An anonymous executive from The Walt Disney Company decided to blame moviegoers for the company’s films bombing at the box office.
Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.
Puck writer Matthew Belloni wrote an article last Thursday documenting how The Walt Disney Company’s favorability has declined among Americans in a poll conducted by Quorum. The poll found that Disney had the highest unfavorability rating among other blue-chip companies. It clocked in with a 21% unfavorable score. Comparitively, Sony had the lowest with just a 5% unfavorable score.
The poll also found that respondents are divided by political party. It found that “fully 30 percent of Republicans and 26 percent of independents have an unfavorable opinion of the company, compared to only 8 percent of Democrats.”
Pollster David Herrin shared his thoughts about these results stating, ““While conservatives give Disney higher unfavorables, it’s not ‘perceived wokeness’ that’s keeping people from theaters. The more immediate issues facing the entire industry, not just Disney, is the quality of the content and the price of moviegoing.”
Bob Iger via New York Times Events YouTube
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In response to this article an anonymous Disney executive informed Belloni that the fans are to blame for Disney’s film’s bombing.
The executive informed Belloni, “Everyone says ‘It’s the movies, stupid,’ which is an easy thing for people to say. More appealing movies are a great way to jump the political issues. But more and more, our audience (or the segment of the audience that has been politicized) equate the perceived messaging in a film as a quality issue.”
This executive continued, “They won’t say they find female empowerment distasteful in The Marvels or Star Wars [the latest trilogy starring Daisy Ridley], but they will say they don’t like those movies because they are ‘bad.'”
The executive concluded, “So ‘make better movies’ becomes code for ‘make movies that conform to regressive gender stereotypes or put men front and center in the narrative.’ Which is what you’re seeing now, and what Bob [Iger]’s pivot is about right now.”
Sonny Bunch on X
It’s unclear what critics of The Walt Disney Company this executive has listened to, but many critics lampoon Marvel and Star Wars for its injection of intersectional feminism.
There are also plenty of critics bashing The Walt Disney Company’s discriminatory policies, which involve race swapping numerous characters such as Kang the Conqueror. Many critics also call out Marvel and Disney for gender swapping characters such as Mar-Vell, Taskmaster, and more.
Marvel and Disney programs are also routinely criticized for degrading male characters in order to elevate female characters as seen in Star Wars with the humiliation of Luke Skywalker or in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law with the emasculation of Daredevil.
(L-R): Charlie Cox as Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer “Jen” Walters in Marvel Studios‘ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.
READ: Filing With EEOC Accuses Disney Of Engaging In Illegal Racial And Sexual Hiring And Promotion Bias
As far as any kind of shift from Bob Iger, there has been nothing tangible from Marvel Studios or Lucasfilm so far. Iger has talked about “quieting the noise,” but his actions and the programs that have come out since then are more a perpetuation of the noise.
One need look no further than the race swapping of Ariel, King Triton, and Ursula in a new Disney Junior Ariel series. Not only did they race swap all of these character, but they turned the literal sea witch of Ursula into a “beloved aunt.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympians contains numerous race-swapped deviations from the original source material including Zeus, Grover Underwood, and Annabeth Chase.
Last fall, they released an episode of Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures seemingly created specifically to normalize controversial progressive themes by referring to a character as “they.”
Djovi Resmia in Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures
This anonymous Disney executive appears completely clueless as to what is actually happening at the company and how people criticize it.
But it’s no surprise, it reflects Iger’s own incompetence.
Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of this Disney executive’s comments?
Dear Disney,
Let me be the first to comment and say what has been said politely several times. Customers want what they want. They want an escape away from the what bothers them. They want to be inspired uplifted amused. Disney has failed. Disney insults lowers expectations and drags customers into faults most would rather avoid. I’d like to write at Lucasfilm and help make movies customers will want to watch and look forward to seeing more of.