Bob Iger named Disney CEO in shocking development

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In a move that shocked Hollywood, Bob Iger, one of the most notable CEOs in the history of the Walt Disney company, is returning to once again run the media empire.

Bob Chapek, who replaced Iger in 2020 as CEO, is stepping down immediately.

“We thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,” Susan Arnold, Chairman of the Board for Disney, said in a statement on Sunday night. “The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period.”

The announcement, while surprising to the media industry, comes at a time of great evolution for Disney. The company is coming off a lackluster earnings report that showed growth for its streaming endeavors. However, that came at a great cost. Disney’s streaming business lost $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter. That report sent Disney’s stock tumbling after a year of sluggish to bad performance.

Chapek guided the company through the pandemic, one of its most tumultuous periods in its nearly 100-year history, but ultimately Disney decided that its future was in better hands with Iger.

Away from the pandemic, Chapek had a short but bumpy tenure as the head of Disney. Chapek, who served as chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products before taking over for Iger, found himself dealing with issues regarding pay with Scarlett Johansson, one of the company’s biggest stars, as well as Disney’s battles with Florida, and its own employees, regarding the state’s controversial bill restricting certain LGBTQ topics in the classroom.

Disney’s stock has also taken a hit lately. It’s currently down roughly 40% this year.

As for Iger, he has an almost mythical status as the leader of Disney (DIS). He spent 15 years as CEO and was instrumental in acquiring major brands like Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, the home to Star Wars. Iger also closed the $71 billion deal to buy most of 21st Century Fox and kicked off the streaming revolution at Disney (DIS) with the creation of Disney (DIS)+ in November 2019.

Iger stayed on at Disney as executive chairman directing the company’s creative endeavors. He officially left the company after nearly 50 years at the end of last year.

Disney said Sunday that Iger has agreed to serve as CEO for two years with “a mandate from the Board to set the strategic direction for renewed growth and to work closely with the Board in developing a successor to lead the Company at the completion of his term.”

The move is also surprising since Chapek just renewed his contract. The company’s board of directors unanimously voted to extend Chapek’s contract as CEO for another three years, the company said in June. Chapek’s new contract began in July and was set to run until 2025.

Also, it appeared that Iger was set in retirement with his legacy as one of Disney’s most notable and successful CEOs. Now, he’s back.

“I am extremely optimistic for the future of this great company and thrilled to be asked by the Board to return as its CEO,” Iger said in a statement Sunday. “Disney and its incomparable brands and franchises hold a special place in the hearts of so many people around the globe—most especially in the hearts of our employees, whose dedication to this company and its mission is an inspiration.”

Iger added that he is “deeply honored to be asked to again lead this remarkable team, with a clear mission focused on creative excellence to inspire generations through unrivaled, bold storytelling.”

 

[Spasticus Autisticus]

Isn't RCT still being developed? There's a YouTuber called Graystillplays that creates theme parks using something like RCT and it's absolutely hilarious, as he makes these coasters that whip around at a 100 miles a minute and sees how many guests he can kill or maim on any given playthru.

OpenRCT2 is an open-source rewrite of RCT2. It's probably what these YouTubers are using to play these days.

 

[sadrefrigerator]

Ok, but even with the fake subscriptions, why is the operating cost a billion per year? Do servers cost THAT much to run?

Yes
Remember when isps wanted to charge Netflix extra around 2011. Internet really sucked back then because Netflix streaming really caught on and was by far the largest bandwidth user the internet had ever seen. Multimedia streaming remains the most bandwidth intensive internet task. If you're working on infrastructure for a streaming service, you are literally working on the bleeding edge of technology. There are only a small amount of engineers who have experience in streaming services and a majority of them worked at Netflix.
Multimedia codecs are also developed by a handful of autistic who pretty much dedicate their lives to working on them. They are simply irreplaceable.
I'd assume the major streaming services have a few of them on retainer.
Add this to the huge cost of running an app that works at the scale Disney+ does and it's very easy to see how it loses billions a year.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Pixar got screwed when Iger fired John Lasseter for hugging people. Without Lasseter to stear them Pixar is just another talentless hugbox.

Ngl he always gave off creep vibes. Isn't he who Al from Toy Story 2 is based off of?

Also I was so tired of his face popping up on the Spirited Away DVD. Miyazaki looked like he wanted to disappear into nothingness.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Isn't RCT still being developed? There's a YouTuber called Graystillplays that creates theme parks using something like RCT and it's absolutely hilarious, as he makes these coasters that whip around at a 100 miles a minute and sees how many guests he can kill or maim on any given playthru.

The latest version of RCT, RollerCoaster Tycoon World, and the low-effort port on to the Switch (RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures), turned out to be completely awful. The successors to RCT are Planet Coaster (which is developed by Frontier, who worked on the older RCT games), OpenRCT2 as mentioned, and Parkitect.

 

[northstar747]

@TheBallPit

Universal studios hollywood, is kinda fun because everything is compressed.

I m not surprised about HHN I think the secret would be to just extend the calendar and play with quest limits.

As for why diseny is king of the theme parks. Walt went to a carney thing and saw how seedy it was and tried for a higher quality product.

Anyway it seems the secret to making a good disney movie is to make it gay.

Also don bluth pushed disney to get better, I remember him saying in the 1970s rescuers they didnt put pupils in the eyes to save money. He forces disney animation to evolve.

 

[mlanguishi]

Yes
Remember when isps wanted to charge Netflix extra around 2011. Internet really sucked back then because Netflix streaming really caught on and was by far the largest bandwidth user the internet had ever seen.

Ahem, you were better off with so much better quality for renting Blu-ray over streaming.

Today, 4k discs are about 10x the quality of any streaming you can get. And they're fairly cheap too.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Did they ever do anything about that jank af unicorn at the end of the hagridcoaster?
I recall it looked like it was recovering from a stroke and possibly a car crash

 

[vern]

I think the more recent Universal > Disney shilling largely is hinging on epic universe and assuming it will be a massive game changer and not a bigger flop that would make galaxy's edge seem like a roaring success. Granted I am kinda interested in what they will do with the monsters sections but that's besides the point.
I've also seen some arguments that Universal as well as Sea World are trying to better tie themselves into the rest of the Orlando by making international drive the new main entertainment hub of the area with both of them the north and south anchors instead of Disney's "keep guests on property as much as possible" method that started under Eisner but decayed faster then 192 under Iger and Chepek (which one of them thought it was a great idea to cancel the magical express service which was probably the biggest perk over every other attraction when flying in from OIA again).
Although it seems to be only parroted by a channel called Poseidon Entertainment which all I'll say is they sort of scratch the same itch defunkland used back when the later actually talked about theme parks.

 

[George Lucas]

Personally I’ll take Magic Mountain over theme parks. A ride that doesn’t either make you vomit or give you back pain isn’t a good ride.

 

[namelesstacotruck]

The thing about Epic Universe is that we already know what Nintendo World is gonna be cause they built it in Japan. It will be that plus bigger. That alone wont carry the park, but it looks pretty solid and good and if everything in the park is that quality it will be pretty good.

Universal also is way cheaper than Disney and little boys like it more. Disneys reaping what its sewn here. Star Wars a mostly boy friendly property has forced female protagonists and its alienating young boy audiences. Ditto for Marvel. Universal has the stuff little boys like more. An annual pass at Universal is about 450 and works on weekends. It also gets you free parking, discounts, and way cheaper hotels.

You can get a family suit "on site" for about 130 a night during peak season with annual pass discount.

Its 2 biggest problems right now is too many people and it not being a destination park with a weeks worth of stuff to do. (I would say it does have a week of stuff but disney has several weeks). Having gone at peak time for both Disney throttles the bodies alot better with its reservation system and Universal crams em like sardines.

Now when do people fly in to go to Universal and just Universal and not part of a disney trip? Halloween. HHN gives it a de facto 3rd gate and makes it a week trip. Epic Universe gives it that 3rd gate all the time. And apparently Epic is a better zoning district so they can do comparable fireworks shows as Disney and all that.

I think the genie plus and reservation system stuff disney does is over argued. The disney influencers dont like it because it screws ovet annual pass holders the most. They like and are pushing Universal because Universal is having a very favorable annual pass system. Once you understand that it all lines up. If you are the family that goes 5 years to a decade it doesnt matter to you. Disney is still the best theme park in the world followed by Universal. Both parks are having prices shoot up. Universal seems to aim for Disney minus 20 percent in pricing.

One final note. Universal is not your friend if you are against woke. The people who own Universal own MSNBC too.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Yes
Remember when isps wanted to charge Netflix extra around 2011. Internet really sucked back then because Netflix streaming really caught on and was by far the largest bandwidth user the internet had ever seen. Multimedia streaming remains the most bandwidth intensive internet task. If you're working on infrastructure for a streaming service, you are literally working on the bleeding edge of technology. There are only a small amount of engineers who have experience in streaming services and a majority of them worked at Netflix.
Multimedia codecs are also developed by a handful of autistic who pretty much dedicate their lives to working on them. They are simply irreplaceable.
I'd assume the major streaming services have a few of them on retainer.
Add this to the huge cost of running an app that works at the scale Disney+ does and it's very easy to see how it loses billions a year.

Streaming was sucking so much bandwidth (from people watching it during lunch and such), that my company blocked access to all the sites and gifs as well.

And to go with the whole infrastructure thing, you need server farms just to handle all of that, and just to keep those at 40C (104F) which is generally the upper limit before servers start to shit themselves, is the biggest cost for a server farm. Most of the electricity devoured by server farms is just the cooling systems, which makes up a huge chunk of change for just normal operation.

 

[AGreatDipAtAFairPrice]

Disney apparently spent 180 million on Strange World, a movie that is an allegory about environmentalism and green energy plus a same sex teen romance that kills it overseas. The only way I know it exists is people on the internet laughing about how it got no advertisement and was sent out to die during Thanskgiving season.

People speculate that Bob Chapek was pissed about Lightyear and Strange World and just hated animation in general so he gave Strange World the minimum and sent it out to die in between Black Panther 2 and Avatar 2. Its tracking to not even make half of what Lightyear did and in terms of cost to performance is a gigaton bomb similar to what people say happened to Treasure Planet. The Treasure Planet claim is that a faction that thought Treasure Planet was overpriced and outdated and shouldn't be allowed to look like a success at all so it was given little promotion and sent out to die against a Harry Potter movie so the anti-animation faction could have a, "See, toldya so!" moment. So odd to me that Disney of all companies would have an anti-animation faction powerful enough to sabotage movies and have one its champions rise to the rank of CEO.

 

[TheBallPit]

One thing that's been niggling at me quite a bit lately is how parks like Disney, Knotts, and Universal have found a way to charge two times for gate entry in a single day.

To elaborate, it's long been agreed upon that, when you buy a gate pass to a theme park, no matter the time of day, you are allowed the run of place until park close. However, with the advent of special and seasonal events like HHN and Not So Scary, parks can close much earlier in the day and charge a second gate fee for the remainder of the afternoon/evening. So, if Steve buys a non-event ticket and NOT a second special event pass (which is often just as expensive, if not moreso), he's effectively kicked out of the park during full daylight and told to scram, even though the park otherwise closes much later on non-event days.

The rub of all of this is twofold - the "morning/day" ticket isn't discounted or prorated in some fashion and 2) the guest doesn't have nearly the amount of time they would otherwise have if they had visited the park on a non-event date. Not only that, the guest isn't offered a discount for the event ticket should they elect to buy one even though they've already paid full price for gate entry on the very same day. This doesn't even get into other ancillary fees that guests have already paid full price for, like parking.

This is especially unlucky for people who don't realize there's an event happening and assume they're going to get a full day's worth of park time, but are in for a rude surprise (there are several YouTube videos about people getting caught in this situation).

Of course, this is an absolute boon for park owners, as they can double their daily gate income during special events. Between this and other in-park price gouging, it's no wonder Universal makes as much on HHN as they do the rest of the year.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. For something like HHN, you could make the argument that it's warranted and even expected since Universal genuinely goes full-bore on the houses, scare-zones, and overall vibe and it's a qualitatively different experience whose asking price is justified (the day guest still gets screwed, though). However, for a lower-rent park that can't or won't devote those sort of resources, but still elects to charge twice calling it a "special event", it starts to become an unethical cash grab. I can also envision this abused in other ways, like if a Fortune 500 company elects to rent out the entire park for their employees starting at 4:00pm on some random day for a hefty fee (Disney either still offers this or used to).

I dunno. Theme parks already charge criminal prices for practically everything (Universal recently installed full-body dryers for people coming off of water rides that cost $5.00 for just a minute or so of air). I suppose it would sit better with me if day guests were compensated in some manner.

 

[TheBallPit]

@TheBallPit

Universal studios hollywood, is kinda fun because everything is compressed.

I m not surprised about HHN I think the secret would be to just extend the calendar and play with quest limits.

The HHN crowd problem I don't think can be addressed by extending the dates, as there are a LOT of people that would jump at the chance to go on those extra nights. It would also dilute the spirit of the "holiday" (is Halloween considered a holiday?) if it were to expand into August or go much beyond October 31st. Doing the former would intrude too much into regular operations and the latter could interfere with Christmas preparations.

I'm not sure what you mean by quest limits.

Ultimately, unless Universal is willing to construct even more houses (unlikely) and host more crowd-sucking shows, the only real solution I can see is limiting attendance and the company being willing to settle for a lot more sell-out nights. This happens frequently at Hollywood, so I don't know why it's become such a big deal here apart from rampant greed. I doubt even virtual queues would resolve things since there are just too many bodies at once to handle.

Regarding Universal's overall size, it's definitely a park that can easily be done in four or five days of regular visiting (unless you're really unlucky and hit every day at peak capacity) - that's including Volcano Bay. People have no clue as to the real size and offerings of Disney World. I once compiled a list of things that guests can experience that DON'T include the gates and it was something like 100 discrete options, from camping to horse riding to parasailing to boating. It still stuns me just how expansive Disney is here in Central Florida and I genuinely don't know how it's all cohesively run. When you add all of Disney's subsidiary pursuits, like the cruise lines, ESPN, and HULU, it just boggles.

This is why I don't think Disney is all THAT concerned about Epic Universe. Yeah, it may pull a few families away, but I suspect it'll be a drop in the bucket. Hell, it may actually wind-up DRIVING traffic to Disney. Who knows?

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

The HHN crowd problem I don't think can be addressed by extending the dates, as there are a LOT of people that would jump at the chance to go on those extra nights. It would also dilute the spirit of the "holiday" (is Halloween considered a holiday?) if it were to expand into August or go much beyond October 31st. Doing the former would intrude too much into regular operations and the latter could interfere with Christmas preparations.

I'm not sure what you mean by quest limits.

Ultimately, unless Universal is willing to construct even more houses (unlikely) and host more crowd-sucking shows, the only real solution I can see is limiting attendance and the company being willing to settle for a lot more sell-out nights. This happens frequently at Hollywood, so I don't know why it's become such a big deal here apart from rampant greed. I doubt even virtual queues would resolve things since there are just too many bodies at once to handle.

Regarding Universal's overall size, it's definitely a park that can easily be done in four or five days of regular visiting (unless you're really unlucky and hit every day at peak capacity) - that's including Volcano Bay. People have no clue as to the real size and offerings of Disney World. I once compiled a list of things that guests can experience that DON'T include the gates and it was something like 100 discrete options, from camping to horse riding to parasailing to boating. It still stuns me just how expansive Disney is here in Central Florida and I genuinely don't know how it's all cohesively run. When you add all of Disney's subsidiary pursuits, like the cruise lines, ESPN, and HULU, it just boggles.

This is why I don't think Disney is all THAT concerned about Epic Universe. Yeah, it may pull a few families away, but I suspect it'll be a drop in the bucket. Hell, it may actually wind-up DRIVING traffic to Disney. Who knows?

yeah as much as it's easy to dunk on the mouse for doubling down on the extant crowd, iirc they were at capacity a mess of days last year for Christmastime in particular and I expect they'll be the same this year
I certainly have a personal gripe about being priced out of the market for the parks, but I can't really blame them.

 

[TheBallPit]

yeah as much as it's easy to dunk on the mouse for doubling down on the extant crowd, iirc they were at capacity a mess of days last year for Christmastime in particular and I expect they'll be the same this year
I certainly have a personal gripe about being priced out of the market for the parks, but I can't really blame them.

This is why I often get flustered with people arguing about the rampant price hikes without also addressing the crowd problem. The financial barrier and reservation system are the ONLY things holding unmanageable hordes at bay at this point. Universal can currently get away with wooing the average income earner because their parks are less traveled, but even that's changing as their own crowd levels steadily swell.

Disney, though, has managed what every company dreams of - creating an inverted economy. IOW, raising price increases demand as Disney hones and sharpens their image as THE place to go for a vacation for the whole family. I'm convinced this is what people like Iger have wanted all along and it's actually happening before us in real-time. They can simultaneously declare themselves to be a prime getaway destination, successfully charge accordingly, and in the process reap absolutely gargantuan financial rewards while claiming to be everyones friend by riding on Walt's legacy image. It's beyond genius.

Star Wars can fail. Marvel can fail. All of their other cinema efforts can fail and it won't matter, especially if they'll always have an ESG buffer in case things go truly sideways. What does millions of dollars of loss leaders mean to a company that parleys in billions? Absolutely nothing.

I'm not sure where Disney's ceiling is in all this, but I can envision them charging a grand for a simple 1-park gate pass and hundreds of dollars for generic quick service food. At that point, if attendance drops, even precipitously, it won't matter since those remaining are more than enough to support their operational costs and C-suite salaries while the baseline cast member gets scraps. It'll be a capitalistic dystopia, but I'm almost 100% certain that that's the inevitable endgame at this point.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

This is why I often get flustered with people arguing about the rampant price hikes without also addressing the crowd problem. The financial barrier and reservation system is the ONLY thing holding unmanageable hordes at bay at this point. Universal can currently get away with wooing the average income earner because their parks are less traveled, but even that's changing as their own crowd levels steadily swell.

Disney, though, has managed what every company dreams of - creating an inverted economy. IOW, raising price increases demand as Disney hones and sharpens their image as THE place to go for a vacation for the whole family. I'm convinced this is what people like Iger have wanted all along and it's actually happening before us in real-time. They can simultaneously declare themselves to be a prime getaway destination, successfully charge accordingly, and in the process reap absolutely gargantuan financial rewards while claiming to be everyones friend by riding on Walt's legacy image. It's beyond genius.

Star Wars can fail. Marvel can fail. All of their other cinema efforts can fail and it won't matter, especially if they'll always have an ESG buffer in case things go truly sideways.

I'm not sure where Disney's ceiling is in all this, but I can envision them charging a grand for a simple 1-park gate pass and hundreds of dollars for generic quick service food. At that point, if attendance drops, even precipitously, it won't matter since those remaining are more than enough to support their operational costs and C-suite salaries while the baseline cast member gets scraps. It'll be a capitalistic dystopia, but I'm almost 100% certain that that's the inevitable endgame at this point.

yeah iirc I have a few shares in the mouse my grandpa gifted me years ago, and tbh as much as things sound dismal from a clickbait standpoint, last I heard they literally had to go FUCK OFF WE'RE FULL more that a few times the past year or few even post-coof
it's like the old thing about "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded"

 

[quaawaa]

This is why I often get flustered with people arguing about the rampant price hikes without also addressing the crowd problem. The financial barrier and reservation system are the ONLY things holding unmanageable hordes at bay at this point. Universal can currently get away with wooing the average income earner because their parks are less traveled, but even that's changing as their own crowd levels steadily swell.

Disney, though, has managed what every company dreams of - creating an inverted economy. IOW, raising price increases demand as Disney hones and sharpens their image as THE place to go for a vacation for the whole family. I'm convinced this is what people like Iger have wanted all along and it's actually happening before us in real-time. They can simultaneously declare themselves to be a prime getaway destination, successfully charge accordingly, and in the process reap absolutely gargantuan financial rewards while claiming to be everyones friend by riding on Walt's legacy image. It's beyond genius.

Star Wars can fail. Marvel can fail. All of their other cinema efforts can fail and it won't matter, especially if they'll always have an ESG buffer in case things go truly sideways. What does millions of dollars of loss leaders mean to a company that parleys in billions? Absolutely nothing.

I'm not sure where Disney's ceiling is in all this, but I can envision them charging a grand for a simple 1-park gate pass and hundreds of dollars for generic quick service food. At that point, if attendance drops, even precipitously, it won't matter since those remaining are more than enough to support their operational costs and C-suite salaries while the baseline cast member gets scraps. It'll be a capitalistic dystopia, but I'm almost 100% certain that that's the inevitable endgame at this point.

That plan won't work for very long. There are only so many 20-40 year old Peter Pan-syndrome afflicted "people" to milk. If parents can't afford to take their kids, then the kids won't grow up to be obsessed with Disney and there won't be any more superfans to exploit. Walt recognized that satisfying the whole family was the key to long term success, but modern Disney only thinks about the present and only cares about childless adults.

Disney should expand the park to handle more visitors; it's not like they don't have enough land. What they're doing now solves the problem of congestion, but it fails to accomplish the actual goal, which is to make children happy. Walt is rolling in his grave over what they've done to his parks and movie studio.

Disney are not the only people who've fallen into this trap; congestion zones/toll roads have the same issue yet are popular because they let governments get paid without having to improve infrastructure (which costs money). It's a terrible long term strategy for both theme parks and infrastructure, but modern "leaders" are incapable of thinking about the future.

 

[AGreatDipAtAFairPrice]

If they keep raising the prices, all they are going to have 10 years from now is creeps in their 40s. You can sheer a sheep forever, but you only get to skin it once. They're well at the point of jacking the prices on a dwindling customer base and selling off soon to somebody.

 

[Mothra1988]

The only people I see that interested in the Disney parks these days are "super fans" on the internet. The price hikes are definitely hurting them bad, and a lot of people are deciding to do other things on vacation.

Beyond that, I'm pretty damn sick of the commercialism of these parks. The CEOs just seem to worry about shoving the latest movie into things. I think tearing out the Norway ride for Frozen was one of the points where I had enough. Also, instead of using creativity when building new things, you now have endless "screen" rides which are just big video games or 4K monitors neither of which is that novel in 2022. Who gives a shit about spending that much money to play a video game or see a screen like the on you have in your house? lol

I think this problem is compounded by the fact that the main regional US competitors to Disney/Universal have been on an even worse path and just keep shoving endless extreme roller coasters/themeless thrill rides into their parks leaving nothing to offer anyone else. So those parks, many of them taken over by larger companies that own several regional parks, just become places for teens and early 20 somethings that think getting tossed around in the air like a rag doll is the only thing that should be in an amsument park.

If you look into the histories of these regional parks, a lot of them were a lot more interesting before the 90's before they decided on only one kind of ride was allowed and had a lot more to offer families, young children and older people. It's just bizarre how this dichotomy between Disney/everyone else was set up, when Disney originally ripped off all his ride ideas from other parks or World's Fairs that had mass appeal. Instead of continuing to innovate, they chose to only focus on coasters. Some kind of creativity/fun drain going on I guess, but it's really depressing when you think about what has been lost in regards of Americana.