Drinker's Chasers - Disney Sued For Lying About Box Office Numbers

Disney's financial problems are seemingly never-ending. Not only are they being sued by film finance company TSG for allegedly hiding box office profits, but they also have to contend with the looming purchase of Hulu - something they don't have the money to afford.

[@dbr7621]

It still blows my mind just how far Disney has fallen. Its almost impressive. It'd be sad if it weren't completely deserved.

[@frankgesuele6298]

Like watching the Hindenburg crash. Just too stunned to believe🤯

[@TheoJay615]

ESG is a hell of a drug.

[@JohnSmith-sb2fp]

​@@TheoJay615 woke arrogance plain and simple

[@CHOOKIE67]

Disney's fall is by design.

[@jpteknoman]

Disney is a faceless immaterial company. Its just the name of the store. The people who manage it and profit off of it don't care what happens to it, they have their golden parachutes strapped on and are ready to bail safely. So the store sign will take all the blame and damage while the criminals who ran the store will get away with it all. After all, they paid millions for politicians to make the laws this way.

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

It’s important to remember that Disney is no longer Disney. The people who made all those beloved films from the past are either retired or sadly passed away. Not a single member of the original company is around anymore. It’s quite literally nothing but radical activists wearing the corpse of Disney as a suit.

[@texasbeast239]

Skinwalkers

[@TravisHi_YT]

Yes, everyone needs to learn that corporations are made up of individuals. The art exists because individuals made them, not a legal entity.

[@JSBozick]

Damn. Savage, but accurate.

[@katakana-kun2122]

It's true, until the 2010s every animator had been personally trained by someone who had worked under Walt Disney himself, it was a tradition that was to be passed directely from generation to generation. None of the artists that work there now have any connection to the "Disney bloodline"; veteran animators either left by themselves because they were fed up with new management, or were eventually fired when Disney went full 3D, full woke.

[@Gregatseasonalsteins]

Basically true. I'm a creative who almost went to work there in the late 90s...it was turning then. The D has been complete taken over by greedy corporatists who move in, plunder the mine of IP and library of films, milk them for more money and move on. Same for the parks and properties. There is zero concern or plan to carry on Walts legacy or his ideals and values. Everything is designed to maximize profits...and these upper managers and shareholders do not care.

[@jonathano4811]

imagine owning the rights to star wars and not being able to make money with it

[@origami83]

Some of the dumbest people on the planet must be in the board of disney.

[@A_YouTube_Commenter]

And having a line of novels to adapt for sequels and still not making a coherent story.

[@bruhfvdf3145]

Star Wars was a dead end. General audience doesn’t care about anything beyond the OT

[@SchnookieC]

​@bruhfvdf3145 To be fair if the sequels came out firing as the best star wars films we've seen, general audiences would have DEVOURED it for many years to come

[@kennyhudson9201]

@@SchnookieC I think his point is that no matter what they did, it would have been shit on. Barring just making Luke, Leia, and Han super badass and the stars of the films. But that wasn't possible....wait a minute...they could have just had Luke being the man....wtf. *smacks forehead*

[@liamphibia]

Disney has become the very personification of "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

[@mikkelnpetersen]

Nobody are "too big to fail".

[@kingtonsiljockey528]

"Even the Spartans fell to the times."-Me

[@ericv00]

Ask Iger how much money he's lost. Or KK. Or any of the people who have engineered this "fall". They've come in and cashed out. They have not fallen at all. They've killed a company and everyone ELSE has taken the hit.

[@squeguinquack2570]

Twice the pride, double the fall

[@skibumrx]

They are the Ponzi Scheme of the entertainment industry now. They greatly underestimated the backlash from the right.

[@whitedragondojo]

We don't need Disney. The world is filled with great writers and artists that are interested in creating culture that is pertinent and wanted, they will simply fill the void when Disney is gone. Shareholders will have to sue Disney for their misleading behaviour.

[@greggibson33]

Are you tied up in a cellar by Isis and being forced to watch Disney?

[@willstikken5619]

The only problem i see with this theory is that we haven't seen any real signs of these creatives trying to fill the voids that exist now. Once a major source of funding disappears it seems even less likely that they will.

[@samueldawkins]

@@greggibson33 🦃🐷

[@RichSmithson]

Short Disney Stock too and make money off the demise.

[@hakim6933]

There are video games with better story telling than modern day movies nowadays

[@boredandconfused]

Disney is the epitome of trading a 10$ bill for two 1$ bills and thinking you just made yourself more money in a fancy deal. 😂

[@justchilin11]

Perfect analogy

[@thatHARVguy]

That sums up the ticket sales agreement with China. Studios take 50% from first 2 weeks (?) of release. Disney goes as high as 75%-90%. In China studios only get 25%, but they use the overall numbers for marketing.

[@haku8135]

It's more like they pay a million dollars for a really nice statue, then they piss on it and go "So who wants to pay to view our lovely statue?"

[@Shadi092986]

Or selling a 💩 on a cone and selling it as chocolate ice cream, but their stans will happily bite on it because "progressive"!

[@boredandconfused]

Dang. Did not expect this comment to get more than 10 likes. Glad I am not alone in my thoughts haha.

[@dewayneblue1834]

And how much has Disney spent to get outlets like Rotten Tomatoes to game the ratings for their films?

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

Way too much by the looks of it.

[@Fe7Ace]

At least in the gaming industry such outlets have often seemed to whore for the corpos for little more than access privileges and political solidarity, so I'm willing to believe such parasites sell themselves cheap.

[@greggibson33]

You could easily find out the actual data yourself or just go with dumb dumb conspiracy theories.... either way, no big. 😆

[@kauetadaieski3131]

​@@greggibson33another dummy calling everything obvious a conspiracy. Wake up already.

[@squeguinquack2570]

Disney keeps on letting the intrusive thoughts win

[@randomperson8405]

It speaks volumes about the damage that Disney has done to itself and its brand that this news made me genuinely, legitimately, incredibly happy.

[@randomperson8405]

@@jdunnatl I can't say that apple would want to. It's a bit like buying Star Wars at this point, you have so much damage to repair that you won't see profit for long enough for it to be worth it. I am more of the mind that the company will just eventually go bankrupt.

[@Coconut-219]

I've sort of experienced the same effect, but retroactively, for the youtube offices shooting. (I mean, things were already bad at the time but you get my point.)

[@jacquelineking5783]

As much as I dislike Disney a tech company takeover does not make me happy.

[@HeeHungersForHos]

Disney was always awful. They ruined American culture.

[@user-xx6vy9ri8p]

As usual, they lost money trying to save money.

[@theequalizer9154]

Which equals bad management.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

More like: they lost money trying to indoctrinate their audience with pretty terrible stuff.

[@Coconut-219]

Exactly, at this point its basically clockwork that a major corporation will refuse to do anything fun because of "brand risk" while confidently doing dumb stuff like this that anybody could have told them was an obviously bad idea.

[@ljones2087]

correction: they lost money in being greedy.

[@guyforlogos]

No, they lost money trying to push a narrative as opposed to creating good content.

[@RanMouri82]

And folks who insisted Disney inflated its box office numbers were called crazy. 😏

[@marbellaotaiza801]

It's kind of almost a trend in recent years that those called muh denialists 👻 and conspeeracy theorizers end up being right down the line...

[@TheRogueJedii]

Funny eh ? How often the "conspiracy" ppl are right lately

[@ItsGazareth]

Isn't this talking about them deflating numbers though?

[@marbellaotaiza801]

Two last guys make good points. Nevertheless, captain marvel's box office still seems a little off. One the other or both, there's shenanigans going on...

[@TheRogueJedii]

@@marbellaotaiza801 yep. If you lie in one sense, would it be impossible that you lie in the other? A lie is a lie after all, and liars lie. So yah.

[@generalgk]

Disney has tried everything they can think of to make money, except making good movies

[@StoicSurvivor99]

Without making good movies, you cannot make good profits. It is because they are weak.

[@EwanCumia]

Disney's parks in Florida no longer attract normal families either.

[@RestlessFisher]

Its crazy to me how a lot of people were ready to call Disney a monopoly less than 6 years ago and now they are reaching bankruptcy ever so surely

[@lordphill807]

I forgot all about that! Everyone was joking about Disney buying up everything and eventually acquiring absolute power. They were so massive, wealthy, and successful to the point people were afraid of them becoming a mega monopoly. Funny to see how things have turned out.

[@Carandini]

You can be both things. K-Mart was secretly bankrupt but at the same time they were buying up other companies like Office Max. Hell, GameStop is somehow trying to buy Funko even as we speak.

[@zendodeb]

Disney believes its own PR. Bob Iger is convinced he can do no wrong, even as his company destroys everything it touches, including its own legacy characters now with Snow White and the 7 Portland Baristas

[@kennyhudson9201]

@@Carandini That seems backwards. I can imagine Funko in the future. Gamestop is surely on its last legs. Physical media is dying. We might not even have consoles soon as they do streaming gaming now.

[@olpossum5186]

if people understood austrian economics they would have known that the bigger the corporation (it certainly wasn't ever a monopoly), the less capable it is to manage it's own internal price/profit mechanism, resulting in inefficiency. in the case of an entertainment company, that inefficiency looks like the crap disney is now producing, while, for instance, that much smaller studio that produced the netflix "arcane" show just revolutionized animation on the small screen. the free market in action.

[@Tim_the_Enchanter]

It's a running joke in Hollywood that no movie in history has ever actually made a profit. Wouldn't want to have to be paying off all those backloaded deals.

[@fattiger6957]

Roger Corman would disagree with that statement. That man could make a feature length movie with just a camera, shed and a roll of tin foil.

[@thatHARVguy]

To this day Paramount says Forrest Gump didn't make a profit.

[@texasbeast239]

Fuzzy math.

[@thomasprice7893]

As someone who's habitually browsed 4chan for many years I can assuredly state that I have a thick skin against conspiratorial bullshit, but the one theory I've ever really bought into was that Disney was fluffing Captain Marvel's box office numbers. That movie was directly preceded by Wonder Woman - a much better female-centric superhero movie - and that thing was a phenomenon the likes of which I haven't seen since the 00's. Everyone was talking about it, even my mother watched the movie before I did and told me how great it was... yet we are to believe the movie headed by Brick Larson made substantially more than it at the box office, with pictures of empty theatres abounding? Nah, the Disney Box Office bamboozling goes much, MUCH deeper than merely what's alleged in this lawsuit, and they might be truly fucked if these proceedings start to turn over some rocks.

[@nmr7203]

I always forget how much people loved Wonder Woman even though it's one of the worst movies in the DCEU.

[@greggibson33]

The best part is that you admitted in public to habitually browsing 4chan. 😅

[@janehrahan5116]

You should be more open to conspiracies. They happen a lot. In fact dismissing conspiracies out of hand is in itself the result of a cia Psy op since they disliked people constantly through sheer guesswork figuring out and exposing their cartoonist evil bs.

[@velveetaslingshot]

​@@nmr7203Wonder Woman was great. You missed the mark on that one.

[@Ebalosus]

@@greggibson33better than browsing Leddit or Lowtax’s 10buxian circlejerk…

[@RanMouri82]

Part of what's awkward about Disney is how it recently undermined its own brand. If any other company were to buy it and settle its debts, the company would also need to rehabilitate the brand to regain parents' trust. I'm not sure they can do that.

[@zendodeb]

There is nothing to buy in Disney. Marvel can't make a decent movie or TV show. Taika Waititi has ensured that no one will be interested in the MCU. "Let's laugh at your heroes and crap all over the stuff you love." Lucasfilm has destroyed Star Wars (look at the in-theater reaction to the end of The Rise of Skywalker, and remember that is the movie Kathleen Kennedy sees as the way forward for Star Wars.) Indiana Jones and the Insufferable Feminist put the nail in the coffin of that franchise. What's left of Lucasfilm? Howard the Duck? Pixar can't make a decent movie. Disney animation can't make a decent movie. What's left? The people? The talent? There is no talent, only activism.

[@the_absurd_hero]

I think the *only* way to rehabilitate Disney as a brand is to sell it. From there, the new owner would need to replace ALL Disney leadership (down to the managerial level) with competent workers and creatives, and then release a decent stream of hit movies (on reasonable budgets) that appeal to general audiences. The main problem Disney has is that no one trusts its current leadership because they’re all on record advocating for political and social policies that directly work against or harm their core audience-children and families. Those leaders have done so much damage to the brand that they can’t be let anywhere near it again, so selling Disney might just be the only real way to get a desperately needed shake-up while also distancing the brand from its recent, sordid past.

[@kennyhudson9201]

@@zendodeb Hey, Loki and WandaVision were good. Loki Season 2 is like the only thing Disney I'm looking forward too. Don't care about Ashoka.

[@stsmondal1126]

​@@kennyhudson9201Hahahahahahaha

[@marbellaotaiza801]

​@@kennyhudson9201 lol

[@jack.h99]

I am still in shock that Disney was able to take THE definitive and most iconic movie saga of all time that had loyal customers of all ages for merchandise second only to Pokemon and just fucking screwed it up so badly that it only functions as a ball and chain that weighs down the rest of the company. They rolled a nat 1 on Star Wars lol.

[@kennyhudson9201]

This is off topic, but rolling a 1 is a 1 in 20 chance. Surely no trained swordsman, or magic user or whatever, drops their sword or lights themselves on fire, 1 in every 20 attacks.

[@an80skid71]

He tinked it against the ground and growled. @@kennyhudson9201

[@Khayul]

@@kennyhudson9201 Crit fails "dropping your sword" is a homebrew bullshittery thing that shitty DMs rule because they read too much 4Chan.

[@teshtishtoshtesh3218]

They did what they set out to do.

[@jack.h99]

@@kennyhudson9201 Thats why most DMs just use it as an automatic miss that will ignore any bonus modifiers that might have made it into a hit, so that it doesnt punish the players

[@DarthBalsamic]

I remember having an entire conversation here about this very thing. It was very suspicious to me how Disney is spending all this money and nobody seemed to know where it was going or even where it was comimg from in certain cases. Some denied that there was even anything suspicious about this largess. To serious people it was only a matter of time before someone sued them for cooking the books. I wouldn't be surprised if more lawsuits are filed.

[@Taoxlrgion1982]

Yeah i where a part of that conversation and only mentioned that they have shareholders at the end of the line, but there was someone who made a whole story about loaning money from the bank and then insure it for when things go wrong... It sounded really weird to me!

[@1979cavsfan]

I guess BlackRock, and by extension, the various state pensions/401k's they hold, won't be getting their money back. I guess SS/Medicare will have to be good enough for some people!

[@Eisenwulf666]

The sharks can smell the blood in the water.Everyone who ever dealt with Disney and has some ground for a lawsuit, will sue or threaten to sue to get what they want. A lot of the time they will settle just to avoid the piling of bad press.

[@stevene6482]

I would guess that this was spurred on by the recent suit filed against Target. Likely more companies will be filed on in the coming weeks.

[@Jadty]

Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.

[@shannonbayley3684]

I've never seen a company dig their own grave like Disney have. Keep it up! ⚰

[@gusty9053]

Blizzard or rather Activition Blizzard, Ainhauser Bush, Paramount, and on and on probably.

[@bigmikeobama5314]

they dont care about money. the ceo's and kathleen kennedys all have golden parachutes, and they dont care about their little employees at all. all that matters is driving society further towards tyranny by any means possible. of course they are using liberalism to do it, they dont stand for anything which is why they will fall for anything....add to that a bunch of liberal ego stroking and sanctimonious self aggrandizement and you have a base of screeching entitled weirdo cult members who will back anything you....up to and including inappropriate content pushed on children.

[@shannonbayley3684]

@@gusty9053 Absolutely, but Disney screw up again and again and again. Film after film (or show). Anheuser-Busch/Target etc have made ONE f*ck up that's cost them. Disney has consistently f*cked up for years now numerous times.

[@kevinmiller5051]

They're protected by the World Economic Forum. They'll be fine.

[@jamesbailey2377]

@kevinmiller: Spot on. Glad to see someone mention those sick bastards.

[@RREvilMonk]

Neither the FTC nor the FCC would green light a sale of Disney to Apple. Way too many Anti-Trust implications.

[@fattiger6957]

After Microsoft just bought Activision (the 2nd biggest video game publisher), I doubt the FTC will do anything to stop any major acquisition anymore.

[@darkpuppetlordful]

​@fattiger6957 I mean they spent the better half of like a year or so investigating the purchase. While I disagree with the conclusion the FCC did run an antitrust check on that. No way Apple gets to buy Disney

[@stev3548]

I envy your faith in our institutions

[@1979cavsfan]

A desperate Bob Iger might just put a bounty on Lina Khan's head!

[@1979cavsfan]

​@@garygoldstein9442 I think the licensing would be too complex, I mean the movies are the source material for the rides and attractions at the parks.

[@davidsummer8631]

Disney has gone from being a benchmark to now sleeping on a bench

[@shakezula3316]

on the bench at Universal studios before security asks them to leave the premises

[@texasbeast239]

Siccing an imaginary live version of their dead animated dog on us, telling us to get off their lawn.

[@Xbalanque84]

Nice one.

[@CDSparks]

Love this. Though I'd change it to: "Disney has gone from being a benchmark to now being a brown mark on a bench"

[@llambsauce5148]

It's what happens when reputable trendsetters trying following trends instead

[@vincent207]

Let Disney be a lesson to you. _Nothing_ is too big to fail. It simply takes more time and hubris for larger entities than smaller ones.

[@AchtungEnglander]

That lesson was learnt back in 2008 with the banks. This news comes to no surprise. Any company no matter how big is just several bad decisions to bankruptcy.

[@marbellaotaiza801]

Sheer. Fucking. Hubris.

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

@@AchtungEnglander and before that, especially speaking about cooking the books and "too big to fail", with Enron in 2004. Changing everything so that everyhing stays the same.

[@AchtungEnglander]

@@ROMANTIKILLER2 well remembered.

[@chatteyj]

@@AchtungEnglander It wasn't learnt by the banks though because the government bailed them all out except for maybe Norther rock which failed before the government decided to bail out banks. So in banks minds they literally are too big to fail because the government said as much at the time, which was not a good move in my opinion.

[@paulprovenzano3755]

This is SOOO great! Can’t gender/race-swap your way out of this. Time to sell.

[@liamphibia]

All they care about is baiting them for the sake of 💲

[@Dowlphin]

Disney is self-identifying as successful.

[@paulprovenzano3755]

@@Dowlphin Disney self-identifies as ‘positively NOT a groomer.’

[@alex1vid]

@@Dowlphin Low key SAVAGE comment lol - made me lose my drink through my nose

[@Dowlphin]

@@alex1vid Please make sure to stay hydrated. 🍺😁

[@TheColonelKlink]

Putting the "Disney" back in Disney is pretty much an impossible task at this point. That fish has been gutted, cleaned, cooked and served up for dinner.

[@ComicGladiator]

*That mouse has been gutted, cleaned, cooked and served up for dinner. Very Roman of them.

[@texasbeast239]

That's like the Busch heir offering to buy Anheiser-Busch back to save that company.

[@jase276]

It was over the day Walt got decapitated and put on ice.

[@AncestorEmpire1]

People forget that Disney lied for 25 years about theme park numbers. But that came out right before Covid 19 was spread into the west.

[@remuslazar2033]

What does Disney have to do with Covid?

[@AncestorEmpire1]

@@remuslazar2033 it covered up their FTC investigation. The timing is more than a little suspicious.

[@remuslazar2033]

@@AncestorEmpire1 what is FTC? Speak with words

[@davidgalinat4257]

@@remuslazar2033 Federal Trade Commission

[@AncestorEmpire1]

@@remuslazar2033 the federal trade commission. Also: the FTC is their federal distinction. So you’re the idiot in the COD chat.

[@D.Wagner2]

All those DEI hires really elevated the company 😂😂😂

[@origami83]

It might interesting to put that in a graph, the number of DEI hired compared to their stock value going down.

[@texasbeast239]

DEI Dead Expired Inanimate

[@the_absurd_hero]

Are you suggesting to me that hiring people based on race, orientation, and socioeconomic upbringing rather than skills, performance, and accomplishments wasn’t profitable?! Next you’re gonna try to convince me the sky is blue 🤣

[@Gregatseasonalsteins]

Same with Boeing. Problems and design issues and flaws didn't exist at Boeing until the days of affirmative action and DEI started...then 10 yrs later and their planes were f#$%. True.

[@cyberdelicxp9125]

Worst part is:they will get a bailout. Which means our money will go to them no matter how rotten they are. Piracy is the answer until order is restored. These laws need to change.

[@christopherneedham9584]

Or you can just not watch the movies they produce without breaking the law and stealing from people.

[@asmosisyup2557]

why would you pirate something that's objectively not worth watching?

[@rsr789]

@@christopherneedham9584 In the USA, it's the billionaires (who own most of the shares of the corporations), that steal from the rest of the people. How do you think the three richest people in the USA have the same net worth as the bottom 50% (166 million people)?!?

[@munkqiking7207]

@@christopherneedham9584 All they have to do is provide a better service than the priates. They cant even do that. So no. What exactly are you implying is being stolen anyway? The digital world isnt a real place buddy.

[@aldosigmann419]

Reminds me of the movie 'Alien' - $11 million production cost, $180 million box office + accounting shenanigans = a loss. Result seriously ticked off investors.

[@Carandini]

Officially 'Batman' in 1989 never made any money.

[@an80skid71]

Didn't do too much damage. Look at all the sequels.

[@alandouglas2789]

Huh?

[@Greysky2024]

They definitely lied about a lot of movies. Captain Marvel did not make a billion, didn’t they say it made a billion? 😂

[@thatHARVguy]

I was one of 200 people in the theater for Captain Marvel's opening day. There was about 200 empty seats on Alita Battle Angel's opening day. 🤣

[@hawkticus_history_corner]

​@@thatHARVguyyou had a weird theater. Alita was packed when I went and saw it three days later. No one was talking about Captain Marvel except for how it sucked

[@A_YouTube_Commenter]

​@@thatHARVguyAlita was a way better film.

[@thatHARVguy]

@@A_KZbin_CommenterAnd had way less marketing than CM. Almost empty CM screening vs almost full Alita? Yeah, Disney's cooking the books and paying off Rotten Tomatoes is part of their marketing.

[@grim_2000]

​@@thatHARVguy although the numbers for CM feel a little inflated, it UNDOUBTEDLY had waaaaay more tickets sold than Alita, which was mostly a hit among 'fans'. I'm not talking about the quality of either movie, just the money part.

[@SheldonAdama17]

Imagine if Thanos snapped his fingers and disintegrated himself. That’s basically Disney right now.

[@johndracup3428]

When your accountant is more creative than your production company…

[@WhiteZelda]

Disney can save themselves by doing one simply thing: Stop. The. Message.

[@Taoxlrgion1982]

no their way too far in it... they will instantly lose their new fans, the trick is letting it slowly burn away...

[@hypnobraicracksalesman3028]

HAH! Too little too late for 'em.

[@andrewwilkins7823]

They can't, the people that help them fund the movies insist on progressive content to get the money. If the completely stopped the woke content the outside funding dries up, they don't get enough from their own business to make up the difference. DIsney needed to stop the woke content before they ran all the ip into the ground, they have left it too late.

[@A_YouTube_Commenter]

Look at who's working there. That won't happen. Non political entertainment is right wing extremism to them.

[@MisterFluffyBags]

​@@Taoxlrgion1982The new fans they're targeting don't go to watch the films anyway. The box office numbers are dreadful.

[@FissionMetroid101]

Oh man I hope this is true. Any Disney L I hear about nowadays is music to my ears

[@IStillJustLikeCats]

I remember when Disney bought Lucas Film and was in the talks about making more Star Wars back in like 2012ish. I was working at a pizza shop at the time, and my boss and I were excited about it and milling over ideas on what they might do and what we'd like to see. It's sad that in that time frame, I've gone from being excited about Star Wars to "Maybe this next project will be at least decent, even though I seriously doubt it" or just outright "yeah, that's definitely going to be garbage, and I can't wait to hear reviewers talk about how shit it is" because sadly it's more entertaining to hear people talk how bad Star Wars has gotten than the Star Wars material itself.

[@an80skid71]

Us geeks got spoiled.

[@an80skid71]

You know what I am exited about. Arcane and Alita: Battle angel.

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

@@an80skid71those were both excellent but Arcane season 2 (if it happens) is unlikely to come out in the next few years. And Alita has a very low chance due to the first film barely being a success.

[@Dack.howaboutyou]

@@an80skid71 Spoiled? I'm not so sure about that... "Hindsight being 20/20" and all that, it may look relatively spoiled if we look at things backwards but i'm more inclined to think we actually just got more censorship and propaganda shafted as time went on... you can see those factors grow in just about every other form of media over the same time period as well.

[@SilverEyedDragoon]

Disney really does cook the books? I thought that was a rumor.

[@6581punk]

Hollywood accounting is a thing. Every film gets produced by a company set up just to make the film. Then when the film is done the company gets wrapped up with big losses so profit sharing never happens. That's how Peter Jackson got stiffed by Lord of the Rings and he sued New Line Cinema.

[@pistonburner6448]

I think that South Park version of Mickey Mouse is starting to look very accurate...

[@GigaChadh976]

They’ve been cooking the books for decades

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

They must have hired the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.

[@harbl99]

@@paulmurgatroyd6372 "And den we putti dee bookies indey pot and boily-herpy-stirby dem." Disney board: "I don't understand his methods exactly, but the man is a financial wizard!"

[@11JTmc]

Everyone remember that they sacked their CEO in the middle of the night after he started to ask questions about finance... there's no smoke without fire

[@nicholastotoro7721]

Kinda' like all the "sold out" shows for Captain Marvel that were realistically half-full theaters...

[@Ancient_Tribesman]

I saw this in person with Captain Marvel. I kept hearing about sold out tickets, so im thinking this movie must be alot better than i expected. Not only were there 7 people in my theater including 2 of my friends, but it was day 5 since it hit theaters 😂😅. To make it worst the movie was 💩

[@LordThulhu]

Once I wanted to work for Disney and saw it as the greatest achievement one can make. I remember reading all the fairy tales that Disney hasn't made into animated movies. Watching the old Disney classics over and over again, going frame by frame to understand what makes a Disney movie well... a Disney movie. And having written stories and drawn storyboards to recapture the magic of the Disney classics while also sprinkle in the uniqueness of each fairy tale. Made one of Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Princess and the Pea and more (They were not great and would absolutely need several redrafts). My dream was to work in Disney and be part of the creation of a movie that is on the same level as the Disney classics that I grew up with. That mindset is long gone thanks to being constantly patronized and disrespected by them, watching them doing the same to the very movies that made Disney as big as it is (or rather was) and being bombarded by such horrific writing that it is insulting (And don't get me started on all the shady the shit they've done). I don't care about that stupid company and I hope they burn on their way down.

[@an80skid71]

I was that way with Apple Computer in the mid nineties. a fan of apple, seeing where they were and the crap. but you never expect how things change.

[@MrLind87]

​​@@an80skid71Funny though is that Apple found a way to be shittier with their consumers over time but also earn much more profits and become a multi trillion company, meanwhile, Disney thought they could get away with being shitty to their consumers, and see the position they are in today. 😂

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

slowly but surely, it it's less that and more "short term profit over long term investment" with shareholders who aren't going to stick around making a ton of cash then bailing and leaving whoever takes over to be the one to have to deal with the mess.

[@ff10fire666]

Disney makes another brain dead decision and keep losing money. Me: If he dies, he dies.

[@chasehedges6775]

Modern Disney is reaping what it sows

[@Thesavagesouls]

Let's enjoy the spectacle unlike with their movies.

[@pistonburner6448]

And we haven't even gotten into their parks business tanking...thanks to totally falling into the trap laid by the Chinese.

[@zlozlozlo]

Amazon can turn Disney into a huge money maker? Have people already forgotten Rings of Power?

[@Ashkihyena]

Sounds like someone got a look at Captain Marvel’s box office.

[@chasehedges6775]

Ah, yeah, Captain Marvel, one of the worst MCU movies

[@Ashkihyena]

@@chasehedges6775Yea, and I absolutely don’t believe it made a billion, especially after hearing this news.

[@Caffeine_Club]

The way I understood this was that they made more money than reported and kept it for themselves.

[@southpaw7426]

The CEO and BOD’s incompetence and lack of accountability is the real story - these guys have been ripping off investors for years. The SEC needs to step in.

[@muhdiversity7409]

Oh no! Who could have seen this coming? No wonder they have lawyers up the wazoo.

[@rossharper1983]

As someone in the tech space, Apple buying Disney just doesn't make any sense.

[@RoKBottomStudios]

I remember getting so much heat from even saying Captain Marvel's box office numbers were inflated, as many other people got the same crap for saying the same thing. We'll find out if this enforces our notions.

[@scottbuckley823]

You mean they had lower grosses? HAHAHAHAHAHA. This is just Hollywood's Enron.

[@KaiserFaust]

So how long is it going to be before some of these big Disney investors start a class action for breach of fiduciary duty?

[@Red0543]

I’m not legal expert in any way, shape or form. But my gut feeling says that it won’t be long now. It’s no secret that their investors are unhappy with how Disney is being run (they went from being worth $196,75 a share to the current $85,96 a share, trending heavily downwards) and there’s absolutely no sign whatsoever that things will change any time soon. In short, I think that the investors might soon take whatever steps they deem necessary to recoup their losses and get the pound of flesh that they are owed.

[@AchtungEnglander]

This goes all the way to the top. It's all about quality control, or rather lack of. When you greenlight shite, lose money, you only have yourself to blame. This is all senior mismanagement.

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

I would say it's more overexpansion, mismanagement sure, but of a different variety.

[@bghoody5665]

Seeing how woke both Apple and Amazon are, would Disney being bought by either one of them really improve the brand as far as making better movies/TV show goes? All it would accomplish is taking care of Disney's debts which honestly I don't want to see happen.

[@Phillip-wt4dz]

Money talks louder than politics in that case. They have infinite money

[@teamfossil6312]

I think it’s a poisoned chalice at this point, nothing can stop the disney from splintering, it’s just a question of it will take anything else with it

[@peteypiranalover]

Took long enough for a lawsuit to appear. I am shocked it took this long

[@LeoJay]

I think if a sale happens then it's going to be parts of Disney and different IPS not the whole company, just like what Marvel did in the 90s.

[@TheKnellBelle]

I read an article a while ago that talked about an whistleblower coming forward and saying Disney does some funny stuff with it's in-park sales numbers. Maybe they've just been lying for years and it's all finally catching up with them.

[@dronesclubhighjinks]

Why would "the kind of family" that goes to Disney theme parks not also have Apple products? As for Apple wanting to integrate everything into its ecosystem, that's true, but I think they would be making a serious error if they tried that with the Disney IPs if they do end up buying Disney. Great conversation, thanks guys!

[@an80skid71]

It would be a game changer. But make them a bubble. Disney world/land Would have all the eggs in the basket.

[@joebearslim]

I always thought it was weird that shareholders were okay with film companies buying up millions of dollars in tickets for opening weekends. It seemed criminal when I first heard it

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

it's because thouse shareholders are temporary leaches who don't pay attention to anything outside of the meetings.

[@carlrood4457]

What a lot of people don't remember is that Cable was originally supposed to be ad free as well. It didn't work there for the most part, either.

[@terenceblakely4328]

If Apple bought them out, they'd have to fire all of Disney's creative people and replace them with talented people.

[@SmartCookie2022]

Nah, Apple TV is pretty woke itself.

[@Kodachrome40]

Sony owns Columbia Pictures and in every movie the props are a showcase of Sony products.

[@wjfmarketing]

All the problems the Disney Company is experiencing today are Bob Iger's fault. -- Bob Iger is NO Walt Disney!

[@3AHoles]

Disney had whistleblowers back in 2015 where they said they were cooking the books on those billion dollar movies they were cranking out.

[@hippo319]

If Disney had spent the past ten years producing high-quality movies and TV they'd have plenty of money and wouldn't be in this position

[@eglzallday]

I think Disney's downfall was the Avengers Series and every other movie that came out of that universe. They thought they had a set base that would support their other crap because they had the Avengers universe.

[@terrylandess6072]

Those profits went somewhere. If they actually tried to include them in their shareholders statements, why did they think it would go unnoticed? The other option is 'stealing' which is a great look for 'Disney'. My, how far they've fallen.

[@Creski777]

God I miss Fox, they didn’t always succeed but they at least took chances.

[@cheeks7050]

Firefly. Never forget.

[@Creski777]

It's not just firefly. House MD, Office Space, Ice Age, Ford V Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Arrested Development (their entire animation slate) the list goes on and on. Hell they greenlit always sunny in Philadelphia. Half the time they would greenlight anything that Disney was too chickenshit to do without direct interference. Yeah they weren't the best at marketing their stuff, but they sure as shit at least tried, and many of their properties went on to influence popular culture long term.@@cheeks7050

[@dualityomk9854]

​@@cheeks7050forget what? That it was a half assed show with a coupla thousand people that twittered it into Serenity?

[@jeffmcdonald4225]

Disney lied? But...but...that's not possible! They're the guardians of morality!

[@texasbeast239]

... Of the Galaxy!

[@firstjayjay]

This year I've been sitting comfortable and just eating popcorn watching this happen to Disney. And I love it, couldn't happen to a better company.

[@muhdiversity7409]

2:49 Disparu, are you forgetting attacking the audience and the fans? This is 100% the Disney playbook. Don't be shocked that they also $hit where they eat and sleep. Dare I say it's the mean girls playbook.

[@the_absurd_hero]

Mean girls at least have the wherewithal to talk sh*t behind people’s backs

[@theequalizer9154]

Disney was once a great entertainment company. I don't know if anyone still remembers when Disney would put out a film people would look forward to it, to watch with your family, your children, your parents. Now, these failures has to be on purpose.

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

All the original writers and artists are either retired or passed away. The people running it now are just wearing the corpse of real Disney as a body suit lol.

[@the_absurd_hero]

Yeah, I ‘member...

[@BlinkyTheSpaceCadet]

But guys!!! Imagine how much they could charge for the new iPhone 17 in the Disney Princess Editions!!!😂

[@Phanto5692]

I think Disney has become so radioactive that any company who acquires it will inherit Disney's woes. I would not want to wish that on any company, even ones like Apple and Amazon.

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

" In our defence, we really though we could get away with it. "

[@rsteel1138]

Critical doggo is the only one without eyewear… time to get them some goggles

[@texasbeast239]

Doggles™️

[@rsteel1138]

@@texasbeast239 sign me up, ill buy a pair 🤙

[@KAL5370]

Companies need to be allowed to fail and parish due to bad business decisions

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

the last major film company that folded was RKO pictures in the 1950s

[@DrawnInk1]

Why is this man in charge of an iconic company like this, he has totally destroyed it.

[@КГБКолДжорджКостанца]

Oh Disney, the cronies of deception for animation, they will soon collapse faster than the first raindrop

[@chasehedges6775]

Modern 2020 Disney will get what it deserves

[@BlazePiffington]

(Nelson Laugh)

[@DarthHawkGaming]

Remember when Disney was called out by one of their accountants for supposedly fudging the corporations worth?

[@LBPhotoworks]

Disney is the proof, that "too big to fail" doesn't exist. Sure, their downfall is totally in house made and deserved, but if Apple is clever enough to see that, maybe they will keep off Disney altogether or wait long enough to pick up only pieces they really want. Question is - do they want anything? The only assets Apple would be interested are brands like Star Wars, but the damage done by Disney...is it worth it? Are people going to tune into any Star Wars show in the next 5 - 10 years, even "under new management"?

[@an80skid71]

Apple wants the parks.

[@TheRealMrMustache]

At this point it feels like Disney is just trying to see what they can get away with

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

I think any one buying Disney at this point would be an idiot, unless they drive the price way down. In fact I don't think Disney is worth a single dollar at this point. Just taking on all their debt and fixing their image problem is enough work on it's own. Paying extra above and beyond settling those debts is not worth it. Not for something with no effective profit earning projects outside of maybe the Parks. Which haven't been maintained properly in decades.

[@Hollyclown]

I do believe Disney has MASSIVE potential still. In the right hands it would be worth 10s of billions. At this point they would definitely need to buy the business for a fraction of the cost, a dial everything back, rebrand, regain customer trust, and rework of all their products to meet customer satisfaction. Which yes, is a lot of work, but not impossible if you have the money to invest in such a risk.

[@an80skid71]

Sort of how Apple did it. took 20 years. @@Hollyclown

[@marbellaotaiza801]

The audience: what happened to Disney? Iger: Gone. Reduced to atoms...

[@mikewaterfield3599]

When you are a publicly traded company you are not allowed to lie about your financials.

[@FrederickTheGrt]

Who would even go see a Disney film anymore? Who would even pay for Disney +, let alone actually watch any of it?

[@Hollyclown]

You reap what you sow. That’s all I gotta say about that.

[@nickp7773]

Something I really like and find funny is that the little platoons animation actually ‘reacts’ properly to a lot of the comments lol.

[@Thesavagesouls]

So the empty Captain marvel seats aren't a conspiracy theory...

[@nickd6303]

I don't think Apple wants to deal with the park side of Disney.

[@SamSchott1]

Disney prestige - is there any left? How much prestige does the village bicycle have?

[@bardust]

In any case the problem here lies in that film studios try to act as companies... it's the equivalent to politicians forgetting that their positions exist to serve and protect the people - not the other way round.

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

Captain Marvel, anyone? I can't wait to see all the post Endgame actual box office numbers

[@jp-ny2pd]

I've never understood hollywood accounting. How do you spend $200 million to bring a film to market, gross $500 million in a few weeks, and yet say the movie made no money. I've never understood that.

[@orangeninja8022]

Watching this company self-destruct has been facsinating

[@ronaldbell7429]

As an Apple stockholder, I am not excited by the idea of Apple acquiring Disney

[@wolfman7284]

I hope that they are forced by the government to prevent Apple from monopolizing which would hopefully force Disney to sell IP's to independent creative entities. The potential for good entertainment would go up... I mean, honestly, they can't get much worse..

[@teamfossil6312]

If Apple does buy disney all i see happening is that apple joins disney in the grave, the rot is too deeply engrained, and too widespread, for disney to survive

[@TheReelDealwithTomKonkle]

This is a great bunch of guests together. I hope they will all do it again.

[@nickvoelker7180]

Disney owns 65% of all media in the US. They are a much bigger player than described here. They might not have the ability to access capital like Apple or Microsoft, but they have greater power in their ability to control information and influence people.

[@n.hermann7200]

Source?

[@inthefade]

I hope that it actually comes out in discovery that they paid for their own tickets for movies that weren't doing well. There has been so much suspicion of this for the last bunch of years, starting with Captain Marvel. It would be amazing to see it confirmed.

[@armwrestlerjeff]

Please Disney... for the love of God, sell Marvel!!!

[@modetraining2961]

…..& Star Wars/Lucasfilm

[@armwrestlerjeff]

@@modetraining2961 💯 sell them both

[@DaveTimperley]

Ever since I discovered that people who bought Cable also had to sit through advertising, I've wondered at the level of sanity of thousands of people. Free to air is paid for by advertising. The BBC is paid for by a levy. I would presume that if I was directly paying for something, I wouldn't have to suffer through unwanted advertising??? Who the hell PAYS to watch advertising???!!!

[@medigoomnis]

He's right about Apple...they LOVE their own brand so much, just like the people that buy apple products. "Oh, it's apple and therefore I want it!" Apple is really good at advertisement, not invention, not innovation, not giving you bang for your buck (or anywhere close)...they haven't innovated anything new in decades, but they present others' ideas and implementations as if they were new using canned but effective language that makes their crowds go nuts and pay twice what they're worth. AMAZING advertisers. Every one of their loyal cultists would love disney if they converted it to Disney by Apple or something...which is probably a net gain compared to current disney fans.

[@nunyabidness3075]

Hyperbole much? The original iPhone is not two decades old. I get the Apple hate, but if you exaggerate then your criticism doesn’t actually stick.

[@lynco3296]

The problem is that a relatively small but rich customer base isn't ideal for the type of pop culture products you would want Disney to create. Apple is an "elite" brand and Disney is basically the opposite.

[@BasicShapes]

Disney would likely be better ran under Apple's banner, but you have to think about all that debt too. I don't think Apple would bother, especially with all this stuff coming out about Disney's numbers.

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

>They haven't innovated anything new in decades I have a great disdain for Apple, but let's not be hyperbolic - the iPhone changed the entire cellphone market to a radically different direction than the one it was going in, and that wasn't decades ago.

[@christophergirardi8145]

Howard from Big Bang Theory: " I don't know, all Apple does is change the size of things and we keep buying them."

[@Blurredborderlines]

If Disney truly goes under it will be a sign of the beginning of the end of the “old guard” Fortune 500 companies and I couldn’t be more thrilled for it.