Dana Walden is responsible for Disney’s franchise and broadcast accounting

“What now?” The first question that arises is between cause and effect. It’s the exact question Disney employees are asking behind the hallowed walls of the Magic Kingdom. It’s an unknown gap that gnaws at the reassurance-seeking minds of Hollywood audiences. In the digital world, Disney shares are driven by steel and wood roller coasters.

Bob Iger will hand over the reins of The Walt Disney Company to Parks & Experiences chief Josh D’Amaro next month. We saw this coming. In 2023, Disney announced a A $60 billion investment in Parks and Experiences over 10 years. D’Amaro’s division recently topped $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time and accounts for 60 percent of Disney’s profits.

The content may no longer be a good approximation of today’s diverse issues. But content still drives Disney’s popular flywheel. Consumers like to go to parks because it is an extension of their favorite characters: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Avatar Flight of Passage, etc. That’s why Disney Entertainment co-chairman and TV head honcho Dana Walden rose to become Disney’s first president and chief artistic officer.

Walden’s promotion is right in line with all the latest in Hollywood the appointment of veteran television executives to oversee all content. At a time when Kathleen Kennedy is out of the top spot at Lucasfilm, Kevin Feige feels as invincible as he once did, Pixar is trying to regain its status, and Walden will now be more than the Chairman of the content of Disney Studios and the head of the film unit Alan Bergman, the future of Disney is as attractive as ever in the 21st century.

The film is the basis for launching multimedia franchises that are bred to be milked every last time. Disney is responsible for four of the top 10 films on Greenlight Analytics’ “Theatrical Purpose” list over the past five years. It may be an unusual stage for Walden. But you can tell stories, and live streaming is a needle mover with long-term economic impact, even if it will never be seen as something good and respectable.

Here when “what now?” the question begins to sprout threads. Disney’s future won’t depend solely on who makes the opening remarks on its quarterly earnings calls. Instead, its prospects will rise and fall on the kinds of stories it chooses to tell and how it creates value from them beyond the screen.

The acquisition of Warner Bros he tried and failed to become a one stop shop for Netflix competitors. Now here is Disney—the cleanest and most understandable brand in Hollywood history—struggling in mainstream entertainment after investing tens of billions in it. Walden’s content record throughout his time at Fox and Disney is very impressive. 24, Modern Family, American Horror Story, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, 9-1-1, Say It, Only Killers in the Building, Paradise, The Bearetc. These hits sell ad time and chew up engagement. But, as many have already shown, they don’t encourage park rides and merchandising (although now I can’t stop thinking about Carmy Berzatto attraction where park guests share cigarettes and panic attacks in a dirty kitchen). Hulu is good at airing long-running sitcoms and procedurals from broadcast television, but it hasn’t been able to produce high-quality versions of them. Its inclusion in Disney + speaks volumes for its growing strategic value.

Disney is in a difficult position as a media company that forwards the franchise that we have in opposition you have invested too much money in non-basic fares to go back now. Fox, Hulu and sports have been significant loss leaders, debt-laden albatross, or something in between, depending on who you ask.

If D’Amaro revisits Iger 2.0’s early Sun Valley comments to entertain the idea of ​​selling the brand that doesn’t highlight the Disney halo effect, where does that leave the Disney content engines? The same question is compelling if he doesn’t. As sports media rights trampoline into more expensive territory, scripted content will continue to lose airtime.

That speaks to the continuing problem of broadcasting. Is Walden’s juice time spent on Disney’s streaming platforms, which has he sat down for almost two years? Back in the heyday of cable, the Disney Channel would deliver a handful of modestly budgeted blockbuster movies each year that became bona fide heirlooms. Why and how is this the model is discarded in favor of streaming the most expensive special films is a mystery to me. (Although Interest again Zombies movies that seem to be doing well).

Disney announced a $1.5 billion investment Fortnite maker Epic Games back in 2024, though no major film/TV projects are coming from it. D’Amaro oversees video games, and Walden has the creative chops to spin something new out of something old. Video games have replaced superheroes as Hollywood’s shiny new funnel for blockbuster IP, requiring a bold move into this arena soon.

What matters is that Sonic (and so on Call of Duty), Warner Bros Minecraft movie again The Last of UsUniversal has a the new Nintendo universeSony has a new Zach Cregger Resident Evil movie, and Netflix has been dabbling in video game spaces for a while. Despite the rumors that have been prevalent over the years, a Kingdom Hearts the video game adaptation never made it to Disney’s screens. That game already has a successful roadmap, a built-in fan base, and an unstoppable ambition. It’s the kind of shiny, universal Disney project that blurs the difference between modernity and recycling. It’s nothing, and it’s a worthy attempt to expand beyond superheroes. (The the same thinking goes for animealthough there are low floors and ceilings for now.)

We know that it is always very important to own the IP fully in-house. But it is not always true. The best of Disney+ Bluey licensed (with a film adaptation in the works), and more recently Disney I got the Impossible Creatures a series of books. Continuing to look to the market for strategically aligned opportunities to add new toys to the sandbox is a feasible (and necessary) approach. It sets a new tone for a new era.

And this wouldn’t be Disney without going back to the source of success at least once. Encanto is the most popular broadcast film of all time in the US, according to Nielsen data. Its muted box office was a result of a depressed theater market place due to COVID, not an indictment of its quality. The overall audience response made that clear.

Flashing a sequel just wouldn’t be a safe, house-style move. It would be a sign that Walden and his team understand the importance of early storytelling, acquisition and franchise expansion. In a company stuck in the drag of the past, Encanto sits at the intersection of fully owned IP, broadcast-era audience reach, the power of multimedia franchises and risk versus security.

The next season of Disney is already underway. The outcome depends on its ability to move beyond its usual way of doing things to cultivate new and existing issues while recognizing when—and how—they really strike.