In a recent article at Inside the Magic, Disney’s Bob Iger was quoted speaking candidly about Disney+. In a CNBC interview, Iger said,
Disney in general has had a fairly rough half decade. The company obviously lost a lot on its theme park business in the beginning of the ’20s and while that’s bounced back, other segments of the business clearly haven’t. ABC has very few bona fide hits on its broadcast schedule. ESPN seems increasingly marginalized due to competition from dedicated sports apps and regional sports networks. Disney’s movie divisions seem incapable of creating a hit. And then, there’s Disney+.
Now, this is far from the first time I’ve complained about Disney+. The first was when it was announced back in 2017. I was wrong there, because I figured Disney would wall off every Disney, Pixar, MCU, and Star Wars film and never show them outside their app. They did that for a while, but they’ve been forced to let some of those out in order to pay bills. No, the reason I’m complaining at the moment is that frankly it’s been months since I actually watched anything on the app.
Disney+ made a splash with new, original content that had very high production values. Obviously that wasn’t going to last forever. The app got a boost, as all streaming apps did, during lockdown when theatrical releases went straight to streaming. But those days are long past. Lately it’s been very hard to find something new to watch. Disney has an excellent back catalog, but it’s always been new content that’s driven subscriber numbers.
Part of the problem is that its big draws have faltered mightily of late. Pixar, once the most reliable studio in Hollywood, hasn’t pulled off a real buzzworthy hit since Inside Out. We’re all several years into superhero fatigue, and so even if Disney gives us well-produced stuff we aren’t going to want it. And as for the Star Wars universe, well… Andor was a very interesting idea but otherwise the stuff on Disney+ has become increasingly esoteric and strangely still very tied to the Skywalker family.
Disney+ needs a hit. A cheap hit. A cheap hit that’s also good. And they need it soon.
I think part of the problem with Disney+ is that the company talked itself into thinking that in order to build buzz, you need to pile on the special effects. Yes, that’s one way to do it. But increasingly, it’s a way we’ve grown tired of. Some of the best content in the last several years has been the most surprisingly simple. Take ABC’s Not Dead Yet, a fairly traditional sitcom filled largely with hard-working second-tier actors. It’s smart, it’s sweet, and it hits that “elder millennial” demographic hard enough to drive that group into actually watching TV. Don’t get me wrong, it will never get the ratings that sitcoms got in the 20th century. But it’s cheap, it’s good, and it’s what Disney should be doing more of.
If Disney is bound and determined to keep costs down while beating its existing intellectual property to death, there’s a way to do it. Just create great content that takes place in their existing universes while featuring regular people. About a decade ago, DC produced a sitcom called Powerless. It was a workplace sitcom based at an insurance company that handles damage from superheroes. It was a fantastic concept that got slaughtered by the Hollywood system. The original creator was taken off the show before the second episode, and everything that made the show great was stripped away. It was canceled after 10 episodes.
So why am I talking about Powerless? Because even though that show didn’t work, it’s a great template for what you could actually do. One of the best-reviewed Marvel TV shows was Daredevil, for example. It wasn’t good because it had superhero craziness. It was good because it showed the real impact of real people after the events of The Avengers. And Disney could do a lot more like that. Shows that are sweet, funny, interesting, even thought-provoking. Shows that are good shows that just happen to take place within Disney’s existing IP. Andor was like that, and it was very well reviewed. It was also slathered over with special effects, but it didn’t have to be. It could have been a lot simpler. She-Hulk was like that, but it suffered from unfair review bombing. Honestly that show deserved a lot better than it got.
Disney films, no matter which studio, were great when they put great stories first. Great visuals won’t save you, especially today. Disney could absolutely greenlight more stories that you could produce cheaply and that people would watch because they’re good. They should have been doing that all along. Instead, they got sucked into the idea that you needed a billion dollars in special effects that weren’t terribly special anyway.
But, there’s still time. I just think they should start today before more people realize, like me, that there’s nothing new to watch on Disney+.
The post STREAMING SATURDAY: Disney+? More like Disney- appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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…the losses were around $4 billion a year. It was clear that that was not sustainable and not acceptable, and the goal was first, let’s reduce those losses.
Disney in general has had a fairly rough half decade. The company obviously lost a lot on its theme park business in the beginning of the ’20s and while that’s bounced back, other segments of the business clearly haven’t. ABC has very few bona fide hits on its broadcast schedule. ESPN seems increasingly marginalized due to competition from dedicated sports apps and regional sports networks. Disney’s movie divisions seem incapable of creating a hit. And then, there’s Disney+.
Now, this is far from the first time I’ve complained about Disney+. The first was when it was announced back in 2017. I was wrong there, because I figured Disney would wall off every Disney, Pixar, MCU, and Star Wars film and never show them outside their app. They did that for a while, but they’ve been forced to let some of those out in order to pay bills. No, the reason I’m complaining at the moment is that frankly it’s been months since I actually watched anything on the app.
Nothing new under the sun?
Disney+ made a splash with new, original content that had very high production values. Obviously that wasn’t going to last forever. The app got a boost, as all streaming apps did, during lockdown when theatrical releases went straight to streaming. But those days are long past. Lately it’s been very hard to find something new to watch. Disney has an excellent back catalog, but it’s always been new content that’s driven subscriber numbers.
Part of the problem is that its big draws have faltered mightily of late. Pixar, once the most reliable studio in Hollywood, hasn’t pulled off a real buzzworthy hit since Inside Out. We’re all several years into superhero fatigue, and so even if Disney gives us well-produced stuff we aren’t going to want it. And as for the Star Wars universe, well… Andor was a very interesting idea but otherwise the stuff on Disney+ has become increasingly esoteric and strangely still very tied to the Skywalker family.
Disney+ needs a hit. A cheap hit. A cheap hit that’s also good. And they need it soon.
You don’t have to spend $500 million
I think part of the problem with Disney+ is that the company talked itself into thinking that in order to build buzz, you need to pile on the special effects. Yes, that’s one way to do it. But increasingly, it’s a way we’ve grown tired of. Some of the best content in the last several years has been the most surprisingly simple. Take ABC’s Not Dead Yet, a fairly traditional sitcom filled largely with hard-working second-tier actors. It’s smart, it’s sweet, and it hits that “elder millennial” demographic hard enough to drive that group into actually watching TV. Don’t get me wrong, it will never get the ratings that sitcoms got in the 20th century. But it’s cheap, it’s good, and it’s what Disney should be doing more of.
If Disney is bound and determined to keep costs down while beating its existing intellectual property to death, there’s a way to do it. Just create great content that takes place in their existing universes while featuring regular people. About a decade ago, DC produced a sitcom called Powerless. It was a workplace sitcom based at an insurance company that handles damage from superheroes. It was a fantastic concept that got slaughtered by the Hollywood system. The original creator was taken off the show before the second episode, and everything that made the show great was stripped away. It was canceled after 10 episodes.
So why am I talking about it?
So why am I talking about Powerless? Because even though that show didn’t work, it’s a great template for what you could actually do. One of the best-reviewed Marvel TV shows was Daredevil, for example. It wasn’t good because it had superhero craziness. It was good because it showed the real impact of real people after the events of The Avengers. And Disney could do a lot more like that. Shows that are sweet, funny, interesting, even thought-provoking. Shows that are good shows that just happen to take place within Disney’s existing IP. Andor was like that, and it was very well reviewed. It was also slathered over with special effects, but it didn’t have to be. It could have been a lot simpler. She-Hulk was like that, but it suffered from unfair review bombing. Honestly that show deserved a lot better than it got.
Disney films, no matter which studio, were great when they put great stories first. Great visuals won’t save you, especially today. Disney could absolutely greenlight more stories that you could produce cheaply and that people would watch because they’re good. They should have been doing that all along. Instead, they got sucked into the idea that you needed a billion dollars in special effects that weren’t terribly special anyway.
But, there’s still time. I just think they should start today before more people realize, like me, that there’s nothing new to watch on Disney+.
The post STREAMING SATURDAY: Disney+? More like Disney- appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
