The Disney Civil War nearly took out Bob Chapek. Nearly isn’t good enough and now it’s time for the embattled CEO to start cleaning house.
The last few months have not been kind to Bob Chapek. After hiring a public relations and government liaison to guide the company in Geoff Morrell, as well as setting up a plan to moderate the company away from hot potato sociopolitical issues, Chapek was blindsided by forces inside his company that wanted to derail him. Using the legislation in Florida as their weapon, those forces formed an organization known as Disney Walkout that then worked together with other entities associated with Reimagine Tomorrow and Disney’s HR department to allegedly trip up the company’s CEO and his plans. It seemingly worked. Within weeks, Chapek was forced to film an apology that has been compared to a hostage video while Geoff Morrell decided to leave the company of his own volition. The April efforts to moderate the company were so overthrown that the company spiraled into the farthest opposite direction.
But after a semi-solid earnings report in May, it appears CEO Bob Chapek is now ready to start chopping heads. And though you might have thought he would go after someone like Ton Newton first, that would not have been a good PR move on his part. It would have certainly seemed retaliatory and aimed at a minority woman. Instead, Chapek’s first person to take out is none other than one of the biggest big wigs at Disney… a man who hired several of the people we saw in the Reimagine Tomorrow videos that were so damaging out of Christopher Rufo’s reporting… and the man who is tied very strongly to the Walter Kaitz Foundation we have discussed before.
Bob Chapek took out Peter Rice, Chairman of Disney’s Entertainment and Programming. This is a HUGE firing.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
Sources say embattled Disney CEO Bob Chapek summoned Rice to his office Monday and relieved the former Fox exec of his duties. Rice’s top lieutenant, Dana Walden — who also made the move from Fox to Disney — will be taking over his responsibilities. Sources say Rice had multiple years left on his contract and will receive a rich payout.
According to sources inside Disney, Peter Rice has been one of the leading voices in pushing for a certain sociopolitical and cultural agenda within the Disney company. We knew something was up recently when Disney put in a reasonable and competent long-time Disney executive to work on government relations in a way that bypassed Peter Rice. We covered the very quiet Charissa Gilmore promotion weeks ago.
In April we also covered the connection between Peter Rice and the Walter Kaitz Foundation on which he served as a Board Member. This was a major way in which The Walt Disney Company’s financial interests were being allegedly subverted by a distinctly ideological push.
In reality, the organization has become something of a trailblazer in promoting identity groups over individuals. Not only does the organization promote diversity, equity, inclusion… but it goes so far as to advocate for “belonging”. That’s a new category you might not hear much about from other organizations and which borders on the edge of a religious or spiritual concept. For the WKF, it’s no longer just DEI, it’s DEIb. The organization advocates for an idea known as the “Renaissance of Identity”, or as I understand it, the reemergence of tribalist thinking over individual meritocracy. — Inside the Disney Civil War
I’m fairly certain that we’re literally the only news organization that covered Peter Rice, his connections with the Walter Kaitz Foundation and the Disney Civil War we alleged was happening behind the scenes against Bob Chapek. So again, if you’re reading That Park Place, you’re two months ahead of everybody else in regards to what’s really going on in entertainment news.
Cages have been rattled. https://t.co/fzvZ1p558y
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) June 9, 2022
Don’t be surprised if this isn’t the last big firing from Bob Chapek. It seems that he feels confident that his job is secure and now it’s time to start emptying out the bad actors at the company (in his opinion, not ours) who are potentially insubordinating the fiduciary goals of the company. He weathered the storm, he’s seeing Disney’s polling numbers plummet. Now, after people have gone on to talk about other things, it’s time to start taking out people who may not be very well-known to the average public, but who may have been behind much of what was going on. In the case of Disney Walkout and the intra-company protests against Bob Chapek, including allegedly having negative depictions of the CEO up at some of the entertainment studios, there’s really just one thing to say:
If you attempt a mutiny, you’d better hope you take out the captain. Otherwise, you may not be along for the ride much longer.
Was Peter Rice directly part of the efforts to damage Chapek? We don’t know. But if Chapek and the board will toss Rice over board, the people who are more easily identified as having been a part of it should maybe be gathering their belongings. Chapek’s revenge has just begun.
For all the news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let us know your thoughts!
Update 12:18 PM EST, 6/9/22:
The Board was in on it…
Disney's board backs Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek amid the firing of another top executive https://t.co/tWNPDGVh1x pic.twitter.com/mMrPZyYrqk
— WDWMAGIC.COM (@wdwmagic) June 9, 2022
From the article “This dismissal took place in a seven-minute meeting Monday evening, according to sources. Chapek told Rice that he was not a fit in “the new Disney culture,” to which Rice said words to the effect that he thought they were in the midst of building the new Disney culture. He asked in what way he did not fit and Chapek responded, “Now is not the time” and dismissed him.”
Rice came from Fox like a fox in the mouse house. So he was divisive and a trojan horse. It’s funny how the Hollywood Reporter knew exactly what was said in the 7 minute meeting. Sadly, he’ll get a big payout since Chapek renewed his contract for 2 more years. That’s what Chapek couldn’t predict so he’ll pay for more contract settlements to get rid of bad employees and executives.
Don’t think you understand how things work in Hollywood, if you want to get rid of someone you give that person a new contract. So that when you fire that person he gets a big payout and have an incentive to leave quietly.
Only a NDA will keep them quiet.
The NDA is the tool but, actually it’s the tax implications that keeps their mouth shut. When executives get that big pay out, Capitol Gains tax is immediately taken out and at his pay it’s 37% Federal (California tax’s probably takes that up to 50% +) If he were to break NDA, he’d have to pay back the entire thing (including the tax’ed portion which is in the millions)
This is why I still read here. I see the point of view and agree that Chapek was waiting for the storm to die down… it did and now he is moving again. I expect more heads to roll.
Very glad to have your readership. We can’t always break big news, but we work hard to keep you ahead of the game on what is going on behind the scenes.
Chapek’s position is secure. That’s the most important element revealed from the firing.
This the damn finally starting to crack so the Disney swamp can get drained?
I was going to quip “The Empire Strikes Back”, but then realized I’m not sure which side would count as the Empire, and which (if either) as the rebels.
What’s the difference? According to the sequel trilogy the Rebels are a bunch of crooks too.
Great article WDW Pro. Looking forward to watching you and Valiant Renegade discussing this.
Here’s that big culture war break we were all waiting for. Like Force 10 at Navarone.
It looks like civil war at Disney is effectively over now. Skynet lost the war and there’s no time machine to reset it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcTrxrkJFZU
He got Fired in a 7 minute, in person, meeting. That is as close to a **** you as you are going to see in corporate culture. Then to leak it to the trades before Rice has a chance to play clean up is just rubbing his nose in it. You can tell this was very personal.
Oh well, gratz to the Disney Walkout, you got the LGBT scene added back into Buzz Lightyear. When that movie bombs (and it will bomb) Bob will now have financial cause to award you all pink slips.
I wonder how much longer until Ton decides to “work full time on her jewelry business”?
I wish her all the luck in the world.
“You don’t gotta go home, but you better get the heck up outta here. Peace out!”
They should just have human resources call up all these not secret gay agenda executives and tell them to stay home with their families. Then revoke the relocation packages for Imagineers who don’t want to move to Florida and walked out of their offices. Goodbye.
I’ve had time to digest this news and while it’s a good first step, it’s still a first step. Chapek has a LOT of housecleaning to do if he wants to right the ship at Disney. It’s not just Disney’s management teams he has to clean up – it’s ESPN, it’s Marvel, it’s Pixar, it’s Lucasfilm, etc. But I guess “better late than never.”
WDW Pro, just read Dana Walden’s introductory message to the company and it sounds like she is planning to continue down the same path as her predecessor.
Is this lip service to the Disney wokers or has Chapek elevated the wrong person?
Check her contract length ;)