Many people are frustrated with Bob Chapek, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Retired Imagineers are petitioning that he be removed from his position. A Change.org petition has more than 30,000 votes in favor of Chapek leaving. The Bob Iger power players, along with Pixar and Lucasfilm employees, have had knives out to the point their have been essentially hit pieces in the trade publications. The new Genie+ pay-to-ride system that turns FastPass into a nickel-and-dime DLC concept has alienated customers to the point that discounts are being handed out to UK travelers just to lure them back. Chapek very nearly lost the Russo Brothers who directed the record-smashing Endgame and Civil War movies for Marvel. Disney+ subscriber numbers have stagnated, leaving Disney with half of Netflix’s total, and causing Disney’s unprecedented stock growth to halt.
And yet Bob Chapek is still CEO with no end in sight.
How?
No matter what you may think about Chapek’s decision-making process or the changes he has brought to the various parts of The Walt Disney Company, it must be recognized that the man has proven far better at managing his success than anyone could have guessed. Stumbling out of the Disney Parks role he held before CEO, he had presided over some questionable moves within the themed resorts. One of his biggest projects, Galaxy’s Edge (Star Wars Land), had shown itself to be far less popular than most would have predicted. Disneyland Resort actually saw decreased attendance after huge injections of capital expenditures to widen its paths, increase its capacity, and bring in a Star Wars addition that was sure to sell huge amounts of tickets. Even to this day, Star Wars Galaxy Starcruiser hotel is struggling to fill reservations.
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But part of what has made Chapek so successful as CEO is one part extreme luck and one part the ability to push his capacity to the very edge.
In the case of luck, Bob Chapek was really supposed to be the fall guy for Robert Iger. Iger had made some calls that were catching up with the company. The multi-billion dollar investment in China, Shanghai Disneyland, had caused Disney to be stuck with risky real estate venture in a country that could take it all away at a moment’s notice. Even up until last winter, Disney was allegedly looking for a way to sell parts of their Shanghai Disneyland business so that they could maintain standards and IP, but diminish their risk of losing the real assets in a political kerfuffle. Iger was also heading into a pandemic with some serious vulnerabilities for the company, not the least being that both Marvel and Star Wars film franchises seemed to be heading for headwinds.
For Bob Chapek, however, good fortune was definitely on his side. For one, the pandemic meant that Disney+ exploded in popularity due in large part to The Mandalorian. Almost none of what Disney+ accomplished in its first year was a result of Chapek, yet he was the unexpected beneficiary. Even while the parks were shuttered and cruises were docked, Disney continued to rake in cash via a brand new revenue source. And for Bob Chapek, that meant it was time to go all in on Disney+.
If not for the early days of Disney+, Chapek’s goose would already be cooked. But it has not been all luck that has kept a purely numbers guy in charge of a largely artistic international corporation. Bob Chapek has demonstrated an uncanny ability to push things right to the breaking limit and then pull back quietly to the most lucrative position for him maintaining power and Disney making money. There are many examples of this, but one that is most recent (and receiving little press coverage) is his quiet mea culpa when it comes to Scarlett Johansson.
Back when Black Widow released to theaters and streaming, the ultra-popular actress claimed that she was being cut out of rightful proceeds due to the movie coming out on streaming simultaneous to a box office release. In response, Disney literally attacked the actress’ character, calling her lawsuit immoral and unethical. With other actors also concerned about being cut out of future profits, the Disney strategy sent ripples throughout the film industry. But then, once Disney and Bob Chapek had shown extreme muscle, there was work behind the scenes to quietly settle with Johansson — a strategy that turns out to have worked. It kept people like the Russo brothers and Kevin Feige from jumping ship, but also allowed Chapek to demonstrate that he is fully in control. Then Chapek showed that he is daft at the business of managing celebrties: not only did he settle quietly with Johansson out of the press, but he also brought her back into the fold.
https://www.koimoi.com/hollywood-news/scarlett-johanssons-disney-comeback-movie-tower-of-terror-to-have-thor-ragnarok-director-taika-waititi-helm-it/
By giving Johansson her own movie, complete with the star power of Taika Waititi helming it, Chapek dangled the cheese that mends fences in Hollywood.
Power.
Scarlett Johansson gets to keep her settlement quiet, keeps her pride by claiming that low Black Widow revenues weren’t her fault, but Chapek gets to maintain complete and utter control. And so while power is the currency, Bob Chapek keeps all his power, all the chips. He knew how to push so hard that it caused relationships to fray, gasps to be verbalized in print, but then how to pull back to a position that allows him to win while the opposite side keeps their dignity in tact. And in that way, Bob Chapek is very Trumpian in his business strategy.
So will Chapek continue to grow his power inside the halls of Burbank? I suppose it all depends on Disney stock. But his adversaries should take notice of his impressive abilities. You may hate Genie+ and its monetization of queue lines at Disney World (I hate it), but Bob Chapek may again be pushing consumers right to the very edge — not beyond. You may hate that Kathleen Kennedy appears to be keeping her job at Lucasfilm, but note that she’s also very rarely making any appearances or even receiving a press release about her potential extension. Again, Chapek seems to be utilizing a strategy of pushing things as far as he can without stepping over the revolt/mutiny line.
Does it mean that Chapek is a genius or a great CEO? No. But it means he is a formidable head of a company. So before anyone should think he will be toppled via a petition, perhaps consider that the man knows how to pull off a mea culpa without losing a darn thing.