i would argue that most of the population doesn't believe Disney needs recuing. Disney's stock is near all time highs, Disney+ has been a big hit, they are well above their 5 year projections, on top of that the Marvel money train is chugging along, and John Favreau is resurrecting Star Wars. The complaints seem to come primarily at the park level, (justified or not) and that alone would not constitute a needing a "rescue"
I think you are correct that any of those executives could make it through and succeed Chaepek. It just isn't practical to think that any of them would be ready anytime soon to takeover. Iger had been with the company for years, and it was always assumed he was going to be Eisners Successor, (of course there wasn't much thought put to that, because many thought Eisner would die in that chair, and he refused to talk about a succession plan prior to being removed). That being said, whenever an executive is removed, and replaced with a "rookie" CEO, there is always trepidation, fear of the unknown.
Those are Chapek’s focuses, correct. But a good CEO focuses on all segments of the business. The parks are still an important segment to Disney.
I agree, i'm hoping that there wasn't a lot of focus on the parks initially because of Covid. I think that the price increases were something that Disney wanted to do over the course of a few years, but Covid threw a wrench into it, and they were forced into doing it all at once. Once Covid is more manageable, i hope he shifts his focus more onto the parks, but time will tell. To me the Jury is still out of Chaepek
I personally don't think the lack of focus on the parks has much to do with Covid. I don't see them putting much focus on the parks again. People are packing the parks with all the cuts so why add when they are coming anyways.
Fair point, maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my end
Parks do make up ~30%+ of their business. A bigger question is how much downstream revenue is a result of a visit to a park. Speaking for myself, in the years since our first visit, then our season passes, we have spent quite a bit on Disney products. Items like stuffed animals, t-shirts, Star Wars Lego sets, bedding......,, all items that we never would have considered without visiting the parks. We have Disney+ only because of the cheap price that was offered as a season pass holder. Don't really ever watch it.
Well the parks would need to be hurting for visitors first and foremost, and as of now they are not. They definitely haven't paid as close attention to the parks recently, and have started charging more, but until the parks are losing attendance, (excluding for Covid reasons) I don't think that sentiment would really affect the business. I think Disney+ has been doing very well, and i would argue that there are many people who have subscription services, (Netflix, HBO, Hulu, ect.) that are never opened, but they still pay for the subscription, they are also throwing the kitchen sink at original content for it, which should help keep them stable moving forward.
And on top of that, I don’t think it will. It’s crazy money, but there’s a lot of demand for it from everything that’s been reported
That's understandable, yet disappointing.
People keep saying the parks are suffering, but until I see attendance and hotel stays drop off, ima hold off. People don’t like the changes, that doesn’t mean they were the wrong ones
. For instance changing the way cell phones were “upgraded” was obscenely unpopular, but sales never decreased, and once people got used to it, they became accepting of it.
