We’re getting info on the salaries for both Bob Chapek and Bob Iger for the year 2021 with The Walt Disney Company. For Chapek, this salary begins his journey as the CEO; for Iger, it is his farewell package. According to the Hollywood Reporter:
Chapek’s compensation package for the year totaled $32.46 million, compared with $14.1 million in the previous year, which reflected the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and was the first in which Chapek led the company after his elevation in February 2020.
Iger’s compensation in his last year with the company totaled $45.9 million, compared with $21 million in the previous fiscal year, $47.5 million the year before that and $65.6 million in fiscal 2018, which was boosted by a stock package that he was awarded as an incentive to remain with the company past his originally planned retirement date.
For comparison, even in the height of the booming economy of 2019, the CEO of Viacom, Robert Bakish, made only about $24 million dollars. Mickey Mouse must be paying out serious cheddar!
Controversial CFO, Christine McCarthy, has made more than $21 million in 2021.
While the top brass at Disney is getting ridiculously wealthy, the company is in the midst of significant backlash over the price increases at their Disney Parks. The complaints have gone so far as to hit mainstream press. Check out the following excerpt from The New York Post:
Disney customers took to Reddit over the past week to rip the Mouse House’s theme parks over higher admission fees, as well as a subpar experience that includes more expensive, lackluster food and staffing shortages. “If you’re the kind of person that budgets or saves for vacations, Disney Parks aren’t for you any longer,” wrote one angry customer, saying the company had ditched everyday people for the well-to-do. “That’s a Premium Physical Experience, and there’s plenty of national and international wealthy families to afford going indefinitely.”
As someone who just came back from Walt Disney World Resort, I can confirm that the nickel and diming of customers has gotten to ridiculous points. So far, the company isn’t paying for it… but word of mouth must be getting out there. It seems that while at Disney World, almost everything you do has a price tag attached to an already hefty amount just to get through the entrance. It severely depresses the magic in my opinion. It’s difficult to not laugh when a bottle of soda is almost as much as the venti Starbucks beverage you can purchase in the park. It’s a disparity of logic that is only made possible by Starbucks not charging Disney-esque prices at their Starbucks theme park locations. If they did, it would easily be over ten dollars for a standard beverage.
The company has steadily raised prices and taken away things from its theme park customers and they seem to keep coming. https://t.co/zmhaKlGpim
— The State Newspaper (@thestate) January 20, 2022
Now I just have to wonder, how long can this last? How long can the company lose money with Disney+ and box office failures and extract as much money out of Disney World as they possibly can? Have they not wrung every drop out of what guests can afford?
Perhaps this is why Susan Arnold is reportedly laying down the law as she takes over the Board. It’s definitely needed; things have gotten out of control, in my humble opinion.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and keep checking out That Park Place for all the news that should be fun.