The return of Bob Iger rescued Disney. Iger resigned in 2020. Iger’s replacement, Bob Chapek, failed after only two years, therefore Iger has returned after signing a two-year deal at age 71. He is cleaning house, and some key figures from Chapek’s tenure are leaving.
Go Woke, Go Broke
The increasingly progressive attitude at Disney was damaging the company’s bottom line. Disney generally delivers amusement for families. Iger’s tenure at the helm of Disney was a great success.
He managed Disney’s purchases of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox as chief executive officer. Upon his retirement, there was speculation among Democrats that he may run for president or purchase an NBA team.
Now he is responsible for correcting what is not working, which includes finding a suitable successor when his contract expires. The initial implementation of this idea did not fare well for anyone.
Disney’s #StrangeWorld bombs at the box office with $18.6M domestically in its first 5 days
The film is projected to lose at least $100M pic.twitter.com/S3LPC4Npy1
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) November 27, 2022
Big Changes Happening
Iger has gotten straight to work, and big staff changes are happening. Iger is a liberal Democrat who is unafraid to express his political opinions, however it appears that Chapek’s greatest weakness was communicating.
As instead of simply offering a political hot take, as occurred when Chapek became embroiled in a dispute with Governor DeSantis over The Parental Rights Education Act, Iger reframed his political ideas as standing up in the name of right vs wrong. Democrats erroneously dubbed the law the Don’t Say Gay Bill, despite the absence of the term ‘gay’ in its text.
Chapek initially kept out of the conflict at the time, and Iger publicly reprimanded him for his actions. Chapek then joined the fight, and the remainder is history. It seems that parents dislike being told what to do by special interest groups such as LGBT activists.
Families play an important role in Disney’s business strategy. What might potentially go wrong if a CEO sided with cultural radicals over his or her company’s primary clientele?
Arthur Bochner, Chapek’s chief of staff and speechwriter, appears to have been mostly responsible for his remarks. Last week, he was introduced to the exit door.
Bochner to Blame?
Bochner’s termination is predictable. Bochner authored Chapek’s official comments, which led to his dismissal.
CFO Christine McCarthy noted Chapek’s comments as detrimental to the business in her concerns to Bob Iger and, later, Disney’s Board of Directors. A CEO must be able to make relationships and exert influence over others. With Bochner at the keyboard, Chapek was incapable of doing either. McCarthy stated that Chapek had irrecoverably lost the room.
Disney is losing a lot of money due to their stand with Woke, their latest so-called movie took a nosedive and instead of bringing in millions over the holiday it tanked to only record lows. https://t.co/Ie1LZSXXUd
— LGB2546 (@LGB2546) November 29, 2022
This does not mean that Bochner is solely responsible for Chapek’s dismissal. The prior CEO was required to review all of his speeches. He was however responsible for all of Chapek’s blunders and poor remarks.
Chapek stated that grownups do not watch animated films. That was the work of Bochner. When he stated that the company was thriving while suffering unprecedented losses? Also Bochner. Bochner was the source of all of Chapek’s comments (or lack thereof) concerning Florida’s contentious “Parental Rights in Education Act.”
