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Tag: Walt Disney Co

  • Actors strike looms as midnight deadline approaches, union slams producers’ tactics

    Actors strike looms as midnight deadline approaches, union slams producers’ tactics

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    People carry signs as SAG-AFTRA members walk the picket line in solidarity with striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers outside Netflix offices on July 11, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. I

    Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Another strike is looming over Hollywood.

    If extended talks between the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers fail by midnight in Los Angeles, 160,000 actors will join already-striking writers on the picket lines on Thursday.

    Heading into negotiations last month, Hollywood’s talent was looking to improve wages, working conditions, and health and pension benefits, as well as create guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence in future television and film productions.

    The actors’ union agreed to a request from studios and streaming services on Tuesday to meet with federal mediators in one final push to reach a new contract deal, but members said they remain ready to walk off sets should negotiations fall through. The union has already granted one extension to its contract, which was originally set to expire July 1.

    SAG-AFTRA disputed reports that the AMPTP made the request for mediation after an emergency meeting Monday with several top Hollywood executives. The union said media reports were published before it was informed that producers were requesting mediation.

    “We will not be distracted from negotiating in good faith to secure a fair and just deal by the expiration of our agreement,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement Tuesday. “We are committed to the negotiating process and will explore and exhaust every possible opportunity to make a deal, however we are not confident that the employers have any intention of bargaining toward an agreement.”

    “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” SAG-AFTRA’s statement continued. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

    SAG-AFTRA’s comments come as damning reports have surfaced about tactics studio producers allegedly plan to implement against the currently striking Writers Guild of America — namely, that producers don’t plan on attempting to negotiate with writers for several months. According to the reports, producers expect that the underpaid workers will run out of money and possibly lose their homes and be forced to come to the bargaining table.

    Writers have been on strike for two months, leading a number of projects that did not have completed scripts to pause their productions.

    Already Netflix has postponed the production start of the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things,” Warner Bros. Discovery‘s “Game of Thrones” prequel “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” shuttered its writers room, and Disney and Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” and “Blade” have paused production.

    Some productions have been able to continue, albeit without writers on set, as their scripts were already completed. However, if SAG-AFTRA strikes, those shows and films will immediately stop shooting.

    Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

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  • We’re not giving up on this struggling entertainment stock. Here are our reasons

    We’re not giving up on this struggling entertainment stock. Here are our reasons

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  • 100 million Squishmallows sold in a year — How the toy sensation joined Warren Buffett’s conglomerate

    100 million Squishmallows sold in a year — How the toy sensation joined Warren Buffett’s conglomerate

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    An image of Warren Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway Shopping Day, May 5, 2023.

    Yun Li | CNBC

    Shrewd business legend Warren Buffett has a whimsical side, buying companies whose products he personally enjoys like Dairy Queen and See’s Candies. Now count plush toy phenomenon Squishmallows.

    Squishmallows made its Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting debut this year in Omaha, Nebraska, with shareholders snapping up 10,000 snuggly dolls in the span of hours, including ones modeled after the “Oracle of Omaha” and his longtime business partner Charlie Munger. Berkshire inherited Squishmallows parent Jazwares through its acquisition of Alleghany in the fourth quarter of 2022.

    Jazwares founder and president, Judd and Laura Zebersky, now report to and are in regular communication with Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman for non-insurance operations and Buffett’s successor. The South Florida-based couple, who are lawyers-turned-toy-entrepreneurs, said they are excited to be under the Berkshire umbrella and enjoy having the autonomy to run their own business.

    “It’s an amazing structure. We’re thrilled to be part of it,” Laura Zebersky said in an interview. “It’s better than we could have ever anticipated and being around the greatest leaders in the world is phenomenal, and being able to explore the synergies is also something we are interested in.”

    The 92-year-old Buffett sang Abel’s praises recently, saying he’s taken on most of the responsibilities. Abel has been overseeing a major portion of Berkshire’s sprawling empire, including energy, railroad and retail.

    While Buffett only got into Jazwares indirectly through Alleghany, he has shown the willingness to invest in far smaller businesses that don’t have the heft to move the needle in terms of Berkshire’s massive earnings and revenue. Often Buffett admires the business’ management and expects it to continue to grow and remain profitable.

    A whopping 100 million Squishmallow units — with prices ranging from $5 to $30 — were sold last year alone. Laura Zebersky said the pandemic turbocharged Squishmallows’ growth. Endorsements from celebrities from Kim Kardashian to Lady Gaga on TikTok also helped.

    “The idea of having something that was nurturing, cozy, cuddly, it was affordable and accessible. Instant gratification,” Zebersky said. “We really touch on all walks and areas. So it’s been really interesting to see that it’s not just kids, it’s adults. Our demographic is very wide and broad and it’s very unusual in our business to have that.”

    In April 2020, Jazwares bought toymaker Kellytoy, which created the Squishmallow brand in 2017.

    Not a flash in the pan

    In order to sustain the success of Squishmallows, Jazwares is conscious about oversaturation and tends to be very selective about partnerships, Zebersky said. The plush toy brand has driven 40% of Jazwares’ entire revenue for the past two years.

    “We’re on year six of the brand … it’s not a flash in the pan,” Zebersky said. “It’s growing smartly and sustainably. We make sure we limit the amount of production. We make sure that there’s something different for each channel of retail, that there’s collectability, that there’s unique styles, unique sizes.”

    Squishmallows recently announced a partnership with McDonald’s Happy Meal, which will roll across 70 different countries throughout 2023.

    Last month, Jazwares participated in VidCon in California, an annual convention for content creators and online brands. The company featured a pit stuffed with a sea of Squishmallows for visitors to jump into.

    “We don’t do traditional marketing. We are where our fans are. And a great example of that is VidCon, the largest gathering of influencers,” Zebersky said.

    Squishmallows is one of Jazwares’ fully owned intellectual property, but the company also sells products with licensed partnerships with Disney, WWE, Pokemon, etc.

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  • Indiana Jones hits theaters for one last adventure, but box office prospects look shaky

    Indiana Jones hits theaters for one last adventure, but box office prospects look shaky

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    It’s Harrison Ford’s final bow as the boulder-dodging, whip-wielding, Nazi-punching Indiana Jones.

    On Friday, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” arrives in theaters, marking the fifth and likely final chapter in the Lucasfilm movie franchise.

    Disney spared no expense in bringing the film to the big screen, starting with a nearly $300 million production budget. Factor in marketing costs, which are typically equal to half the production budget, and a swanky premiere and after-party at the Cannes Film Festival, and “Dial of Destiny” has quite a hole to dig itself out of.

    Box office analysts are predicting the film will capture between $60 million and $65 million during its first three days in theaters and around $90 million for the five-day holiday weekend. That would mark the latest mediocre opening in the summer blockbuster season, following disappointing bows for “The Flash,” “Elemental” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” earlier this month.

    It would also fall well short of the $100 million “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” secured during its first three days in theaters in 2008. Previous Indiana Jones installments, released in the 1980s, saw significantly lower box office openings because tickets were significantly less expensive at that time and the films were released in fewer theaters.

    For instance, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was released in more than 4,200 theaters, while 1989’s “The Last Crusade” was released in 2,300 cinemas, according to Comscore data. In 2023, blockbuster features are generally opening in 4,200 locations, with some films, such as Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3,” opening in as many as 4,450 locations.

    “Dial of Destiny” also marks the first time Steven Spielberg hasn’t directed an Indy movie, although the musical score was written by franchise stalwart John Williams. James Mangold, who helmed “Logan” and “Ford v Ferrari,” directed the new one.

    The sequel comes 15 years after the “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which ended up with a 77% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes but was widely panned by audiences. Despite a solid opening, the fourth Indiana Jones film tallied only $317 million domestically. It did manage to reach $786 million globally, according to data from Comscore.

    The lackluster audience response resulted in a pause in future films, including the potential for a spinoff featuring Shia LaBeouf as Indiana Jones’ son Mutt Williams. In 2012, Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, eventually taking the franchise away from its previous studio partner Paramount Pictures. Disney kept the character on ice while it worked on new Star Wars and Willow content — two other franchises that came from Lucasfilm.

    Now, in 2023, the fifth installment in the swashbuckling archaeologist’s movie adventures has generated a 66% “Fresh” score as of Thursday, with critics advising “Dial of Destiny” doesn’t quite capture the thrill of earlier adventures. Still, with Ford donning his iconic hat and whip combo, the film gives audiences a nostalgic rush.

    It’s unclear whether that will result in a ton of ticket sales, however.

    “The target audience of men over 35, who grew up on the entire series, will need to show up with their families and, perhaps, introduce the iconic character to their little ones who weren’t even around for the previous movie,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “The franchise has overcome stalled pop culture relevance before, but this time it also has to face that added challenge of winning back viewers who weren’t as keen on ‘Crystal Skull’ as they were for the original films.”

    Hollywood has had mixed results with nostalgia plays in recent years. While “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” captured healthy box office sales, others have floundered on the big screen. “Blade Runner 2049,” “Independence Day: Resurgence” and “Terminator Genisys” came up short with old fans and new audiences in North America.

    “Dial of Destiny” could benefit from audiences keen to see Ford, who will turn 81 next month, hang up his fedora and potentially even pass off the torch to a new generation.

    Even with tepid reviews heading into Friday’s release, Robbins notes that critics and audiences don’t always agree.

    “Indiana Jones’ nature as a traditionally less front-loaded franchise compared to the comic book blockbusters we’re used to seeing play with a short fuse also means a sizable portion of its audience could opt to see the film after the initial fan-driven previews and opening day,” he said.

    Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes.

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  • Big relief for our two bank stocks, but new worries about Disney shares

    Big relief for our two bank stocks, but new worries about Disney shares

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  • DeSantis asks federal judge to dismiss Disney suit, claiming broad immunity

    DeSantis asks federal judge to dismiss Disney suit, claiming broad immunity

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    Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a campaign rally on June 26, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas.

    Brandon Bell | Getty Images

    Attorneys for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday asked a federal court to dismiss Disney‘s political retaliation lawsuit, arguing that he and at least one other defendant are “immune” and that the company lacks standing to sue them.

    The attorneys also argued that Disney’s complaint — that DeSantis targeted the company after it denounced the controversial state classroom bill derided as “Don’t Say Gay” by critics — “fails to state a claim on which relief can be granted.”

    A spokesman for Disney did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the court filing.

    The governor’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit comes as he has leaned into his drawn-out battle with Disney while campaigning in the Republican presidential primary. The fight between DeSantis, the top GOP contender behind former President Donald Trump, and Disney, one of Florida’s top employers, has been brewing for well over a year.

    The 27-page motion to dismiss was filed by attorneys for DeSantis and Meredith Ivey, named as secretary for Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity.

    “Disney lacks standing to sue the Governor and Secretary, who are also immune from suit,” they argued in a filing in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee.

    The entertainment giant’s lawsuit centers on the special tax district encompassing Florida’s Walt Disney World, which for decades allowed the company to essentially self-govern its operations there. After Disney criticized the Republican-backed classroom bill, DeSantis and his allies moved to dissolve that special tax district.

    The area, formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was ultimately left intact, following fears that neighboring counties would be saddled with debt if the district was dissolved. But it was renamed as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and its five-member board was replaced with DeSantis’ preferred candidates.

    Disney struck development deals before those new board members took over. They accused the company of thwarting their power, and voted to void the contracts, prompting the company to sue.

    The governor’s attorneys argued in Monday’s filing that “any alleged injuries that might flow from” the clashes over the district and the contracts “are not traceable to the State Defendants, and enjoining the State Defendants would not provide Disney relief.”

    Days after Disney filed its First Amendment lawsuit in federal court, the DeSantis-appointed board counter-sued in state court. Disney filed a bid in May to dismiss that state-level suit.

    The board responded in opposition in a filing dated June 19, writing, “Disney’s motion is classic Imagineering, inviting the Court to make believe that reality is whatever Disney dreams up.”

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  • Legacy media companies enter dark times as failures mount and Netflix rises again

    Legacy media companies enter dark times as failures mount and Netflix rises again

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    Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, left; David Zaslav, CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery, center; and Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Paramount Global.

    Getty Images

    Companies and industries have ups and downs. The legacy media industry is in a valley.

    The first half of 2023 has been a colossal disappointment for media executives who wanted this year to be a rebound from a terrible 2022, when a slowdown in streaming subscribers cut valuations for Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global roughly in half.

    Instead, investors have once again become excited by Netflix’s future prospects as it’s cracked down on password sharing, potentially leading to tens of millions of new signups. Netflix shares have surged the past five months, outpacing the S&P 500.

    Meanwhile, the legacy players can’t get out of their own way.

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    Netflix vs the S&P 500 over the past five months.

    “When it rains it pours,” said LightShed media analyst Rich Greenfield. “It just keeps getting worse.”

    It’s been a bumpy ride for Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger since he returned to lead the company late last year. Disney recently finished laying off 7,000 employees. Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy stepped down last week. The company is pulling programming from its streaming services to save money. Its animation business is in a major rut, with its latest Pixar movie, “Elemental,” recording the lowest opening weekend gross for the studio since the original “Toy Story” premiered in 1995. Shares have struggled in the past five months.

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    Disney vs. the S&P 500 over the past five months.

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    Warner Bros. Discovery vs. the S&P 500 over the past five months.

    Paramount Global cut its dividend last quarter as streaming losses peak this year and a weak advertising market exacerbates a terminally ill cable network business. Wells Fargo released an analyst note Friday saying the bull case and the bear case for the company were the same: selling for parts. Warren Buffett, perhaps the most acclaimed investor in history, told CNBC that Paramount’s streaming offering “fundamentally is not that good of a business.”

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    Paramount Global vs the S&P 500 over the past five months.

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    Fox Corp. vs the S&P 500 over the past five months.

    NBCUniversal has weathered the storm the best, shielded by its parent company, Comcast, which gets its revenue from cable and wireless assets. It’s also taken advantage of missteps from the aforementioned. MSNBC became the No. 1 cable news network this month for the first time in 120 weeks, dethroning Fox News for a week amid coverage of former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment. Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is by far the biggest box office hit of the year, yet shares haven’t moved much.

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    Comcast vs the S&P 500 over the past five months.

    All of this is happening with an extended Hollywood writers’ strike going on in the background with no end in sight. The writers know the longer the strike lasts, the more pain will be inflicted on media companies, who will eventually run out of already-made scripted content. Zaslav recently gave a commencement address to Boston University and was drowned out by boos and chants of “pay your writers.”

    This week may bring even more bad news. Film and TV actors are set to join writers on strike unless they reach a deal with Hollywood studios by Friday.

    The beneficiary of Hollywood work shutdowns will likely be YouTube, TikTok, and Netflix, which continues to churn out international content that is unaffected by the strike, said Greenfield.

    Legacy media may get a small reprieve if advertising jumps back as the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign heats up. But there’s still scant evidence investors will reward media companies for simply cutting costs. There’s currently no strong growth narrative for legacy media, and consolidation prospects are murky as regulators block media-adjacent deals such as Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision and Penguin Random House’s proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster.

    The industry just wrapped up its annual advertising gala in Cannes, France. Legacy media executives still spent company dollars to make the trip to hang out on yachts and drink rosé. The backdrop was as beautiful as ever.

    But the landscape is bleak.

    Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of CNBC.

    WATCH: WPP CEO Mark Read on the state of the advertising market, from Cannes Lions 2023

    WPP CEO Mark Read on the state of the advertising market

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  • Warner Bros. needs to stop copying Disney and let its superheroes fly solo

    Warner Bros. needs to stop copying Disney and let its superheroes fly solo

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    Ezra Miller stars as Barry Allen in Warner Bros.’ “The Flash.”

    Warner Bros. Discovery

    “The Flash” is a flop. “Black Adam” was a bust. And does anyone remember “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”?

    DC Studios needs more than a hero, it needs a new strategy – something different than even its recently established reboot plan.

    DC and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, have Marvel Cinematic Universe envy. It’s easy to see why. The MCU’s movies, including ones that haven’t been released by Disney, have grossed about $30 billion worldwide since 2008. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has directed DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran to create their own shared universe involving iconic characters like Batman and Superman.

    The problem is, Warner Bros. and DC are already working through the tail end of a previous – and failed – attempt to tie their characters together through multiple films and shows. At the movies, DC’s Justice League just can’t measure up against Marvel’s Avengers.

    The likely answer to Warner Bros. and DC’s issues is right in front of them, though: Character-specific franchises that adhere to one filmmaker’s vision, not a TV-style writers room. Basically, let your heroes fly solo.

    It’s worked for DC properties before, even recently.

    Read more: Legacy media companies enter dark times as failures mount

    Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, which wrapped in 2012, was a well-reviewed box office juggernaut. And even though they were both connected to the prior attempt at creating a DC movie universe, 2017’s “Wonder Woman” and 2018’s “Aquaman” focused mainly on their title characters and racked up big bucks and accolades in the process.

    To put an even finer point on it, look no further than the financial and critical success of Todd Phillips’ “Joker” and Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” Neither movie is connected to an extended universe.

    “Joker,” released in 2019, grossed more than $1 billion worldwide despite being rated R, while racking up a best actor Oscar for star Joaquin Phoenix. Last year’s “The Batman,” starring Robert Pattinson as an early-career Caped Crusader, garnered around $750 million globally. Sequels to both movies are in the works.

    But so is “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” from “Flash” director Andy Muschietti. It will not star Pattinson and will instead serve as “the introduction of the DCU Batman,” according to Gunn. How many different Batmen does an already-superhero-saturated moviegoing audience need? Especially after “The Flash,” which featured four different Dark Knights from previous movies and shows.

    Fun vs. homework

    Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

    Disney

    Comic books were once a refuge from homework. Now, to keep up with everything going on in Disney’s MCU and Sony’s Spider-Verse, which is also connected to the MCU, you need to have watched pretty much everything that came before to get up to speed. That’s dozens of movies and shows, going back to the original Robert Downey Jr. “Iron Man.”

    “The Flash,” meanwhile, might be the most intense comic book movie pop quiz, even though DC’s cinematic universe has been all over the place. It’s jam-packed with cameos (some real, some CGI-generated) from past DC movies and shows, going all the way back to George Reeves’ black-and-white Superman.

    But in order to understand all the gags, you have to be really into this stuff. Unless you’re a big fan of “Clerks” director Kevin Smith – big enough of a fan to have watched his standup specials, that is – a “Flash” sequence involving a Nicolas Cage version of Superman fighting a giant spider might be lost on you. The movie’s punchline, involving George Clooney returning to the role of Bruce Wayne 26 years after the badly received “Batman and Robin,” is clearly geared toward Gen-Xers and older Millennials, not today’s younger audiences.

    Even the MCU model has tripped up at times. Disney CEO Bob Iger himself has suggested that the studio was going to the well too often with certain characters, after the fourth Thor film and third Ant-Man installment underwhelmed at the box office. That should be another warning sign for DC Studios.

    For his part, DC’s Gunn recently acknowledged that there are “too many” superhero movies and shows. If anyone can come up with a creative way to change course, it’s him.

    After working with schlock factory Troma Films early on, Gunn built a sturdy Hollywood career as a writer and director, alternating between R-rated flicks like “Slither” and stuff for general audiences, like his Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel and Disney. The third entry in that series snapped the MCU out of its mini funk. It’s so far the second-highest-grossing movie of 2023, behind Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

    And he already has a couple DC works on his resume: the 2020 movie “The Suicide Squad” and its 2022 companion series, “Peacemaker,” both of which won wide acclaim.

    Gunn is writing and directing “Superman: Legacy,” due in 2025. It’s intended to usher in the new DC shared universe. But there’s still time for him to reconsider his approach and let the Man of Steel – and all the other DC heroes – be super on their own.

    Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Universal and CNBC.

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  • ‘The Flash,’ ‘Elemental’ disappoint as ‘Spider-Verse’ continues box office domination

    ‘The Flash,’ ‘Elemental’ disappoint as ‘Spider-Verse’ continues box office domination

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    Ezra Miller stars as Barry Allen in Warner Bros.’ “The Flash.”

    Warner Bros. Discovery

    Moviegoers spread the wealth over Father’s Day weekend across a diverse slate of new releases and lingering favorites.

    The mixed results saw disappointing debuts from “The Flash” and “Elemental,” while “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” continued to attract ticket buyers.

    Warner Bros.’ latest superhero film hauled in just $55 million during its first three-day weekend, a far cry from the $75 million to $85 million industry experts had expected. It also fell short of the $67 million debut of fellow DC film “Black Adam” last October.

    “‘The Flash’ is a victim of numerous factors that stalled buzz for the once highly anticipated film,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.

    Robbins pointed to the ongoing controversy surrounding star Ezra Miller, a lack of consistency in the DC film franchise and a too-narrowly focused marketing campaign that only targeted die-hard fans for the lower-than-expected box office opening.

    “Audiences have shown in recent months and post-‘Endgame’ years that they are being more selective about which comic book films are going to earn their box office dollars,” he said.

    It wasn’t the only film to see a poor audience response over the weekend. Disney’s animation rut continued with the release of “Elemental,” which is expected to have the second-lowest opening of any wide-released Pixar film in the studio’s history. Estimates peg the film’s debut at $29.5 million, just higher than the $29.1 million “Toy Story,” Pixar’s first-ever theatrical release, which opened in 1995.

    “[‘Elemental’s’] middling debut is less surprising,” Robbins said, noting that Pixar is in the middle of rebranding itself following a slew of pandemic-era streaming releases.

    Pixar is also facing steep competition from rival animation studios. Universal’s Illumination and DreamWorks animation arms have dominated the box office with hits like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”

    And then there is Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which has continued to attract audiences since its June 2 debut. The film generated an estimated $27.8 million over the three-day spread and has tallied $489.3 million globally since its June 2 release.

    “Though there were no massive overperformances by the wide-release newcomers, this weekend was distinguished by the sheer number of movies and the wide variety of audience demographics drawn to the multiplex,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

    Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” added another $20 million domestically, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” secured another $11.6 million in ticket sales and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3” took in another $5 million.

    Across Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Father’s Day weekend, the domestic box office is expected to tally just under $175 million in receipts. That’s 5% higher than the haul over the same period in 2022 and 28% higher than 2019, according to data from Comscore.

    “Father’s Day weekend, while not boasting a record-smashing breakout hit, was a great one for movie theaters that saw their fortunes rise by virtue of an appealing assortment of films that powered a fantastic overall weekend,” said Dergarabedian.

    Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

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  • Disney CFO McCarthy to step down

    Disney CFO McCarthy to step down

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    Walt Disney Co. DIS on Thursday said its chief financial officer, Christine M. McCarthy, is stepping down and taking a family medical leave of absence. Kevin Lansberry, executive vice president and CFO of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, will serve as interim CFO, effective July 1. “Christine has served as a key strategic anchor during a period of great transformation, and she and I have discussed her desire to ensure an orderly and successful CFO succession in advance of the company’s transition to its next chief executive officer,” Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement. Disney shares were flat…

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  • Cramer says investors should buy this bank stock ‘aggressively’

    Cramer says investors should buy this bank stock ‘aggressively’

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  • Apple’s Vision Pro headset will launch with Disney+ streaming

    Apple’s Vision Pro headset will launch with Disney+ streaming

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    Bob Iger, CEO, Disney at Apple program

    Source: Apple

    The Walt Disney Company has always been at the forefront of new storytelling technology. On Monday, it announced a new partnership with Apple to bring its streaming service Disney+ to the tech giant’s new augmented reality headset.

    Dubbed Vision Pro, the headset will allow users to interact with digital content in mixed reality. It will retail for $3,499.

    Disney CEO Bob Iger said the new tech will enhance the Disney+ viewing experience, noting that when the headset launches early next year, users will be able to access the streaming service.

    “We’re constantly in search of new ways to entertain, inform and inspire our fans by combining extraordinary creativity with groundbreaking technology to create truly remarkable experiences,” Iger said during Apple’s WWDC 2023 keynote on Monday. “And we believe Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform that can make our vision a reality.”

    The demo reel for the collaboration between Disney and Apples included 3D visuals of a basketball court, showing how users could be immersed in sports contests from home, as well as immersive National Geographic content that placed the viewer in the middle of the ocean.

    “It will allow us to create deeply personal experiences that bring our fans closer to the characters they love,” Iger said. “This platform will allow us to bring Disney to our fans in ways that were previously impossible.”

    The sizzle reel also showcased Mickey Mouse springing to life in a living room, a fireworks show from Disney’s theme parks erupting in a kitchen and fans watching Star Wars content from a planet’s surface.

    “We’re so proud to yet again be partnering the greatest storytelling company in the world with the most innovative technology company in the world to bring you real life magic,” Iger said.

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  • Cramer: This is my game plan for the week ahead after Friday’s surprise rally

    Cramer: This is my game plan for the week ahead after Friday’s surprise rally

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    US President Joe Biden, accompanied by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, arrives for the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon on St. Patrick’s Day at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2023.

    Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

          

    What the heck really did happen on Friday, when the Dow jumped 700 points on a strong jobs reading? Why such a viscerally positive reaction to an employment number that was hotter than expected? Was it because wages didn’t spike? Was it all that perfect — a Goldilocks report?

    Here’s my take on Friday’s rally. Going into the debt ceiling crisis, there was a belief that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy couldn’t control his own Republican party. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer wasn’t much better off with the Democrats. Both had lost control of their parties to the extremists. That meant the United States would default on its debt. It seemed pretty logical.

    I truly believe the extremists never believed a default would mean more than a few weeks of setbacks and more brinkmanship. Who can blame them? President Joe Biden lamely floated that he could invoke the 14th Amendment to avoid this and any future debt limit fights; the amendment includes a clause that some legal scholars say overrides the statutory borrowing limit set by Congress.

    No matter what, it was pretty clear that chaos was our destiny. But when McCarthy and Biden agreed to temporarily suspend the debt ceiling and cap some federal spending in order to prevent a default, we got a deal that was even less contentious than the 2011 bargain. (The coming together brought to mind the legendary coalition of President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neil in the 1980s, memorialized in Chris Matthews’ “Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked.”)

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  • Walt Disney’s Pixar targets ‘Lightyear’ execs among 75 job cuts

    Walt Disney’s Pixar targets ‘Lightyear’ execs among 75 job cuts

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    In this photo illustration a Pixar Animation Studios logo is seen on a smartphone screen.

    Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Walt Disney‘s Pixar Animation Studios has eliminated 75 positions including those of two executives behind the box office disappointment “Lightyear,” sources said on Saturday, the first significant job cuts at the studio in a decade.

    The cuts included “Lightyear” director Angus MacLane, a 26-year animator who was part of the senior creative team on such acclaimed films as “Toy Story 4” and “Coco.” Galyn Susman, producer of “Lightyear,” also departed. Susman had been at Pixar since the release of the original “Toy Story” movie in 1995.

    MacLane and Susman could not be reached for comment. Michael Agulnek, Pixar’s vice president of worldwide publicity since 2015, was also laid off, the sources said. He did not return a call seeking comment.

    The cuts, which took place May 23, are part of Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger’s previously announced plan to eliminate 7,000 jobs and slash $5.5 billion in costs. That restructuring combined the film and television groups into a single Disney Entertainment unit and eliminated a division charged with distribution.

    While small compared to Pixar’s employee base of about 1,200, the layoffs are notable because the studio is a creative force generating franchises and characters that drive revenue across Disney.

    Pixar is famous for cinematic franchises including “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles” and “Cars.” But “Lightyear,” released a year ago with a reported budget of $200 million, brought in a modest $226.7 million in worldwide ticket sales and received a mixed critical reception.

    By contrast, Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” in 2018, which was reported to have had a similar production budget, had worldwide box office sales of $1.2 billion.

    “Lightyear” could not be shown in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries because of its depiction of a same-sex relationship. This had an impact on its box office performance.

    Disney has implemented layoffs in every division including film and television, streaming services and theme parks.

    The last time Pixar cut jobs was in 2013, after the studio postponed the release of the 2015 film “The Good Dinosaur,” and removed its director, Bob Peterson. About 30 positions were eliminated.

    Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 to revitalize its struggling Disney Animation.

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  • Elon Musk and Twitter face growing brand-safety concerns after execs depart

    Elon Musk and Twitter face growing brand-safety concerns after execs depart

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    Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, speaks with CNBC on May 16th, 2023.

    David A. Grogan | CNBC

    The sudden departure of Twitter executives tasked with content moderation and brand safety has left the company more vulnerable than ever to hate speech.

    On Thursday, Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, resigned from the company. Following Irwin’s departure, the company’s head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, reportedly left, as did Maie Aiyed, a program manager who worked on brand-safety partnerships.

    It’s been just over seven months since Elon Musk closed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, an investment that has so far been a giant money loser. Musk has dramatically downsized the company’s workforce and rolled back policies that restricted what kinds of content could circulate. In response, numerous brands suspended or decreased their advertising spending, as several civil rights groups have documented.

    Twitter, under Musk, is the fourth most-hated brand in the U.S., according to the 2023 Axios Harris reputation rankings.

    The controversy surrounding Musk’s control of Twitter continues to build.

    This week, Musk said that it’s not against Twitter’s terms of service to misgender trans people on the platform. He said doing so is merely “rude” but not illegal.” LGBTQ+ advocates and researchers dispute his position, claiming it invites bullying of trans people. On Friday, Musk encouraged his 141.8 million followers to watch a video, posted to Twitter, that was deemed transphobic by these groups.

    Numerous LGBTQ organizations expressed dismay to NBC News over Musk’s decision, saying the company’s new policies will lead to an uptick in anti-trans hate speech and online abuse.

    Although Musk recently hired former NBC Universal global advertising chief Linda Yaccarino to succeed him as CEO, it’s unclear how the new boss will assuage advertisers’ concerns regarding racist, antisemitic, transphobic and homophobic content in light of the recent departures and Musk’s ongoing role as majority owner and technology chief.

    Even before the latest high-profile exits, Musk had been reducing the number of workers tasked with safety and content moderation as part of the company’s widespread layoffs. He eliminated the entire artificial intelligence ethics team, which was responsible for ensuring that harmful content wasn’t being algorithmically recommended to users.

    Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has recently played down concerns about the prevalence of hate speech on Twitter. He claimed during a Wall Street Journal event that since he took over the company in October, hate speech on the platform has declined, and that Twitter has slashed “spam, scams and bots” by “at least 90%.”

    Experts and ad industry insiders told CNBC that there’s no evidence to support those claims. Some say Twitter is actively impeding independent researchers who are attempting to track such metrics.

    Twitter didn’t provide a comment for this story.

    The state of hate speech on Twitter

    In a paper published in April that will be presented at the upcoming International Conference on Web and Social Media in Cyprus, researchers from Oregon State, University of Southern California and other institutions showed that hate speech has increased since Musk bought Twitter.

    The authors wrote that the accounts known for posts containing hateful content and slurs targeting Blacks, Asians, LGTBQ groups and others increased such tweeting “dramatically following Musk’s takeover” and do not show signs of slowing down. They found that Twitter hasn’t made progress on bots, which have remained as prevalent and active on the social media platform as they were prior to Musk’s tenure.

    Musk previously indicated that Twitter’s recommendation algorithms surface less offensive content to people who don’t want to see it.

    Keith Burghardt, one of the authors of the paper and a computer scientist at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute, told CNBC that the deluge of hate speech and other explicit content correlates to the reduction of people working on trust and safety issues and the relaxed content-moderation policies.

    Musk also said at the WSJ event that “most advertisers” had come back to Twitter.

    Louis Jones, a longtime media and advertising executive who now works at the Brand Safety Institute, said it’s not clear how many advertisers have resumed spending but that “many advertisers remain on pause, as Twitter has limited reach compared to some other platforms.”

    Jones said many advertisers are waiting to see how levels of “toxicity” and hate speech on Twitter change as the site appears to slant toward more right-wing users and as the U.S. election season draws near. He said one big challenge for brands is that Musk and Twitter haven’t made clear what they count in their measurements assessing hate speech, spam, scams and bots.

    Researchers are calling on the billionaire Twitter owner to provide data to back up his recent claims.

    “More data is critical to really understand whether there is a continuous decrease in either hate speech or bots,” Burghardt said. “That again emphasizes the need for greater transparency and for academics to have freely available data.”

    Show us the data

    Getting that data is becoming harder.

    Twitter recently started charging companies for access to its application programing interface (API), which allows them to incorporate and analyze Twitter data. The lowest-paid tier costs $42,000 for 50 million tweets.

    Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate nonprofit, said that because researchers now have “to pay a fortune” to access the API, they’re having to rely on other potential routes to the data.

    “Twitter under Elon Musk has been more opaque,” Ahmed said.

    He added that Twitter’s search function is less effective than in the past and that view counts, as seen on certain tweets, can suddenly change, making them unstable to use.

    “We no longer have any confidence in the accuracy of the data,” Ahmed said.

    The CCDH analyzed a series of tweets from the beginning of 2022 through Feb. 28, 2023. It released a report in March analyzing over 1.7 million tweets collected using a data-scraping tool and Twitter’s search function and discovered that tweets mentioning the grooming narrative have risen 119% since Musk took over.

    That refers to “the false and hateful lie” that the LGBTQ+ community grooms children, according to the report. The CCDH report found that a small number of popular Twitter accounts like Libs of TikTok and Gays Against Groomers have been driving the “hateful ‘grooming’ narrative online.”

    The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, continues to find antisemitic posts on Twitter. The group recently conducted its 2023 study of digital terrorism and hate on social platforms and graded Twitter a D-, putting it on par with Russia’s VK as the worst in the world for large social networks.

    Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action agenda at the center, called on Musk to meet with him to discuss the rise of hate speech on Twitter. He said he has yet to receive a response.

    “They need to look at it seriously,” Cooper said. If they don’t, he said, lawmakers are going to be called upon to “do something about it.”

    WATCH: Elon Musk’s visit to China

    Elon Musk's visit to China shows how important the market is for Tesla, strategist says

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  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ surges at box office, bringing in $95.5 million

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ surges at box office, bringing in $95.5 million

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    Halle Bailey attends the Australian premiere of “The Little Mermaid” at State Theatre on May 22, 2023, in Sydney, Australia.

    Don Arnold | Wireimage | Getty Images

    “The Little Mermaid ” made moviegoers want to be under the sea on Memorial Day weekend.

    Disney’s live-action remake of its 1989 animated classic easily outswam the competition, bringing in $95.5 million on 4,320 screens in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.

    And Disney estimates the film starring Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as her sea witch nemesis Ursula will reach $117.5 million by the time the holiday is over. It ranks as the fifth-biggest Memorial Day weekend opening ever.

    It displaces “Fast X” in the top spot. The 10th installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise starring Vin Diesel has lagged behind more recent releases in the series, bringing in $23 million domestically for a two-week total of $108 million for Universal Pictures.

    In its fourth weekend, Disney and Marvel’s ” Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ” made an estimated $20 million in North America to take third place. It’s now made $299 million domestically.

    Fourth went to Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which keeps reaching new levels in its eighth weekend. Now available to rent on VOD, it still earned $6.3 million in theatres. Its cumulative total of $559 million makes Mario and Luigi the year’s biggest earners so far.

    Comics couldn’t stand up to Ariel as the week’s other new releases sank.

    “The Machine,” an action comedy starring stand—up comedian Bert Kreischer, finished fifth with $4.9 million domestically. And ” About My Father,” the broad comedy starring stand-up Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro, was sixth with $4.3 million.

    Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

    1. “The Little Mermaid,” $95.5 million.

    2. “Fast X,” $23 million.

    3. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” $20 million.

    4. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” $6.3 million.

    5. “The Machine,” $4.9 million.

    6. “About My Father,” $4.3 million.

    7. “Kandahar,” $2.4 million.

    8. “You Hurt My Feelings,” 1.4 million.

    9. “Evil Dead Rise,” $1 million.

    10. “Book Club, The Next Chapter,” $920,000.

    Disclosure: Comcast is parent of NBCUniversal, parent of Universal Pictures and CNBC.

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  • The No. 1 ‘underrated’ city in the world, according to 175 travel experts: It’s the ‘new hot city’

    The No. 1 ‘underrated’ city in the world, according to 175 travel experts: It’s the ‘new hot city’

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    New York, Paris and Tokyo may be on your travel bucket list, but there are plenty of cities that don’t get enough credit and are well worth a visit. Underrated cities have their benefits — they can often be less crowded, more affordable, and just as interesting.

    As a travel journalist for over 20 years, I recently asked 175 travel enthusiasts, experts and agents about what they think is the most underrated city to visit. The most popular answer was surprising: Bologna, Italy.

    “Bologna is very up-and-coming and poised to be the new hot Italian city to visit,” says Tom Marchant, founder of luxury traveling company Black Tomato. “And as the home of Bolognese pasta, it’s a foodie mecca.”

    Bologna: The new ‘hot’ city to visit

    Bologna’s many nicknames — La Rossa (the “Red,” for its red-tiled roofs), La Dotta (the “Learned,” for the ancient University of Bologna), and most famously, La Grassa (the “Fat,” for its rich cuisine) — explain the best parts of the city.

    Street in Bologna with Asinelli tower in the center

    Alexander Spatari

    Here are the top three reasons to put Bologna on your travel list this year:

    1. The food scene is unparalleled.

    “[Bologna] quite possibly has the best food scene in all of Italy,” says Jeff Miller, a travel blogger at Our Passion for Travel.

    Food lovers can explore the city’s open-air markets and hidden pastifici (pasta shops) and visit the restaurants that created favorites like pasta Bolognese and Tortellini.

    You can also spend a day at FICO Eataly World (a.k.a. the “Disney World of food”), Bologna’s 20-acre theme park entirely dedicated to Italian cuisine.

    Bologna’s food markets often tumble into the streets. Produce, cheese and wine from local farmers can be bought around the city.

    Gary Yeowell | Stone | Getty Images

    Or, take a day trip to the Emilia-Romagna region, where Italian gastronomy was born.

    “Bologna has great access to Modena and Parma, both with famous products [like Modena prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano] named after them,” says David Hawkraven, owner of Designed Travel.

    Hawkraven often sends travelers to local farms, where they can taste Modena prosciutto — which is rarely found in the U.S. — or learn about the delicate process behind authentic balsamic vinegar.

    2. Its architecture and history rival other Italian cities.

    Bologna is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its 38.5 miles of porticoes, or arched walkways.

    It’s also home to 24 medieval stone towers, including Bologna’s most iconic landmark, the Two Towers.

    The porticoes of Bologna are often covered in decorative tiles or paintings.

    Julian Elliott Photography | Stone | Getty Images

    Travel writer Ann-Marie Cahill says climbing the Asinelli Tower, one of the Two Towers that’s open to the public, is exactly where history buffs should start.

    She also suggests visiting the unfinished San Petronio Basilica and touring the Roman ruins that run under Bologna’s library (you can also look at them through the library’s glass floors).

    3. It’s convenient and accessible.

    Bologna is “entirely walkable,” according to Marchant, which will save you the cost of a car rental. If you want public transit options, there is a city bus with tickets starting at just 1.30€.

    Marchant says locals are friendly, and the city is generally safe, making it a comfortable vacation spot. And the average hotel room costs under $200 per night for eight months out of the year, according to travel search engine KAYAK.

    Located in Northern Italy, it is convenient to travel from Bologna to other Italian hot spots. It’s only about 70 miles from Florence, 95 miles from Venice and 135 miles from Milan.

    Still, the city is a destination all on its own.

    Don’t miss:

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  • Paramount streaming service to merge with Showtime on June 27

    Paramount streaming service to merge with Showtime on June 27

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    Tom Ryan, CEO and President of Paramount Streaming, speaks during the LG press conference ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 4, 2023.

    Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

    Paramount Global‘s flagship streaming service Paramount+ will combine with its Showtime app in the U.S. on June 27, the company said Monday.

    With the newly merged streamer will come an increase in pricing, as Paramount had announced earlier this year. The Paramount+ with Showtime premium tier will increase to $11.99 from $9.99, while the Paramount+ option without Showtime content will increase by $1 to $5.99.

    The integration goes beyond Paramount’s streaming options. The premium cable-TV network, known for series like “Yellowjackets” and “Billions,” will also be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime, and the company will also sunset the standalone Showtime app by the end of the year.

    Once integrated, the Showtime TV network will also feature content from Paramount+, which has produced original series that spun off from popular franchises like “Yellowstone” and “Criminal Minds.” Showtime is an extra subscription fee on the pay-TV bundle.

    Paramount has said it expects peak losses for its fledgling streaming service Paramount+ this year.

    The combined platforms will also help cut down on content spending, which has been a recent focus for media companies as they look to make streaming profitable.

    Warner Bros. Discovery has been cutting costs since completing its merger. The company is also launching Max on Tuesday, the combination of HBO Max and Discovery+. However, Discovery+ will also remain as a standalone service.

    Disney announced this year it would cut $5.5 billion in costs, including $3 billion on the content said. Last week, CEO Bob Iger said Disney would add Hulu content to its Disney+ platform, a move toward a one-app experience for consumers and to streamline business for advertisers. The company will also focus on adding more ad-supported customers, and plans to increase its ad-free streaming prices later this year.

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  • Disney is about to face its ‘biggest decision yet’ over ESPN’s future

    Disney is about to face its ‘biggest decision yet’ over ESPN’s future

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    Walt Disney Co. is about to face “perhaps its biggest decision yet” as it charts a future for ESPN, and the path forward initially may be a rocky one, according to an analyst.

    Macquarie’s Tim Nollen downgraded Disney shares
    DIS,
    -2.57%
    to neutral from outperform Friday, writing that Disney faces a tricky balance as it tries to set up ESPN for the new reality of media. The downgrade comes after The Wall Street Journal reported a day earlier that Disney was “actively preparing” for a future in which it would offer the flagship ESPN service as a stand-alone streaming service.

    “Doing so is inevitable, and it’s hard to see how it will be smooth: steep losses assumed in the pay TV bundle will have to be offset by strong subscriber sign-ups at a presumed high price, and before Disney even gets there it has to negotiate terms with pay TV operators on content, and with the leagues on costs for streaming rights,” Nollen wrote.

    Disney already offers the ESPN+ streaming service, but that doesn’t include access to the flagship programming that airs through the traditional cable channel.

    Nollen expects that Disney ultimately succeeds with the transition of core ESPN to streaming, though it might require at least a year or two of pain in the interim.

    He has concerns about other factors that could weigh on Disney shares as well. For one, the company is making progress in stemming operating losses for its streaming business, but he thinks that “prior guidance of DTC [direct-to-consumer] attaining profitability during FY’24 may now be off the table.”

    See also: Disney scraps plans on roughly $1 billion investment at new corporate campus in Florida 

    Nollen flagged that Disney now looks more likely to buy out Comcast Corp.’s one-third stake in Hulu to take full ownership of the service. That development, which is expected to take place early next year, “along with a slower pace of sub adds (Disney+ may actually lose subs for the 3rd straight quarter in [the fiscal third quarter]) may factor in to extended DTC operating losses beyond [fiscal 2024],” Nollen wrote.

    He further noted that growth for Disney’s parks business “is set to slow from here, removing a recent support.”

    Disney shares are off more than 2% in afternoon trading Friday.

    Also on MarketWatch: Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser experience is closing — here’s what to know if you booked a trip

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  • Disney scraps plans for new Florida campus, mass employee relocation amid DeSantis feud

    Disney scraps plans for new Florida campus, mass employee relocation amid DeSantis feud

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    Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World.

    Roberto Machado Noa | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Disney has abandoned plans to open up a new employee campus in Lake Nona, Florida, amid rising tensions with the state’s governor.

    Citing “changing business conditions” and the return of CEO Bob Iger, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, penned a memo to employees Thursday, announcing that the company will not move forward with construction of the campus and will no longer be asking more than 2,000 California-based employees to relocate to Florida.

    “This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one,” D’Amaro told employees.

    Many Disney employees balked at the company’s relocation plans when they were first announced in July 2021 by former CEO Bob Chapek. While some left the company, or transitioned to other posts within Disney that would not require a move to Florida, others held out hope that the plan would fizzle out after a postponement. The campus was originally slated to open in 2022-2023, but was later delayed to 2026.

    Disney is headquartered in Burbank, California, but operates a number of satellite offices across the country and the world.

    D’Amaro said employees who have already moved to Florida may be able to relocate back to California.

    “It is clear to me that the power of this brand comes from our incredible people, and we are committed to handling this change with care and compassion,” he said.

    Disney’s announcement comes amid a bitter feud between the company and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The company filed a lawsuit accusing DeSantis and the new board members of its special district of carrying out a campaign of political retribution against the entertainment giant.

    DeSantis targeted Disney’s special district, formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, after the company publicly criticized a controversial Florida bill — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics — that limits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.

    The special district has allowed the entertainment giant to effectively self-govern its Orlando parks’ operations for decades. The district was ultimately left intact, but its five-member board was replaced with DeSantis picks and renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

    Disney filed its suit in late April after the new board voted to undo development contracts that the company said it struck to secure its investments. The company has since updated that lawsuit to include newly passed legislation targeting its monorail system as further evidence of retaliation by the governor.

    Iger has publicly lambasted DeSantis and the Florida government, noting that Disney has created thousands of indirect jobs, brings around 50 million visitors to Florida every year and is the state’s largest taxpayer.

    In a statement later Thursday, representatives for DeSantis called the decision to nix the Lake Nona campus “unsurprising.”

    “Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition,” DeSantis’ office said in the statement.

    D’Amaro reiterated in his memo that the company still plans to invest $17 billion in Florida over the next 10 years, including the addition of around 13,000 jobs. The company currently employs more than 75,000 people in the state.

    Disney declined to provide specific updates on that investment, but has previously announced plans to update park attractions, expand existing parks and add more cruise ships to its fleet in Florida.

    “I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business,” D’Amaro told employees.

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