Today was Disney’s Annual Shareholders Meeting and it went on with its typical style. The key difference was the return of Disney CEO Bob Iger. Yet, this meeting hit all the beats. Proposals were proposed — and subsequently rejected. Then shareholder questions that range from good to mind-numbing were asked. Nothing too earth-shattering but there were some quotes and news nuggets that stood out.
The meeting started off with this fancy Disney100 sizzle reel. Let me tell you I’m a huge fan of that Captain America to The Mandalorian to Princess Leia speaking moment towards the end. Just a beautiful transition and I love all three of those moments and quotes separately but together it was epic. Find a way to put that section into a firework show, come on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-wzIQtnCQs
Bob Iger then decided to do his remarks from Walt Disney World. Which was a brilliant call, and made the remarks a bit more entertaining. Iger knows how to do this job and he does it well. I love that Disney focused heavily on the parks in today’s meeting. This seems a reverse from the past, where Disney+ was the only thing on the company’s mind. Iger talking about the Parks may also be used as a distraction from the streaming business in its current state.
‘Moana’ Is Becoming A Live-Action Film
Then what was probably the biggest news item to come out of the meeting was when Bob Iger turned his message over to The Rock for a Moana announcement. The Rock would then go on to announce that they are making a live-action reimagining of Moana.
The new film will be produced by The Rock, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia via their Seven Bucks Productions and Beau Flynn via Flynn Picture Co. Executive producers include Auli‘i Cravalho, who voiced Moana, and Scott Sheldon of Flynn Picture Co. Jared Bush (screenwriter of 2016’s Moana) and Dana Ledoux Miller are penning the screenplay.
“It’s still early,” said Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production (Disney Live Action), “but the idea of working with these fantastic partners to tell such a meaningful story on a live-action canvas, particularly as we celebrate 100 years of storytelling at Disney, is thrilling.”
Moana is a mega-hit on streaming and there is no wonder that Disney wants a Disney+ series, a live-action film, and more theme park experiences based on the IP. The announcement of the live-action Moana wasn’t on my radar but once again proves that Disney CEO Bob Iger always brings the news.
During Iger’s intro video, he stopped by Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana at EPCOT. He said the project marks the completion of Disney’s transformation of EPCOT. I truly hope that isn’t the case as EPCOT still needs plenty of work. Disney however may be satisfied with EPCOT’s aging experiences and may just lean into the fact that EPCOT is a festival-focused park.
Bob Iger opens up on Reedy Creek
Also, during the annual shareholders meeting, we finally got Iger’s thoughts on the whole Reedy Creek situation. Something that went down under his predecessor Bob Chapek.
Bob Iger said that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis retaliated against Disney and is trying to punish a company for exercising its constitutional right. Iger went on to say that DeSantis’ moves are anti-business and anti-Florida. It’s rare to see anyone from Disney comment on Reedy Creek but these Iger comments definitely shed some light on where his head is at in the whole situation. Iger also admitted during the meeting that the company could’ve handled the entire situation a bit better. Although I’m sure that part of the quote will remain overlooked.
Another question during the meeting was about Disney weighing in on certain issues, this comes in reaction to Disney’s response to The Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. Iger started off by saying that he doesn’t think Disney needs to weigh in on every issue, but he understands there are grey areas.
“There are times when we shouldn’t. We alone have to determine whether, and when we take a position on those matters there’s a true reason why we have. It directly affects our business or people,” says Iger. He then added what will help Disney make those decisions. “As long as I’m in the job we’ll be guided by a sense of decency and instinct and trust our instinct that when we weigh in the issue is truly relevant to us and the people we work with.”
Iger then addressed a question about Disney having an ideological agenda head-on:
“We’ve recently gotten criticism as you just expressed, for what some perceive to be agenda driven content. And I’m sensitive to that actually. Our primary mission needs to be to entertain and then, through our entertainment, to continue to have a positive impact on the world and I’m very serious about that. It should not be agenda driven. It should be entertainment driven. That should be the goal in all of our stories. And while I know we’re just never going to please everyone all the time, we should be sensitive to the fact that parents have different levels of comfort with the content that is delivered to their children. I want parents to be able to trust the content that we’re creating for their children. And we’re committed to delivering age-appropriate content for family audiences, while also telling stories that reflect the world around us and that foster a greater understanding, greater perspective, greater acceptance of all people. I just my hope that Disney continues to be a source of hope and optimism for the world. And we’re honored to actually carry forth Walt’s legacy of inspiring joy and wonder for everyone.”
Marvel Theme Park Rights?
In a shareholder question, Bob Iger was asked about Marvel theme park rights east of the Mississippi. As Universal Studios Orlando has the rights to the majority of the Marvel characters at their theme park. Disney has made amendments to the Universal deal before as they have recently opened Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.
Bob Iger’s response to the question is light but at the same time, it oddly gives me hope.
“We certainly would love to be able to do more with Marvel in our parks, but I’ll leave it at that.”
Iger and Disney would love to do more with Marvel in their parks. I’m assuming specifically Walt Disney World. Despite complications of the Universal deal, Disney has made an effort to add more Marvel attractions to its parks across the globe.
If Iger could somehow get Universal to let go of the Marvel theme park rights it would be a huge win for Walt Disney World. Or even if Iger could get Universal to play ball to let Disney build attractions and experiences around certain Marvel characters at Walt Disney World that would be cool too.
Walt Disney World’s 10-Year Investment…
This quote falls under the Reedy Creek section technically but I feel like it deserves its own spotlight.
Bob Iger said Disney is planning to invest $17 billion over the next ten years at Walt Disney World. The investment will end up creating 13,000 new jobs at Walt Disney World Resort and thousands of indirect jobs.
I get Iger was showcasing how pivotal Disney is to Florida but this is a pretty big news bomb. $17 billion in investment just in Walt Disney World is insane. In 2018, under Chapek’s leadership of Disney Parks & Resorts, the company planned on spending $24 billion across its six theme park resorts and its cruise line business in a five-year plan. So, a ten-year plan featuring $17 billion for just one resort is raising some eyebrows. Maybe it’s best to look at it like Walt Disney World will receive an investment of $8.5 billion over five years. That number is still staggering as well as that would result in eight Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge-type lands.
Granted, Iger could’ve been just defending his territory but there has to be some level of truth around the heavy investment into Walt Disney World. Maybe we will see some plans for how Disney intends to spend this proposed $17 billion at Destination D23 2023 and D23 Expo 2024.
Either way, this is a major story thread to follow.
Premier Passport is not coming back
Bob Iger crushed a shareholders’ dreams today as he revealed the Disney Premier Passport wouldn’t be returning. Iger said there wasn’t enough interest in the passport to justify its return. Although I have a sneaky suspicion this may be more about the logistic nightmare it would be with dealing with Disney annual passholders who could waltz into Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort at any time and take up reservations. It would take a lot of hoops to plan around.
I do believe there is interest in a pass like this. There are a group of Disney fans that would be interested in buying this pass and using it to its fullest potential. But at the end of the day, Disney would much rather you be a passholder at one resort and spend like a regular vacation guest at the other. It’s a smart business call.
My final thought after watching today’s meeting is that we need to get some different shareholders to ask some different questions. I usually love the sheer chaos of the shareholder Q&A but this year it almost felt too repetitive. I want to give props to the guy who snuck in the question about Marvel theme park rights. That was a legitimately good question. But some of these questions were wasted on shareholders who just had an axe to grind against Disney. Then our “final question” was from a shareholder who bizarrely didn’t even ask a question.
I get at this meeting we’re always going to get off-the-beaten-path questions but I’m hoping next year that we may get some people who used the opportunity a bit better, and ask questions that could end up giving us news.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
