The truth will out tomorrow. Or, at the very least, a part of it will.
The Walt Disney Company will be discussing its first-quarter earnings results for the financial year 2023 tomorrow, and the call will reveal much about the current goings on of the Mouse House. Disney has had a tumultuous last few months. The company was in more trouble than it cared to admit. As Disney Fanatics know, on November 20, 2022, Disney finally called a spade a spade and ousted the controversial former Disney CEO, Bob Chapek. But whether the return of current CEO Bob Iger is everything Disney hoped it would be, is slowly going to be revealed.
In the last earnings call, it was evident that trouble was brewing for the Mouse House. Even though the numbers demonstrated in no uncertain terms that the Disney Parks sector was doing well, there was much trouble with other sectors of the company, namely streaming and Disney+. (This was likely part of the reason that played into Kareem Daniel’s exit as well.)
In the reorganization that has followed, as reported by Business Insider, Bob Iger has been behaving… differently.
Current Disney CEO Bob Iger and former Disney CEO Bob Chapek/Courtesy of Disney
The article shared that in a letter to shareholders on Thursday, February 2, 2023,
The Disney board wrote that it is “overseeing important strategic changes that our CEO Bob Iger is executing, such as putting more decision-making into the creative teams, implementing a cost reduction plan, prioritizing streaming profitability and improving the guest experience in our parks.”
However, the midst of this has also seen Bob Iger putting his head to the ground and simply working. As Insider shared, “Friends who’ve been accustomed to seeing the Disney CEO on the LA lunch circuit said he’s been largely absent from the scene since returning to Burbank headquarters on November 21, and industry executives and investors who are used to check-ins from “Big Bob” say he’s been mute.
The silence from Bob Iger has made many Disney executives nervous, including senior ones. What many know to expect from the Walt Disney Company are severe cost-cutting measures, but this might also result in thousands losing their jobs to make up for “content losses” and “severance packages.”
Relevant to our Disney Fanatics, though, is what does this silence mean for the Parks? Both the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort have seen massive increases in ticket prices, and many fans now believe a Park visit has become far too complicated by the process of booking tickets, using the Disney Genie suite with Genie+ and Lightning Lane and more.
Of course, the Parks are just one of the many issues Iger will have to address. Disney is currently facing pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, from “progressives who want him to stay true to the cause and conservatives who think the company is too woke,” from “unions and customers who feel the product had gotten too expensive” and along with this, “he’s under pressure from his own balance sheet” from his purchase of Fox.
Read More: Anxiety, $19 Billion Debt and an Eye for Talent
February 8 will certainly be an essential day for Disney. The question is, has Bob Iger worked the magic he was brought back to, and does Disney have a chance at seeing its next centennial?
Stay tuned to Disney Fanatic for all the latest Disney news!
