Disney Has Brand CANCER | A Company Analysis

Disney had a very bad year, but it's problems run much deeper than that. Let's look at some symptoms and recommend a course of treatment.

0:49 One Bad Year Isn't The Problem
4:27 Symptoms of Low Trust Levels
5:35 TV Show Viewership
7:54 Park Attendance
10:56 Wish
12:32 Stock Price
14:57 What's The Cause?
15:46 Movie Laziness
17:12 Bad Writing
20:22 Not Family Friendly
26:57 What's The Solution?

[jljl]

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish should be required watching for all Disney writers. It's the Humbled-Hero arc done correctly and with respect.

[stackels]

I went from being a massive Disney Adult nerd to wanting absolutely nothing to do with any of it. It's actually heartbreaking. Disney basically raised me and I don't even recognise it anymore.

[Merchantic]

Joker: Burns a giant pile of money -> says its about sending a message.
Hollywood: Burns giant piles of money -> says its about sending a message.

Coincidence? I think not

[DSzaks]

As an actual cancer survivor, my cancer cells are deeply offended that you would compare them to the monstrosity that is modern Disney. Or they would be if they were still alive. So I will be offended on their behalf instead!

[toddsalisbury]

I wish i could do a shit job for a year straight, lose the confidence of my clients and then write off a billion in losses and be fine. Lifes just bit tougher for us poors

[SusieQ]

When we had our 3rd kid, we got an RV. Now that we're about to have our 5th kid, we're resolved that places like national parks are a much better vacation option than a Disney park.

Not only can we comfortably house and reasonably feed our family without having to sacrifice one of our kids as a down payment, we can be reasonably sure they're not going to encounter anything that will rot their brain or screw them up for years to come.

We also got rid of Disney+ several years ago, and haven't gone to any of their movies in theaters since the snap.

[geishasha]

If anybody is wondering, Greg earned his medical degree on Udemy and is actually qualified to talk about brand cancer. Personally I think Disney's DEI tumor is so large that removing it will kill the patient. Disneyland Paris is good though, as it's really easy to get drunk there.

[joshualieberman]

The problem with the parks is they have become SO reliant on the entertainment side of things that every failure is a problem. When EPCOT was about introducing you to the culture of the countries or showing you really innovative technology then you can keep coming back to see that. When they actually taught you how to make movies at the Studios then you would come back because you might catch them animating their next movie (I saw them drawing Lion King). That is amazing and a must see. Watching them push their most recent movie is not a reason to pay inflated prices year after year.

[elusivemayfly]

Disney went from subtly shaping culture through storytelling to becoming ham-fisted moral arbiters. That feeling isn’t in everything they make, but it’s in enough.

[chica]

Disney is not making anything worth rewatching. They haven’t been for years. They also started to take loyal canvases extremely for granted and just assumed ppl would show up bc STAR WARS! 🙄 In short, Disney convinced themselves that their poop don’t stink.

[stevenschultz]

Their customers were parents but they thought their customers were children. A classic blunder.

[gbalfour]

I can say iger is a bad business man with a straight face. That time he was “doing good” was the company running itself. In good times you can get a potted plant to run a company, in bad times (like what Disney is in now, due to Iger incompetence) is where your skills as a ceo and business man shine; and right now Igers skills shine as bright as a black hole.
All the people what are causing Disney problems were hired under Iger, and Disney is a large enough company that it would take several years to start seeing any issues.
He is a terrible business man, full stop.

[normsti]

Greg, you rarely disappoint and this is no exception. You went into data we hardly see and put it into a solid conclusion, Brand Damage is real and will impact future Disney.

[BennysGamingAttic]

I don't like cancer. I wouldn't wish it on anyone... but if Disney has cancer, then so be it.

[crazy_pyromaniac]

When it comes to Marvel, I remember hearing people say “what did you think about the new Marvel movie?” all the time. Now, I haven’t heard anyone ask me what I think about Ant Man Quantumania.

[jaydeeao]

Man, every time I see or hear anything about Wish all I can think of is how much of a better movie it would have been if they kept the idea of the movie being an origin story of the song "When you wish upon on a star". Imagine that being the Anniversary movie instead of what we got.

Granted, it would still have to be written well, which I'm not sure they could do, but I can't help but think on how much of a missed opportunity it was.

[Theobuomai]

You might appreciate the article recently in the Atlantic, "Why Activism Leads to So Much Bad Writing, " by George Packer. The gist he argues is that activism has to simplify human complexity and experience, but stories are precisely about engaging that messiness honestly and coming out of it with a meaningful truth:

"When artists turn to activism or introduce politics into a work of art, it’s usually taken as something virtuous, an act of conscience on behalf of justice. But artistic and political values are not the same; in some ways they’re opposed, and mixing them can corrupt both. Politics is almost never a choice between good and evil but rather between two evils, and anyone who engages in political action will end up with dirty hands, distorting the truth if not peddling propaganda; WHEREAS an artist has to aspire to an INTELECTUAL and EMOTIONAL HONESTY that will drive creative work away from any political line. Art that tries to give political satisfaction is unlikely to be very good as either politics or art...

...[such activist] fiction fails the main task of art...because it DENIES human complexity and insists that our “categorization alone” is real."

[EK]

Something to add--parents go on date nights, and my wife and I don't go to Disney movies anymore. So not only are the families not going, but neither are the parents when they have free time. Also, very timely video given Carano's wrongful termination lawsuit. Finally, I second the All-In podcast--they cover a wide swath of issues from different viewpoints.

[xyzculture]

Losing billions is a new trend in hollywood💀💀

[ColinFox]

A key metric for me regarding movie enjoyability is: What quotable lines, or memorable moments, were there? Ask about any of the big movies of the past, and there will be lots to talk about. But modern movies are bland lectures on some societal subset's demands, not actual storytelling. Ask someone what bits they liked in Snatch, or Deadpool, or Singing in the Rain. Now ask them what bits they liked about The Marvels.