Disney's new mandate

proposal.jpgNow under new studio management, the Mouse House is only interested in two types of movies: The $150-million+ blockbuster with lots of special effects and merchandising/marketing possibilities, and the $30 million youth-skewed feature with cheap talent on the verge of making it big. "Everything in the middle," one producer told NY magazine's Claude Brodesser-Akner, "is toast." That includes, by the way, a sequel to last year's "The Proposal," which starred Sandra Bullock and grossed $315 million worldwide. In the wonderful new world of Disney, it's a nonstarter.

To help pay for the whopping $10 billion Disney spent acquiring Pixar and Marvel in recent years, [CEO Bob] Iger decreed that as the world's largest licensor of consumer products, Disney needs its films not to merely succeed in theaters, but to sell gobs of spinoff merch, as well: In 2008, the company sold some $30 billion worth of licensed consumer products, and suffice it to say, exactly none of that came from Sandra Bullock hand towels.

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Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
The multi-talented Mark Lacter
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