This hits the nail on the head

Dear Mouse House,

Let’s start with the basics:

You have too many studios and too many outlets. What you need is ABC (while it’s still profitable even though it’s declining), Disney plus and some form of adult premium content like HBO, which we will call FX.

Studio wise, what you need are two studios. The first studio to service ABC and Disney plus and anywhere else your show can live. I say anywhere else, because you need to license content again. I know, crazy idea. But you must. Let’s call the studio, Disney studio. What you don’t need is: 20th, ABC signature, Searchlight, Hulu, Disney plus. That’s insanity. Pick your best execs and form one studio. Hint: these execs won’t be found under the Hulu banner.

Your next studio is FX. It will act as your HBO. Have an honest conversation with Landgraf about if he wants to be a rival to HBO, or if he wants to continue putting out one or two shows a year. If it’s the latter, make him a great deal as a producer. Because what you need for FX to stay relevant, is 3 to 4 more shows a year out of FX. 2 more comedies at least. Stop being so precious.

Where will this programming live? Some combined entity of Disney plus and Hulu. Just call it Disney plus and migrate Hulu on to the app.

Movie wise: Have trust in Pixar. The brand lost a little bit of its cache by going streaming with some films, but get back to the magic. Additionally, have Pixar or Disney animation take a few more comedic swings…because Universal is right on your tail.

Marvel: The world has superhero fatigue but…they can still make a lot of money. Choose your bets wisely. Same with Lucas films.

ESPN: Sit tight. If you don’t have a legit buyer now, then bundle it with Hulu and Disney plus, much the same way ESPN plus is right now. Sure you will lose a bit of cash, but you will have saved from a new slimmed down Disney, which will be more efficient, and produce (hopefully) better programming because everyone is there for a reason. Not the bloat you have now.

Finally: make a deal with the writers and actors by Labor Day. And apologize for calling their demands “unrealistic.” You will need these people to make your next great hit.

Sincerely,

The Big Cheese

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11 replies (most recent on top)

And yet:
https://www.google.com/search?q=into+the+spider+verse+is+woke

Also, I do work at Disney. That's why I'm tired of trolls like you coming here and trying so hard to turn our bad results into a political issue to force a "go woke, go broke" narrative when that couldn't be further from the truth. We have many problems, and none of them have anything to do with black Ariel or a g-y couple in Strange World.

It's people like you who chased away actual Disney employees who used to come here for layoff info and to discuss actual issues at Disney. You took this page off-topic and turned it political when all most of us wanted to know was when layoffs would start and what kind of severance we would be getting.

You have plenty of places where you can discuss your politics, how about you stick to them and leave this to actual employees who are worried about their jobs and want to know what's going to happen to them?

Miles Morales is his own character that has his own background, it has nothing to do with "woke". And as far as the trans thing goes, that's like saying the little mermaid is pedo-friendly because someone drew a bo--r on the priest. It has no bearing on the narrative whatsoever. It was a split-second throw-in, was roasted by basically everyone online, and is otherwise irrelevant.

My guess is you don't actually work at Disney, but you come here to troll people that know more about this industry than you do because you have a passe political axe to grind.

You're cute trying to backpedal out of this. Of course that's enough for something to be considered woke. Spider-Man is supposed to be white, and as soon as you add a black Spider-Man into the mix the anti-woke crowd goes wild. You know this, so stop pretending it's not true. But if that's not enough, the movie is also trans-positive, which is a huge no-no in your book. And yet it did great. Like Barbie. You know, the exceptions.

And I'm just going to leave this here for the heck of it.

https://fandomwire.com/if-something-is-successful-it-stops-being-woke-racists-refuse-to-accept-miles-morales-is-black-after-across-the-spider-verse-success/

Lol how is into the spiderverse woke? Because miles morales is black? Sit down dude, you don’t know wtf you’re talking about.

Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also an exception? Two out of three top movies this year in the U.S. are what some would consider woke, but sure, call them exceptions.

@glc+1nVvhZz lmao I know right? It’s almost as if Barbie was the exception and not the ru…oh, wait.

Nobody under 30 is watching Disney, Warner, Paramount, or Universal

This is the heresy you’re not allowed to utter within the hallowed halls of Disney. This fact is also true for sports which is a severe problem for ESPN and the future of sports gambling.

Why would HBO be something to emulate? Discovery's earnings are looking almost as bad as Disney's with Max also losing subscribers.

I think there is an LA echo chamber that doesn't realize they are in the horse and buggy business while the consumer is moving onto cars. They used to be the ones driving culture but they've fallen way behind and are now constantly trying to catch up with the rest of society who, truth be told, don't really like them very much.

@igz+1nVvhZzq You are absolutely right! It's all about people hating all things woke. When was the last time a woke movie did well at the box office? Or did so well to leave most of the movies of the year in the dust? Week after week with all the "it's just woke cr-p" word of mouth? I can't remem...oh, wait.

The problem is, the “big cheese” is assuming the industry is still as it was 10 years ago. You just can’t be successful if you’re worried about ancillary things like social justice initiatives and DEI when there are YouTubers out there eating your lunch. Nobody under 30 is watching Disney, Warner, Paramount, or Universal. They’re all on youtube because the people there are allowed to be creative and aren’t bogged down by nonsense like ESG.

I didn't write this, it's one of the comments here: https://deadline.com/2023/07/kevin-mayer-tom-staggs-walt-disney-bob-iger-1235451330/
I just thought it belonged here as well.

Thread regarding Disney layoffs

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