Rather than reflecting on their own choices and considering a return to what once made them successful, one unnamed Disney executive has a different scapegoat in mind: blaming the decline on supposedly bigoted fans.
From Western Journal:
The report comes from Hollywood journalist Matthew Belloni, whose newsletter boasts an incredibly 15,000 paid and 35,000 unpaid subscribers.
Per Vulture, that newsletter, Puck, is praised across the news and Hollywood industries, so when Belloni mentions an anonymous source, it’s a relatively safe bet his sourcing is solid.
In response to the Feb. 15 installment of Puck, which elaborated on how the politicization of Disney’s brand has been bad for business, Belloni claims a Disney executive reached out to comment.
The Bullwark culture editor Sonny Bunch shared the executive’s comments on X on Feb. 19.
In that anonymous executive’s opinion, Disney’s choice to play identity politics with an increasing number of its brands isn’t the problem — the fact that Disney’s audience won’t accept those politics is.
“Everyone says ‘It’s the movies, stupid,’ which is an easy thing for people to say. More appealing movies are a great way to jump the political issues. But more and more, our audience (or the segment of the audience that has been politicized) equate the perceived messaging in a film as a quality issue,” the executive reportedly said.
“They won’t say they find female empowerment distasteful in The Marvels or Star Wars, but they will say they don’t like those movies because they are ‘bad.’”
“So ‘make better movies’ becomes code for ‘make movies that conform to regressive gender stereotypes or put men front and center in the narrative.’ Which is what you’re seeing now, and what Bob [Iger]’s pivot is about right now.”
