The Walt Disney company has had a pretty rough couple of years, though 2023 has proven to be extremely painful for them as just about every project they have put out has bombed at the box office and even on their streaming platforms. Much of heavy financial punches they are taking come as a result of the once family oriented company going full woke. And as the saying goes, “go woke, go broke.” That’s a lesson Bud Light learned the hard way, but it seems Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger was not paying attention.
According to Newsmax, Iger recently spoke with investors and attempted to soothe their concerns and smooth things over by stating they would “quiet the noise” from the culture war raging over the company pushing the progressive agenda in material that is supposed to be aimed at children.
Iger put out a short statement that included a report from a Needham media analyst, Laura Martin, which all included in an investors’ presentation held at Walt Disney World Resort located in Orlando, Florida. It was at this event that Iger revealed Walt Disney would be pouring a significant chunk of funds from investments into theme parks and cruise ships over the course of the next 10 years.
“Disney has suffered a bruising battle that has played out in Florida and at box office, where it faced social media backlash over the casting of Halle Bailey, a Black actress, in the lead role of Ariel in “The Little Mermaid,'” the report said. There were several countries that blocked the theatrical release of Pixar’s “Lightyear” film, which shows a same-sex couple smooching on the lips.
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The entertainment company was thrust at the center of the nation’s culture wars in 2022, when it publicly criticized Florida legislation restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity. Governor Ron DeSantis responded by campaigning against “woke Disney,” and working with the state legislature to strip it of self-governing authority over the parks.
Florida and Disney are locked in a legal battle over the formation of the Central Florida Oversight District board, which assumed oversight of development in the nearly 25,000 acres (100 square kilometers) of property in and around Disney’s theme parks. It is unclear how much of the $60 billion in new investment in parks will be spent in Florida, where Disney faces increased competition from rivals such as Universal Orlando Resort. Iger previously said the company planned to spend $17 billion in investment at Walt Disney World over the next 10 years.
Iger’s remarks about its content appear to mirror those he made at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in April. At the time, Iger was responding to an investor, who said Disney had evolved from “a place of magic for children” to an “ideological company serving the LGBTQ” community that promoted a “woke agenda.”
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