March 18, 2026, 6:31 PM ·
Today is the day when Josh D’Amaro takes over from Bob Iger as CEO of The Walt Disney Company. So let’s take a moment to look at why Disney chose its theme parks leader for the job, and what that says about the company’s direction.D’Amaro said at Disney’s annual shareholders meeting, “While others in our industry are consolidating just to compete, or struggling to be relevant in a fragmented and disrupted world, Disney is in a category of one, poised to accelerate into our next era of innovation and growth. And this next chapter will be driven by staying focused on world-class creativity, enhanced by technology, bringing unforgettable stories to audiences wherever they are.”Love the diss on Paramount and Warner Bros. there. Remember, Disney is the only major Hollywood studio that remains under its original ownership. That is perhaps even more impressive when you consider that the Disney company was not a major studio in Walt’s lifetime. At that time, the Big Five were Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and 20th Century Fox. The “Little Three” were Universal, Columbia, and United Artists. Disney was an afterthought – a niche studio making animation and the occasional live-action film.Michael Eisner elevated Disney to major studio status. Then Iger steered the company through industry consolidation, buying Lucasfilm, Marvel and one-time Big Five studio Fox. Today, Disney is America’s largest studio by market share – a title it will retain even if Paramount and Warner Bros. go through with their proposed merger. (Universal will be a close third, with Sony trailing far behind.)So what will define the D’Amaro era? I believe that it will be the way that Disney brings those “unforgettable stories to audiences.” The entertainment industry’s past saw productions passed through multiple companies before reaching the consumer. Today – and in the future – producers will work to cut out those middlemen and present their work directly to consumers.And there is no one at The Walt Disney Company better at connecting directly with the company’s fans and customers than Josh D’Amaro. Long before studios bought TV networks and launched streaming services, Disney was connecting directly with consumers through its theme parks. Countless selfies testify to D’Amaro’s ability to communicate with and understand consumers on an individual basis. The Disney Experiences segment’s pitch-black balance sheets attest to his ability to understand and serve consumers on an aggregate level, as well.As Hollywood businesses look to satisfy ravenous investors with ever-increasing profits, cutting out the middleman provides an attractive path forward. Film your own productions and send them to consumers via your own streaming service. Build your own attractions based on those productions and welcome your customers to experience them in your theme parks, staying in your hotels. Clothe your fans in the consumer productions that you produce. Own the market, at every step.Disney knows how to do this because it has been selling directly to consumers for decades. Other Hollywood companies have been selling not to consumers but to distributors, exhibitors, affiliates, cable and satellite providers, and licensees. With the Internet allowing producers and publishers to deliver directly to consumers, millions of Americans are moving away from cable subscriptions and over-the-air TV stations.Ultimately, people can stream to the same living room TV on which they watched cable and broadcast. The transmission method does not matter to the content. But the drive toward streaming and online content is taking customers away from movie theaters, as well. And that is the existential threat to Disney and other Hollywood studios. Almost always, the stories at the heart of Disney’s IP are movies. How can Hollywood bring people back to the theater again, when they can enjoy a world’s worth of video entertainment on screens at home and in their hand? The same way that Disney has been pulling people out of their living rooms and into its theme parks for 70-plus years – by creating something that you cannot experience anywhere else.U.S. federal law for decades stood in the way of movie studios owning the theaters in which their movies play. The Paramount Decrees that followed 1948’s United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. decision kept studios out of the exhibition business. But the federal government started easing those restrictions in the 1980s, before scrapping the Paramount Decrees in 2020. If Disney wanted to create Disney movie theaters around the country, it now could.As someone who dearly misses the ArcLight chain, I wish that Disney would. The movie-going experience now is awful at so many theaters. Yes, AMC gives away a lot of admissions with its A-List pass, but that comes at the cost of having to endure 30-minutes-plus of commercials and other previews after its published showtimes. No thank you.If I am going to see a movie in a theater instead of at home, that theater had better have comfortable, adjustable seats, clear sight lines from every seat – no matter who is sitting in front of you, projection and sound that matches what the director saw and heard at the studio, as well as friendly and helpful staff who can maintain control of the audience, when needed. Tasty food and drinks would be nice, too. But most of all, that movie had better start precisely on time, with no latecomers allowed.So what company employs an entire division of people with years of experience in creating that kind of controlled entertainment environment? Disney. Let Walt Disney Imagineering design and Disney Experiences staff movie theaters and let’s see if that helps bring more Americans back to the theaters again.Disney has big plans for creating and distributing more content on Disney+. It is selling ESPN directly to consumers. It continues to spend billions to expand its theme parks and cruise fleet.But while Disney is fond of quoting Walt saying that “it all started with a Mouse,” let’s remember that it all started with a Mouse in a movie theater. A DTC future for The Walt Disney Company does not need to mean leaving the theatrical experience behind. Disney – more than any company in Hollywood – knows how to create great out-of-home attractions. Josh D’Amaro knows how to lead a multi-billion-dollar business while forging direct, individual connections with consumers. The path is clear. Hollywood’s future is waiting. It’s time for Disney, under Josh D’Amaro’s leadership, to deliver that future to consumers. Directly.
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