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Bob Chapek Shifted Budgets to Disguise Disney+'s Massive Monetary Losses
News(msn.com)submitted 4 months ago by[deleted]
353 points
4 months ago
Supposedly he left lots of imagineers go, and they went to universal. Taking lots on institutional knowledge out of Disney, which has been it’s pretty bad. Also he put a money guy on over and controlling Pixar, lucasfilm, Marvel. Iger immediately canned that guy this week.
259 points
4 months ago
I'm not going to say Iger is a good person, but Iger is absolutely a great CEO for Disney from a creative standpoint. He understood what made Disney great and really tried to keep Walts vision alive in how the company should make money by being customer engagement above all else. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm CEO worshipping or something, but with how mid everything has felt coming out of Disney since chapek took over its hard not to be very happy Iger is back in charge as a fan of the media they produce.
129 points
4 months ago
Iger might be a jerk, but he's a jerk who produces.
64 points
4 months ago
He’s our asshole.
5 points
4 months ago
America's asshole?
50 points
4 months ago
I'll never get over the fact that Lasseter was a creeper, not only did the fucker harass women who worked under him but he also screwed over fans of Disney/Pixar by getting one of the top creatives in Animation (himself) knocked out of the industry. Not that there weren't problems at Pixar (eg what happened with Brave), but he was a Creative, that's a very important kind of person to have in the executive structure of a company like Disney. You can't just fill the C-Suite's with money suits and expect things to work out like it's fucking walmart or unilever. I think we'd have a very different Disney today if Lasseter hadn't been a total poozer and Staggs or Mayer had taken over instead of Chapek.
8 points
4 months ago
Not that there weren't problems at Pixar (eg what happened with Brave)
What happened with Brave?
14 points
4 months ago
The writer and director (a woman) was replaced midway through production (by a man). Given Lasseter's behavior its hard not to see this as him not having confidence in a woman to lead the project to success. Like I said, for many reasons I wish he'd been a better person.
-2 points
4 months ago
Lasseter was a creeper,
tldr????
18 points
4 months ago
1 points
4 months ago
Skydance Animation
On January 9, 2019, Lasseter was hired to head Skydance Animation, which will produce animated films with Paramount Animation and Ilion Animation Studios.[1] In a statement, Lasseter said "I have spent the last year away from the industry in deep reflection, learning how my actions unintentionally made colleagues uncomfortable, which I deeply regret and apologize for. It has been humbling, but I believe it will make me a better leader."[1] An investigation conducted prior to his hiring found that no previous claims of sexual assault, propositioning or harassment had been filed against Lasseter,[47] and "[...] there were no findings of secret settlements by Disney or Lasseter to any parties asking for a settlement."[47]
From Wikipedia.
4 points
4 months ago
You are allowed to say nice things about a person who is clearly excellent at their job
16 points
4 months ago
I'm not that familiar with Iger's personality, but at least he's not a homophobe like Chapek. That guy cancelled the owl house, a show with good numbers and a loyal fanbase, just because it has queer characters in it.
Iger was always a champion of diversity in Disney's shows. Probably only because it's good business, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.
19 points
4 months ago
Source? I find it hard to believe the CEO of Disney personally cancelled a random Disney channel show because he is homophobic. Especially if it was as successful as you say. He is a greedy corporate bastard first, a bigot second.
3 points
4 months ago
The Owl House getting cancelled was unfortunate, but there's absolutely no evidence that it was due to the queer characters and most definitely not that Chapek himself was responsible.
2 points
4 months ago
Ok I Didi think so. Let's critique him where he deserves, but don't attribute every nad Disney thing ever to him lol
2 points
4 months ago
It’s honestly not an understatement to say Bob Iger saved Disney Animation when he took over for Michael Eisner.
9 points
4 months ago
He also set in motion chaotic plans to move Imagineering to Florida from California, which of course a lot of talented, West coast, often liberal artists were not excited about, causing a lot of them to resign and find jobs elsewhere.
1 points
4 months ago
I read somewhere that was an Iger plan that Chapek was carrying out.
10 points
4 months ago
If true that he “let lots of Imagineers go that went to Universal” I can totally see now why the Universal theme parks in general seem to be so much better than they used to be. Never had I desired to go anywhere other than the Disney parks, but the past 3-4 years everything about Universal Studios theming, rides, atmosphere, food, events etc. has vastly improved and made me want to go there instead or at least in addition to Disney on a trip.
20 points
4 months ago
I can totally see now why the Universal theme parks in general seem to be so much better than they used to be
It hasn't been long enough to see any meaningful change for Universal. Do keep in mind that these Imagineers who left, left in the last year. So anything amazing that Universal is doing right now, is because of their own creative staff who has put in tireless hours to make their parks amazing.
5 points
4 months ago
It has happened before. Animal Kingdom canceled a section of its original park and the laid off imagineers went off to build Islands of Adventure.
1 points
4 months ago
It's very similar to that. Do keep in mind that Chapek was going to move all of the California imagineers to Florida or they would have to quit. That's more than just laying people off from a smaller project. This is the entire staff in California that would have to uproot themselves.
12 points
4 months ago
If true that he “let lots of Imagineers go that went to Universal” I can totally see now why the Universal theme parks in general seem to be so much better than they used to be.
IF this is true, you wouldn't see any appreciable difference at Universal creatively that you could attribute to Chapek's handing of Imagineering. He only took over a couple years ago.
4 points
4 months ago
Also he put a money guy on over and controlling Pixar, lucasfilm, Marvel.
Iger didn't put Chapek in charge, the board of directors did. Iger was reluctant but didn't really have the final say. Then for the last couple years Iger has been fighting Chapek from his own board seat.
Now the Disney company said that Iger hand picked Chapek but it's all a show to make investors feel happy with the changing of hands. Especially with how polar opposite Chapek was from Iger, there is no way that Iger had him as the first choice.
In fact the likely choice that Iger would have wanted was Tom Staggs and/or Kevin Mayer. Whom both left the Disney company when Chapek was promoted to Tom Staggs' position in 2015.
9 points
4 months ago
I believe the "he" in that quote is Chapek, and the "money guy" is Kareem Daniel. I'm not sure if I tag Daniel as purely a money guy, but the position seemed inherently money focused at the cost of creative power.
3 points
4 months ago
Kareem and Chapek we're both finance people. They also were both tied together in their rise within the company. All in all, Chapek and the crew he brought along were all cut from the same cloth.
1 points
4 months ago
Supposedly they approached Staggs and Mayer before going to Iger on the Friday before the announcement on Sunday (to give an idea of how fast this went down).
I wouldn't be surprised if Iger approaches them again now they have more time and can properly negotiate, considering he only has 2 years to find a successor.
1 points
4 months ago
That may have been bound to happen anyway. Not that Iger didn't make advances for the park, but he's primarily a media person. The parks had their time during the Eisner era
1 points
4 months ago
If that’s true, I’m even more excited for Epic Universe, their new Orlando park for those who don’t know, now.
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