It’s time for a new Disney news roundup and like always, the Mouse House has been staying busy; whether its the continued repercussions of CEO Bob Iger’s comments at Sun Valley last week right as the SAG-AFTRA strike started, or the creation of a new theme park large enough to rival Disney, it’s never a dull day with the entertainment giant.
Yet another disgruntled employee of a popular Disney show has made their complaints heard during a surge of high-profile Disney cast and crew (both former and current) who have taken offense to Iger’s accusations that strikers are just being “unrealistic” and “greedy.” They’re not the only ones upset; employees under Disney’s sizable TV division are increasingly anxious after Iger posited that traditional TV might not be “core” to the House of Mouse in the streaming age.
Meanwhile, former Disney Imagineers and Disney Parks builders have come together to announce a new 125-acre theme park meant to be an affordable alternative to Disney’s theme parks. Let’s get into it!
A staff writer on the Hulu hit The Bear fires back at Iger’s comments, saying streaming residuals are “cents on the dollar”
Iger’s comments shook the industry, but probably not in the way he intended. Instead of prompting strikers to realize the “error” of their ways and apologize to the CEO for daring to desire more pay when Iger makes more in one day than they do annually, if anything he’s only made them more determined to continue striking. “Strikes are supposed to be disruptions,” Alex O’Keefe, one of the staff writers on FX’s show The Bear told the The New York Post in a recent interview, in response to Iger’s complaint that the strike is occurring at “the worst time in the world to add to that disruption.” “Capitalists love disruptions when it makes them money,” O’Keefe continued. “Netflix and Disney Plus were disruptions to the market.”
O’Keefe has reason to be upset; he shared that he made a total salary of $43,000 off of his work on the hit series, and barely any of that was from streaming residuals (The Bear, while made by FX, streams on both Disney Plus and Hulu). “As a staff writer, you’re writing and revising for everyone but the residuals are cents on the dollar with Hulu [and Disney Plus] because it’s streaming.”
The writer is looking for work at low-paying jobs at local grocery stores in order to make ends meet as the strike continues for the indefinite future. According to Deadline, an anonymous top producer confessed the plan is to “allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” with the studios believing the writers and actors will no longer be in a financial condition to negotiate come October.
“They publicly say it’s a necessary evil. They publicly say they are evil, so what do you think they say privately at the bargaining table? It’s sick, vile and disgusting.”
While AMPTP representatives say they offered a “verbal agreement” worth “over $1 billion in wage improvements, residual increases and pension and health contributions” to SAG-AFTRA members, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, told publications the studios also offered a proposal that would give studios unrestricted access to background performers’ likenesses for future AI use, so there’s that.
Iger’s comments have made leading employees of Disney’s TV businesses fearful for their jobs
According to a report from CNN, Iger held an off-site meeting this Tuesday with leading employees in order to allay some of his employees’ fears after his comments last week. In that same (perhaps overly) candid CNBC interview, Iger told David Faber that Disney’s linear TV channels “may not be core” to Disney in response to Faber asking the CEO if he would be interested in selling those channels. Employees of Disney General Entertainment Content — the division that runs these linear TV businesses such as Disney Channel (which recently celebrated its 40th birthday), National Geographic, ABC, and more — were not thrilled, to say the least.
The division reportedly “houses thousands and thousands of employees,” many of whom felt blindsided by Iger’s comments during the interview. Up until this meeting on Tuesday, there had been no followup nor discussions on the future of Disney TV, causing employees to feel “high anxiety” about the state of their jobs.
For what it’s worth, Iger told the employees he believed their work was “incredibly valuable” to Disney, seemingly echoing his statement to Faber that Disney’s linear TV channel’s creative content is “core to Disney.” He emphasized the importance of ABC News especially during his Tuesday talk; “We need to figure out how it makes the transition into streaming,” Iger reportedly told senior leaders. “It’s too good, it’s too important, and it’s really fun.”
His comments didn’t entirely calm employees’ fears, who believe it’s one thing to talk about how great the channels’ content may be, but another to keep that content. One Disney insider who spoke to CNN equated it to a jewel collector appraising his crown jewel: “It’s great to say he loves the jewel…But he has revealed the truth: he wants to get the highest price he can for the jewel because he can’t afford it anymore.”
A new $2 billion theme park created to rival Disney is headed to Oklahoma
American Heartland, a new American-themed park is making its way to Vinita, Oklahoma. In a press release, Oklahoma State Sen. Micheal Bergstrom revealed the new park’s “long-term economic impact will be transformative” and will bring over 4,000 jobs to the state. The new theme park is going to be massive; American Heartland will host a 125-acre theme park on a 1000-acre development, comparable in size to both Magic Kindom and Disneyland. Additionally, a 320-acre campground, Three Ponies RV Park and Campground, is being built and will have 750 RV spaces and 300 cabins with amenities, while a 300-room hotel is also in the works.
A team of over 20 former Disney Imagineers and Disney Parks builders will build the park, which is expected to open in three years. Steve Hedrick, formerly the executive producer of Creative Entertainment and Walt Disney Imagineering for 20 years, will be heading the park’s development.
The park will feature six “distinctly American” lands: Great Plains, Bayou Bay, Big Timber Falls, Stony Point Harbor, Liberty Village, and Electropolis. Developers are hoping to attract 2 million out-of-state visitors annually once the park opens in 2026.