EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate is also having its employees return to the office for four days a week, Monday-Thursday, with Friday being a work day from home. This is according to sources.
23.12.2022 - 18:43 / deadline.com
In about 698 days, the Walt Disney Company is supposed to have its fourth CEO in three years.
Optimistically presuming that past and current House of Mouse boss Bob Iger really does hand over the keys to the Magic Kingdom in late 2024 to a designated successor, the soon-to-be 100-year-old media giant may look very different than it does now — as could the contracting industry overall.
It’s a reality in a self-described “age of great anxiety” that Iger himself is markedly responsible for in many ways, but rarely is held accountable for.
“Iger gets a lot of praise as an executive, a lot of it well deserved,” noted an agency captain of the Disney vet, who returned on November 20 to the CEO job he handed to Bob Chapek less than two years ago. “But one of his greatest accomplishments may be sidestepping his missteps. The billions in debt that came with the Fox purchase, going all in on streaming, hemorrhaging TV and ESPN viewership, and the succession fiascos alone would have killed any other CEO.” Lauded by some as the man in the center of the room where it happens, in a nod to his beloved Hamilton, one studio insider added of Iger: “He’s teflon like Reagan, but left a lot of mess over the years for others to clean up like (Bill) Clinton.”
Still, eulogized and feted by fellow grand viziers both during his previous stint running Disney and during his short-lived but socially-crammed retirement, Iger will wake up on Christmas morning facing a new year likely full of economic austerity and hard choices as the company and the entertainment business heads deeper into choppy waters.
Perhaps in his sleep, Iger will have heard whispers from ghosts like one-time heir presumptive Tom Staggs, real life successor Chapek, and Apple
EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate is also having its employees return to the office for four days a week, Monday-Thursday, with Friday being a work day from home. This is according to sources.
Disney’s newly returned CEO Bob Iger said employees currently working a hybrid schedule will be asked to spend four days a week on-site as of March 1, targeting Monday through Thursday as in-person workdays, saying it’s his “belief that working together more in-person will benefit the Company’s creativity, culture, and our employees’ careers.”
Given the steep downturn in Amazon’s stock price and stiff operational challenges ahead, could Jeff Bezos pull a Bob Iger and return as the company’s CEO?
Don’t say Disney isn’t a practitioner of theatrical windows: Their $821M-plus grossing Marvel Studios hit Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will finally land on Disney on Feb. 1, 82 days after its U.S. theatrical release. The movie opened on Nov. 11 to a stateside gross of $181.3M, $331.6M WW.
ABC News will pay tribute to legendary journalist Barbara Walters in two specials over this holiday weekend – Our Barbara: A Special Edition of 20/20 on ABC and The View Honors Barbara Walters on ABC News Live.
Paying respects to a legend. Celebrities mourned the loss of legendary journalist Barbara Walters after her death at the age of 93.
I have sad news to share today. Barbara Walters passed away this evening at her home in New York.
Hollywood is on edge. There have been corporate layoffs, with fears of more to come after January 1.
Kate Middleton has paid a touching tribute to the late Queen in her Christmas carol service.
A bittersweet season. Princess Kate paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II with a special holiday message, revealing what the late monarch loved the most about Christmas.
Kate Garraway told Good Morning Britain viewers she faced 'another crisis' and had to make a trip to hospital.
The stuntman son of the man who Nissa Diederich took over from at 20th Television last year is suing the EVP and the Walt Disney Company for retaliation and putting him on a career killing blacklist.
The fate of ESPN, Disney’s prize asset and a reliable generator of cash flow even in uncertain times, remains the subject of vigorous debate in industry and finance circles.
EXCLUSIVE: In October, Breaking Glass Pictures acquired Mario Martone’s Nostalgia, Italy’s entry for the Best International Feature Oscar for North America, and today we have a first look at the official trailer (check it out above).
Pretty in purple! Princess Kate and sister Pippa Middleton donned strikingly similar wine-colored coats while attending the royal’s annual holiday concert at Westminster Abbey.
Apple Original Films announced the theatrical release of a new sing-along version of holiday musical comedy Spirited starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds and Octavia Spencer in 100+ U.S. theaters starting this Friday, Dec. 16.
Steve Martin and Martin Short breathed some life back into Saturday Night Live.
The holiday spirit – at least the kind measured at the box office – seemed to arrive on Broadway last week, for some shows anyway. Obvious case in point: A Christmas Carol, starring Jefferson Mays in his tour de force as every last ghost, miser and Cratchit in the story, was up a bountiful 34% in receipts, taking in $742,010 and filling 83% of seats at the Nederlander.
And so it begins. Thirteen years after the first Avatar arrived in movie theaters, conquered and continued to conquer the global box office as the highest release of all-time with $2.9 billion worldwide, Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the James Cameron directed 3x Oscar winning 3D sci-fi movie arrives with a global outlook of $525M in what is Disney’s widest global release ever at 52K screens, surpassing Avengers: Endgame.
Two years ago, Bob Iger pointed to the rafters and said, the future of our business is on streaming and Disney+. By then, everyone had a streaming service or one in the works, and it ushered in the age of #TooMuchContent.