A Tough Year And A Rough Road Ahead For Disney Studio: A Commentary

 

Photo / Gif: The Daily Beast

The Mouse House (Govt Name: Disney) has had a rough year. Between fighting with Florida Governor Ron DeathSatan DeSantis, the WGA-SAG-AFTRA strike, and disappointing box office results for their movies - it's been a trail of mouse droppings for the company. The box office disappointments for 2023 include the live action remake of Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and Dial for Dollars Dial of Destiny, Antman & The Wasp: Quantumania, and Haunted Mansion. Like other studios, Disney has over played its hand and reliance on tent pole franchises and remakes. 

Disney announced they're pushing back the release of Snow White and Magazine Dreams “until further notice”. Two other untitled Pixar movies and a few other live-action remakes (Tarzan, Princess and the Frog to name a few) that were under development have been cancelled. They blame the SAG-AFTRA strike. No doubt that's a major reason but IMO, there are other underlying issues plaguing the company.

The company has been dealing with criticism for a few years due to self-made issues along with being on the receiving end when an actor's personal life spills over, tarnishing their brand. The self-made issues include price increases to their parks and streaming TV channels. It now costs over $194 / per person, per day to visit Disney California. It's drawn the ire of their loyal fans. Over the past 24 months, they’ve had two price increases to their streaming channels. Ouch. And, as mentioned above, their over reliance on remakes, prequels, and sequels of franchises. The movie audience is fatigued. Creativity and originality is out.  Making movies has become a lazy, predictable assembly line. 

     

The other issue are actors. Problematic actors are nothing new in the film industry. But it’s an issue for the very image conscious Disney. When an actor’s personal behavior spills over to their business, it puts a dent on a company whose image is at the core of their survival because their brand has been meshed in our culture. I will be focusing on recent a few recent examples. 

 

Johnny Depp, as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of Caribbean franchise, made billions for the company. His off-screen bad behavior has been known for decades. Things came to boiling point last year in the messy divorce with Amber Heard trial.  Domestic violence, drugs, drinking, out of control spending, and other inappropriate behavior came to surface during the trial. The company went into damage control by cutting ties with the actor and distancing itself as far away as possible to protect their brand.

Johnny Depp. Photo: Stephanie Cardinale / Corbis / Getty Images //Parade.com

This past year, Disney had to deal with the fallout of the live action remake of Snow White and its star Rachel Zegler. When she was doing media interviews to early-promote the movie, she decided to take it upon herself to go scorch-earth on the beloved fairy tale by referring to it as "creepy". She also decided that Snow White should be a feminist warrior by injecting her own views of what the character should represent. This was a clear failure on the part of Disney and Rachel's agency to manage their talent when doing press junkets. In an article by NBC News:

"In a sound bite that has gone viral, Zegler suggested scenes featuring her co-star Andrew Burnap, who plays Prince Charming, could be cut from the film. In another sound bite that has become the center of discourse, Zegler described her version of Snow White as a leader who doesn’t need a prince to save her." 

The debacle between Rachel's disdain for the original material combined with the firestorm of social judgment our culture is living under these days turned into a nightmare for Disney. I’m not getting into the replacement of the 7 dwarfs with magical creatures that became another mess for studio.

Rachel Zegler. Photo: Chris Pizzello / Invision/ AP News / LA Times

Things for Disney continued to go from bad to worse. They delayed "until further notice" the release of Magazine Dreams, starting Jonathan Majors, because of disturbing allegations against the actor. Jonathan was on the fast track to fame with his roles in Loki, Antman and The Wasp, and Creed III. He was poised to be a leading actor. But this past year, NYC police arrested him for assaulting and choking his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. Jonathan denied doing anything wrong and tried to have the case dismissed to no avail. 

Jonathan Majors. Photo: IG / Wilson Morales film

Since then, a police report filed in London in 2022 has been discovered which implicates the actor in another domestic assault case. Several weeks ago, two directors came forward calling Jonathan, "emotionally violent, professionally abusive" (Vox.com). There are also reports that "multiple victims are coming forward in wake of the most recent incident and are working with the district attorney". (Vox.com).  As a result of these allegations and other reports now coming out about his past violent behavior while a student at Yale, Jonathan was dropped by his agency. Once again, Disney found itself in damage control. Who knows when the movie will be released.  

So where does this leave Disney Studio?  In the same predicament many studios have been dealing with for years – except other studios are not defined by their brand. The average person has no idea what Sony Studios, Paramount, or Columbia Pictures corporate image / branding is. Nor do they care. But they know Disney. 

Should Disney protect its brand or its business?  That's what Disney needs to figure out.