Where the money goes

[Another Voice]

Not that I mean to cause trouble around here…

I was just catching up on some industry news and couldn’t let this one pass by. I just thought people would like to know where all that money being saved at WDW is going.

Today’s ‘Variety’ says that Rob Schneider (last seen in this summer’s ‘The Animal’) has just been signed for several million dollars to appear in “The Hot Chick”, a new comedy movie being produced by Disney. The plot is listed as “a popular but mean-spirited teenage girl wakes up one day to find that she looks like a 30-year-old man”.

I hope that the warmth and joy that this film will bring to the millions of people who are bound to see it will make up for all the cuts in park hours, closed attractions, unemployed cast members, dirty hotel rooms and canceled plans.

...it’s all a matter of priorities.

 

[Kotar]

Well said AV.

Boy I know I can hardly wait for that TRAIN WRECK, I mean movie, to come out. It sounds like another stellar, tons of money-grossing film. Who'd of thought that Disney could put out another crappy live-action movie.
I'm sure all of the people who've been recently released form Disney will take comfort knowing that all the cutbacks are being put to great use.

 

[TXDeb]

Gee y'all are not being very loyal to poor, poor Disney since they are hurting so badly since 9/11.

 

[alice-d]

Think about the plot line of that movie-mean spirited and negative teen- as a mother of a teenage girl it just warms the cockles of my heart. As the father of two girls I'm sure Walt would have really wanted money to be spent on this film in his anniversery year. This complaining is not just about the loss of services in the Parks due to the economy or whatever current excuse the company wants to use. It is about the loss of the Disney spirit in the company.
Disney lost money this year and needs to cut costs. Look at the Disney channel on cable, back in the 80's it was a great family channel with made for Disney shows like Avonlea and Great Expectations, now it is non-stop constant reruns of third rate ABC sitcoms. (The running joke in our house is calling Disney the Boy Meets World Channel.) These cuts in WDW are probably happening due to the faliure of a badly concieved theme park DCA and a deterioration of Disney's animation product, Atlantis being the latest and worst in that failed product line. When an animation film busts so do the related merchandise and pull of chracters into the theme parks. Right now I think Pixar is keeping this part of Disney a float.
Ask yourself this question before sacrificing for Disney-How much are the Disney Execs getting paid per year? How much of a reduction in pay and benifits have the Execs agreed to take? Or are the current Disney Execs and bean counters just bleeding a cash cow dry? That is what it smells like.
If you want Disney to be the company it once was, if you want Disney to survive to be there for the next generation, then it must be saved from the cutting block of bad business decisions. This won't happen by silently accepting the bean counters nickle and diming Disney to death, but through concerned complaints. This isn't just about EE's during our vacations, this is about Disney going back to values in production of product. Going back to the quality in attractions, television, films and animation. Going back to the belief that MORE IS NOT BETTER, BETTER QUALITY IS BETTER. The message we need to send as concerned consumers is this -DISNEY, GO BACK TO BEING DISNEY. If this does not happen, then Disney really will be no more.

 

[TXDeb]

Exactly, alice-d! I agree wholeheartedly!!!

 

[YoHo]

Well, I've enjoyed some of Rob Schneider's work, so this could be an okay movie. The plot doesn't actually sound horrid.

Certainly this is no summer blockbuster film that will save the company.

 

[Sarangel]

Also, from an accounting point of view, the 'saved' money from the theme parks stays in the theme park division and has *nothing* to do with money spent on studio films (regardless of which studio is doing the film & I'll bet money this is Hollywood Pictures or Touchstone, not Disney). Each division has to keep its revenue & expenses seperate, ortherwise we'll never know what makes a profit & what doesn't.

Sarangel

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Each division has to keep its revenue & expenses separate, otherwise we'll never know what makes a profit & what doesn't.

Then how can you explain the phenomenon we've seen in recent years, suggesting that the theme parks have been bailing out the rest of the company's failed or under performing ventures?

 

[YoHo]

Landbaron, that's for when the numbers are reported to Wall Street. (I would think)

Plus, I think most of that money gets diverted to ABC.

 

[Another Voice]

From Burbank’s point of view, it’s all just one big pot o’money. Accounting keeps track of who makes it but it all goes into the “joint checking account” in the end. Each division is given a goal for the year based on total Corporate goal. Read the last dozen or so quarterly reports and count the number of times where “increased attendance and per guest spending” in Attractions has offset some decline in Film or Networks or Products. The Company has very elaborate mechanisms for moving cash around the entire enterprise. Guess where all that cash spent by the late Internet group came from (hint: it wasn’t those profits from ‘102 Dalmatians’).

Attractions is under pressure to keep to its numbers because all the other divisions have done so poorly. The parks have kept the Corporate bottom line afloat for a long time and will have to do so for the foreseeable future. If the Film group weren’t going to drop $40 million on “Chick”, Attractions could lower it’s goal by the same amount and not have to make so many cutbacks. Again, it’s all a matter of priorities.

P.S. Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures really aren’t different companies. They’re more akin to different brand names for Disney than anything else.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Landbaron, that's for when the numbers are reported to Wall Street. (I would think)

You got that one right!! So, let's follow it. AV clearly thinks this venture is a waste of money. So, let's play along a moment. Let's say the movie tanks. And that particular division is in the hole. Do the books show that? NO!!! The parks cover the gap and all is well with The Street!!

Plus, I think most of that money gets diverted to ABC.

Hmmm. Used to be their DOT.COM venture. I wonder what it'll be next year. The film division perhaps?

 

[TXDeb]

There is just something that is really bothering me about all of this.

By all accounts, WDW had a banner year in 2000. I understand that profits were up by quite a lot.
So, what happened to all those profits?
Usually, a really good year can help see you through a bad one, at least for awhile.

Why are things so bad that they require so many cut-backs, if last year was so good?

I know that attendance was down before 9/11, and that it was really depressed in September.
I understand that much of the attendance now, may be from locals, although I do hear that there are several people from the UK there.

Have all the profits from 2000 been eaten up so that there is nothing to see them through this rough time, and allow them to offer a few incentives to get people back in the resorts and parks? If so, where did all the money go? - not back into new rides or rehabs of the old ones. I can't think of anywhere that record profits may have been spent that actually shows, unless they were diverted to other ventures.

Were 2000 profits over reported?
Can anyone help me sort this out?

 

[YoHo]

Disney Internet Group

Dinosaur

Pearl Harbor

Emperor's new groove

Atlantis.

That's where the money went.

The Theme Parks had good years. The company as a whole did not.

 

[TXDeb]

YoHo,
That is what I had thought was the case, but Sarangel's post stating that each division kept its revenue separate stumped me for a moment. I was thinking that if they were truly separate, then the parks should not have been affected by the losses in those other areas.

Thanks!

 

[JeffJewell]

WDW could do enough to cause you to sell your DVC and stop going...do these changes reach that level? If so, why? If not, why?

...but at this point, seeing as how he's already bought the ticket, I could certainly understand a Strangelovian Slim Pickens of a Landbaron, yawping, waving his hat, and enjoying the ride, even though he's known for a while where all this would likely lead.

Jeff

PS: When noting that theme parks as a whole did pretty well, don't forget that Animal Kingdom has not exactly been turning them away at the doors, and that the entire lifespan of Disney's California Adventure has been nothing but repeated kicks to profitablility's crotch.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

… But, Jeff!! You did it again. It sums things up nicely, and I LOVE the imagery!! YEE-HA!!!!

I can't speak for the 'baron...

...but at this point, seeing as how he's already bought the ticket, I could certainly understand a Strangelovian Slim Pickens of a Landbaron, yawping, waving his hat, and enjoying the ride, even though he's known for a while where all this would likely lead.

The only other thing I would add is that if the current negativity keeps up and, more importantly, people start voting with their pocketbooks instead of polls on the DIS, then a change in administration may no longer be my private little pipe dream! Now, we may not be any better off, but you never know! We might get lucky and someone who actually 'gets it' may be anointed 'head mouse'! One can only hope.

If not, check out E-Bay for 280 points at Old Key West - CHEAP!!

 

[YoHo]

How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ei$ner?