[Image source: Jeffkravitz/Filmmagic Celebrity Photo Gallery transferred from Getty Pictures]
When Bob Iger saw the vastness of his territory, he choked up, and there was no place for me to conquer anymore. (Parody of Alexander the Great) At least that's what ordinary people like me think. After all, during the years when Egger led Disney, he showed alexander-like ambitions to expand his territory and build empires. On February 25, US time, Egger suddenly announced that he would resign as CEO, which surprised people. After 15 years of acquisition frenzy, disney at the helm merged with Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. Now, the veteran, who rewrote Disney's history, is one step closer to retirement, nearly two years ahead of what he had previously anticipated. Another Bob — Bob Chapek — took over the role, joining Disney in 1993 and has been fighting to this day, succeeding Egger as chairman of the park, experience and products. Egger himself will remain on the board until December 2021, saying he "will spend as much time as possible on the company's creative work." Mr. Egger's departure marked the end of an era of phenomenal growth in which Disney stockpiled the best IPs in the world, spawned a wave of imitators [you, Justice League] and industry consolidation, and quadrupled its market capitalization. For better or worse, the landscape of the entertainment industry has since been completely changed. When Egger stepped into the leadership position at Disney, the company was in the midst of a period of retirement and repair. In the 1990s, Disney's dominance in animated films began to recover, with blockbusters such as beauty and the beast, aladdin and the lion king being released. However, in the mid-2000s, with the rapid development of Pixar's cg (computer graphics) technology, 2D animation has become less popular, and cartoons such as "Chicken Little", "Home on the Range" and "Brother Bear" have not been able to continue Disney's glorious legends of the 90s. While a few live-action movies have been all the rage, such as 2005's "The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," overall, times are changing, but Disney hasn't.
Until Mr. Egger succeeded his predecessor, Michael Eisner.
From Avengers: Infinity War [Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios]
Hollywood's top IP is in the pocket
In 2006, Iger's Disney company bought Pixar for $7.4 billion (but worth the money), embodying the "if you can't beat them, buy them" model. Through the deal, Disney benefited from the animation giant's grand record, and Pixar's leadership reinvigorated Walt Disney Animation, propelling it to a successful record. Disney has created a large number of well-received and culturally influential blockbusters, such as Frozen, Wreck-it Ralph and Zootopia, none of which rely on existing well-known IPs or mergers and acquisitions by parent companies. Then, Disney bought Marvel in 2009 for $4 billion. It was a prescient move, after all, Marvel Studios was the only one that Could Have Produced at the time of 2008's Iron Man. At the time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just a kevin feige's inner hope, and no one could guarantee that the Avengers movie series would become an enduring phenomenon. But Egger clearly saw Fitch's potential and the value of these potential works. Later, Marvel produced 23 high-acclaimed films without a single failure, which proved not only Feige's foresight, but also Egger's management ability. (Egger says he will be largely focused on creating before his contract expires in 2021.) In 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm for another $4 billion, expanding Disney's interest in the Star Wars franchise from theme parks to the big screen. The acquisition had a preliminary effect, and audiences were once again looking forward to the new Star Wars game, especially after the disappointing prequel trilogy. However, the effort to create a new trilogy and its spin-off story eventually turned into a classic example of a lot of bad people, and the director and screenwriter were hired and hyped, resulting in a lack of cohesion in the entire team. While the box office performance was outstanding [except for Solo] and Rise of Skywalker, the new trilogy was brought to a successful conclusion, but the universe of this epic movie series has been severely reduced to survive on disney streaming platforms for the time being, and die-hard fans can't help but cry out in disappointment. And who will lead the future of "Star Wars" is not a clear answer. In 2019, Egger's Hollywood roundabout tactics finally came to the final step, Disney's biggest acquisition to date: media mogul Rupert Murdoch's entertainment assets, including the historic 20th Century Fox Studios, Fox Searchlight, fx television network, National Geographic Channel and Hulu Video Network, were pocketed by him for a total of $71.3 billion. It's too early to evaluate the outcome of the acquisition, but many of the things Disney has taken over have been disappointing. As a result, Mr. Egger said, future films from former Fox will be limited to "avatar," "planet of the apes," "x-men" and "deadpool," while "home alone," "night at the museum" and "diary of a wimpy." kid) and other minor series will be downgraded to the Disney+ streaming platform. Of course, this is not to weaken the importance of streaming video, after all, Egger still has to rely on it to compete with Netflix. Disney's streaming service has attracted 28.6 million paying subscribers, and Fox's classic animated film The Simpsons is one reason. Meanwhile, FX will join hulu video network next month, so that Disney will occupy a beachhead for adults in the streaming war. Looking back on the past, it is indeed a series of achievements. Bob Egger basically did well at Disney. Last year alone, the company's films grossed an extremely high of $13 billion worldwide, including seven billion-dollar films.
From The Mandalorian [Image: disney+]
The cost of empire building is geometric
But at what cost all this success, aside from the multibillion-dollar purchase price?
While Pixar still has the ability to build original winners like Inside Out and Coco, under Disney's management, the studio released only seven sequels from 11 movies in the 2010s. These films are all profitable, but "Cars 3" has not grown creatively, and there is little disagreement about this. Disney also tarnished the Pixar brand to some extent, launching a spin-off of "Cars" called Planes, an extra overkill that was even more excessive than the sequel to Cars. (Pixar later announced that it would stop making a sequel.) Disney's efforts to bring in other studios paved the way for AT&T's merger with Time Warner and NBC Universal Comcast. The number of large film companies is decreasing. Disney stripped Fox's name from its new IP, like tearing down a statue of the leader of a defeated country, and it used Fox searchlight advertising slogans more to direct content to hulu than to create original movies. From Marvel, Star Wars, rampant integration, to the emergence of so-called "live-action" remakes entirely synthesized by digital technology, the entertainment sector has become a battleground for finding the latest connected universes or existing IP content. Under Egger's leadership, Disney made an unparalleled "tremendous contribution" to the homogenization of the film experience. Jon Favreau is the brand's epitome, having directed "live-action" remakes of the influential first Marvel Universe movies Such as Iron Man, The Jungle Book and The Lion King, as well as Disney+'s new show Mandalorian. He is a talented all-round filmmaker who is the perfect embodiment of Disney's future. The problem is that not everything can or should be fully developed. Has Disney tried to focus on one direction? In "The Ride of a Lifetime," Egger writes that his predecessor, Michael Eisner, had long ago had the idea of buying Marvel, but later gave up because he thought the company was "too avant-garde." Today, Disney has made a lot of money with Marvel, and it's clear that its target audience is receptive to a certain level of edgy. Disney's portfolio has been so diverse, but some of its work remains "too avant-garde" in the eyes of the general public, such as the TV series "Love, Simon," which it plans to adapt based on the LGBT teen movie of the same name. Consumers are increasingly inclined to niche entertainment, and this kind of content may not meet the full range of requirements. Disney is not at risk of dying, but like when Egger succeeded Eisner 15 years ago, it would be better if Disney realized that it was time to re-adapt to the times.
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