On Monday, the company announced a massive reorganization of its media and entertainment business that will focus on developing productions that will debut on its streaming and broadcast services. Disney’s media businesses, ads, and distribution, and Disney+ will now operate under the same business unit, the company said.
Its major reorganization comes just days after activist investor Dan Loeb, a major investor in the company through his Third Point Capital hedge fund, called on Disney to cancel its dividend and redirect more investments into streaming.
Wall Street has already given its seal of approval to Disney’s new move, sending the share up nearly 6% in after hours trading.
Disney’s announcement follows a significant reorganization of its release schedule to address new realities including a collapsing theatrical release business; production issues; and the runaway success of its streaming service — all caused or accelerated by the national failure to effectively address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Planned theatrical releases of would-be tentpole films like “Black Widow” have been rescheduled, while other films including “Mulan” and the upcoming Pixar film “Soul” are seeing their first runs on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+.
Production of new material for Disney’s many provinces of intellectual property will fall under three groups — Studios, General Entertainment, and Sports. Leadership of these groups won’t change with Alan F. Horn and Alan Bergman, Peter Rice and James Pitaro maintaining their respective positions within the organization, the company said.
Overseeing operations for this singularly large new operational structure will be Kareem Daniel, who previously helmed the company’s consumer products, games and publishing operations.
All of the men will report up to Bob Chapek, the company’s chief executive officer.
“Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Chapek said in a statement. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best—making world-class, franchise-based content—while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service.”
Studios will run all of the company’s development activities for live action and animated productions coming from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.
General Entertainment will serve the same function for the company’s 20th Television and ABC Signature and Touchstone Television productions, along with its news divisions, Disney channels, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic.
Sports will focus on ESPN and sports productions including live events, and original, and non-scripted sports related material for cable channels, ESPN+ and ABC, the company said.
Overseeing the monetization, distribution, operations, sales, advertising and data and technology infrastructure for all of those groups will be Daniel. A longtime Disney executive, he formerly served as the head of the company’s Imagineering Operations, taking intellectual property and turning it into entertainment for the vast empire of Disney resorts and theme parks, before taking over the consumer products, games and publishing operations at the company.
“Kareem is an exceptionally talented, innovative and forward-looking leader, with a strong track record for developing and implementing successful global content distribution and commercialization strategies,” said Chapek. “As we now look to rapidly grow our direct-to-consumer business, a key focus will be delivering and monetizing our great content in the most optimal way possible, and I can think of no one better suited to lead this effort than Kareem. His wealth of experience will enable him to effectively bring together the Company’s distribution, advertising, marketing and sales functions, thereby creating a distribution powerhouse that will serve all of Disney’s media and entertainment businesses.”
The new structure is effective immediately, and the Company expects to transition to financial reporting under this structure in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
The Company will hold a virtual Investor Day on December 10, where it will present further details of its direct-to-consumer strategies.
Originally Posted by dj56dt58:
I don't understand popcorn/snacks at the theatre..I personally can do without. My wife and kids have to have popcorn ect but I've never understood people just throwing in snacks with the cost of a ticket like they just have to have fucking popcorn everytime you go to the movies. The sounds of people fucking with their snacks during a movie is fucking annoying anyway. Eat something before you go and save your money
Our local movie theater sells popcorn to go. That's something they started during COVID. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mecca:
30 bucks for a movie is a good deal if you have a family watching it.
I mentioned this is the MCU discussion thread but I’d pay $39.99 right now for Disney+ access to Black Widow, even though it will eventually become available with the monthly subscription.
I’ll take my kids to see all of the Marvel, Star Wars and Disney films in the theaters already, then turn around and watch them a million times on Disney+, so why not pay $39.99 for access today, which is less expensive than taking them to theater?
If it weren’t for piracy, theaters would have been gone years ago because most people are more than content to watch movies on Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and so on for a better part of the last decade. [Reply]
Movie theaters have been on their death bed for years. My first job in HS was at a movie theater and there was talk of an industry collapse back then, and that was what, (counts fingers & toes) 16-17 years ago?
There's no profit in ticket sales, so that's a joke. Theaters essentially take the customer's money and then just hand it to the movie studios, which in turn means they have to jack the pricing on concessions which of course none of us want to pay.
It's an unappreciated industry that everyone shits on so im not surprised at all to see them get phased out. They barely had their head above water two decades ago. [Reply]
Maybe if the movie studios would allow some damn profit in ticket sales they'd have a chance?
The theater i worked at had another theater just a few miles away and we were constantly in this bidding war for movies because of stupid zoning rules that didn't allow two theaters within a certain distance to show the same movie.
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
Maybe if the movie studios would allow some damn profit in ticket sales they'd have a chance?
The theater i worked at had another theater just a few miles away and we were constantly in this bidding war for movies because of stupid zoning rules that didn't allow two theaters within a certain distance to show the same movie.
Stupid rules like that do them no favors.
Going to a movie in the 70's and 80's was fun because most TV's were around 20" inches, with some going all the way up to 27"!
Today, people can purchase 32" LED's for less than $100 dollars while QLED 50" TV's cost around $350.
The appeal of a movie theater has waned exponentially in the past 20 years due to HDTV's, which have been replaced by 4K UHD TV's at a fraction the cost, while nearly everyone in America has a streaming subcription, whether it's Amazon, Disney+, Hulu or Neflix (or like me, all of the above).
Back in the day, we had to wait a year or longer for a theatrical film to hit Blockbuster video but today, theatrical's are available in 12 weeks or less on services like VUDU and Movies Anywhere.
Most films will be on a streamer within 6 months, so there's really no reason to drop $100 or more for a family of four when it's included in the $12.99 or whatever monthly subscription price. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Going to a movie in the 70's and 80's was fun because most TV's were around 20" inches, with some going all the way up to 27"!
Today, people can purchase 32" LED's for less than $100 dollars while QLED 50" TV's cost around $350.
The appeal of a movie theater has waned exponentially in the past 20 years due to HDTV's, which have been replaced by 4K UHD TV's at a fraction the cost, while nearly everyone in America has a streaming subcription, whether it's Amazon, Disney+, Hulu or Neflix (or like me, all of the above).
Back in the day, we had to wait a year or longer for a theatrical film to hit Blockbuster video but today, theatrical's are available in 12 weeks or less on services like VUDU and Movies Anywhere.
Most films will be on a streamer within 6 months, so there's really no reason to drop $100 or more for a family of four when it's included in the $12.99 or whatever monthly subscription price.
heh, yea, i remember back in the 80s you would have to wait almost an entire year for the VHS of Top Gun, Back to the Future. etc.....I think E.T. took several years before it came out on VHS?
But movies played in theaters alot longer then. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Deberg_1990:
But movies played in theaters alot longer then.
There wasn't anywhere near as many entertainment options as today, while tickets were only $3.00 dollars in most cities, so movies could run for 12-15 months at a time. [Reply]
Movies in theatre's will never go away completely. Most Mid-sized towns have a theatre showing some old Bogart or Cagney movie. There will always be some retro theatre. [Reply]
