, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is on hiatus as well while Walden decides how to proceed.

Disney hadn’t had a President in more than 20 years and had never had a Chief Content Officer.

Walden has only held that title for five weeks, yet it’s already been a brutal run.

The Abu Dhabi Misfortune

From D’Amaro’s perspective, Hollywood was one of his perceived weaknesses.

He had little experience with the entertainment industry. So, he intended to rely on Walden.

That part hasn’t gone well at all, but he can at least argue that it’s not his fault.

Similarly, D’Amaro deserves absolution for his second problem, Disneyland Abu Dhabi.

In May 2025, then-CEO Bob Iger announced this historic project in the Middle East.

Disney had structured the deal similarly to Tokyo Disneyland, making it a licensing deal.

Miral, the United Arab Emirates business, would handle all the construction and pay all the expenses.

Meanwhile, Disney would cash the checks while Miral developed a historic new theme park.

Again, that was the plan, but it certainly hasn’t gone off without a hitch.

D’Amaro championed this deal behind the scenes and is now left dealing with the consequences.

An unexpected flare-up in hostilities between Iran and America has had a shocking outcome.

Iran is repeatedly targeting the UAE and Dubai, in particular, with airstrikes.

You read that right. Disney has announced plans for a theme park currently located in a war zone.

In D’Amaro and Iger’s defense, nobody could have possibly seen this one coming. Still, D’Amaro pushed hard for this particular deal, and its fate is now squarely up in the air.

Remarkably, I’m about to say that twice more…

The Big Deal Woes

D’Amaro also advocated for this AI deal, which Iger made with OpenAI.

In case you haven’t kept up, let’s just say that this particular agreement didn’t go well.

The Disney/OpenAI agreement hinged on a product called Sora, which just went extinct.

The official final public date for Sora is April 26^th, while the API dies on September 24^th.

When OpenAI revealed that it had killed Sora, Disney immediately terminated the agreement.

Notably, Disney executives had been in discussions with OpenAI the same hour that happened.

The decision came from the top at OpenAI, and it alienated Disney. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has since said that he remains in contact with Disney.

So, there’s a chance that the companies will revive this agreement at a later date.

For the time being, Disney had already promised OpenAI tech integrations with its infrastructure.

At the moment, nobody is quite clear whether that will happen…but it needs to happen.

I say this because Disney planned and executed 1,000 layoffs in early 2026.

This was Iger’s initiative based on expectations from the OpenAI deal.

Yes, Disney laid off employees because it expected to use AI for some of those tasks.

Now that Disney lacks an OpenAI agreement, who knows what will happen there?

Then, we have D’Amaro’s other big idea, the Epic Games/Fortnite collaboration.

While the early results on this agreement have proven decidedly positive, the deal just hit a snag.

Epic Games also laid off 1,000 workers, which is a large percentage for that company.

At this point, some Epic projects have already died due to the loss of staff and resources.

Reportedly, at least one Disney game was delayed or may be canceled due to these layoffs.

Another should still launch in late 2026. If it doesn’t, remember this story.

The Theme Park Price Increases

Then, during mid-April, Disney revealed details for its 2027 Walt Disney World vacations.

Many tourists are happily booking their 2027 visits as we speak and having a lovely time doing so.

Still, the media has latched onto a single premise here, and I get it.

Even Deadline is pointing out that Walt Disney World has raised ticket prices again.

The site calculates that a family of four will pay $10.50 more a piece for the same tickets next year.

How big a deal is that? Well, it’s $42 more for the family, which is the price of a meal.

Well, it’s the price of a meal at a less expensive restaurant at home, not a Disney World meal.

So, I’ll leave it to you to determine how much that matters, but it’s leading to headlines like this one.

The positive here is that Disney stock has increased by $7 as I type this on April 21st.

Unfortunately, that number could change at any point during said uncertainty in the Middle East.

Disney is bearing the brunt of Wall Street’s uncertainty and frustration over this conflict.

Since the company’s Experiences division is the breadwinner, investors are worried about Disney.

This latest price increase has led to discussion about how much is too much.

Now, I’m first in line to say that this topic has been a recurring one since the 1980s. This latest cycle feels a bit more adversarial, though, which is a bit unexpected.

D’Amaro is the Theme Park Magician, the person who made the parks fun again.

The last thing I’d expected to be writing about after a month is complaints about Disney parks.

Here we are, though. And that’s a sure sign that D’Amaro has had a rough first month.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Disney will host its latest earnings call on May 8^th. We’ll learn a lot more about the company then.

To a larger point, investors will pay attention to how D’Amaro acts during the call.

His charisma has been his strongest leadership trait throughout his Disney tenure.

From now on, D’Amaro also must be in sales mode at all times, as he wants people to buy Disney stock.

So, he’ll face intense scrutiny while trying to reassure investors that none of this is problematic.

In the case of the television controversies, he’ll mostly be accurate.

Sure, The Bachelorette fiasco has cost Disney some money, but it’s an insignificant amount.

Conversely, the OpenAI and Epic Games situations will require some explanations.

Also, in the unlikely event that Disney Experiences underachieves, D’Amaro will be on the defensive.

To date, his CEO tenure has unfortunately mirrored that of Bob Chapek, a magnet for controversy.

Thankfully, D’Amaro has never been one to make unforced errors as Chapek did.

So, I suspect this will be a funny thing we look back on at a later date.

“Remember how terrible D’Amaro’s first month was?” And to be fair, it has been a lot.

Feature Image: Mark Abramson for The New York Times

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