The Disney Saga: Did you really think Bob Iger would stay away?

 The top job at Disney is notoriously hard to quit. Michael Eisner, who served as CEO for 21 years is known to have never wanted to leave the post. “I would expect to stay there forever,” he said in 1997, “at least as long as I live.” But his tenure did not end as he expected, and in 2005 he had left after a shareholder revolt. Eisner’s successor, bob iger, renewed his own contract four times before finally retiring in February 2020. So who should be surprised that he’s back after less than three years?

In a Sunday night memo to Disney employees, Iger himself expressed surprise at returning to the company he had run for 15 years. After all, he’d spent most of the year publicly insisting he was done with work, even telling journalists and Vary podcast host Kara Swisher that rumors he might return as CEO are “ridiculous”. A person familiar with Iger’s thinking says, “It’s fair to take his word for it that he thought he was done.” But perhaps no one, not even Iger, read the tea leaves correctly.

Bob ChapekDisney’s tenure as CEO has not been smooth sailing. He angered the talent community by going into battle with him Scarlett Johansson above her Black widow Treaty, then alienated the LGBTQ+ community and its allies when he first chose not to comment on Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law and then reversed course. Meanwhile, visitors to the theme parks are outraged by the rising prices at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Creative leaders are frustrated with their loss of decision-making authority. Investors were reportedly confused by Chapek’s cheerful tone on an earnings call in the context of a shockingly poor quarter. Employees expressed concern about planned cost-cutting measures, including a hiring freeze and layoffs. According to reports, Chapek has not had many people in his corner in recent weeks The New York Times, Disney executives began talking about stepping down if Chapek stayed and CFO Christine McCarthy reportedly told at least one board member that she had lost confidence in him as a leader.

Chapek’s job was only made more difficult by the fact that even after he stepped down as CEO, Iger never actually left. Iger’s decision to stay on as Executive Chairman through the end of 2021 at times put him in direct conflict with Chapek, a more hard-headed numbers person seen by many as the polar opposite of the slick, creative Iger. The Hollywood Reporter wrote last October that a rift had developed between the Bobs following an April 2020 article The New York Times suggested that Iger had “effectively returned to running the company” in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Even after Iger would have Finally, fully adopted, it can’t have been easy for Chapek to lead with the specter of his popular predecessor looming over him. For example, while Chapek fiddled with the “Don’t Say Gay” moment, many Disney watchers noted that Iger had already done so tweeted his criticism of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

To be fair, Iger did To attempt keep going. After staying on as Disney CEO much longer than he intended — and going through some potential heirs — he finally seemed happy with his decision to name Chapek as his successor and publicly committed to the next chapter of his career. He began work on a second book, joined the board of Metaverse startup Genies, and landed a role at venture firm Thrive Capital. Before he got the call from Disney’s chairman on Friday afternoon Susan Arnold that would eventually lure him back to Disney, he had spoken to RedBird Capital Partners, the investment firm he runs Gerry Cardinale that owns shares David Ellison‘s Skydance and Lebron James‘s SpringHill Entertainment, according to a source vanity fair. But Iger, who was once expected to run for president or take on a post of ambassador to the presidency Joe Biden‘s administration, was available when the Disney board needed him.

When Iger’s memo hit their inboxes Sunday night, many of Disney’s top executives were among them dana walden, the chairman of the general entertainment department, were with Elton-John‘s Dodger Stadium farewell concert streamed live on Disney+. tell sources vf that creatives across the company are cheering the news of Iger’s return. Another person who seemed happy for Iger was his predecessor Eisner, who tweeted, “Welcome back to Disney.” Eisner may have seen it coming.

Box Office: Disney’s Strange World Bombing

 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued to dominate the Thanksgiving box office. Faced with only token opposition, the superhero sequel raised $10 million on Wednesday. The Marvel and Disney release is on track to gross around $63 million over the five days, slightly beating the competition.

Another Disney movie, “Strange World,” is bombed, grossing a disappointing $4.2 million on Wednesday as it calls for a five-day purchase of less than $24 million. That’s a terrible result for the $180 million animated adventure. For comparison, “Encanto,” another recent Disney animation offering, earned $40.3 million over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2021 — and that was seen as a poor showing for the family film. “Encanto” didn’t really hit the zeitgeist until it was streamed on Disney+, when “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became ubiquitous.

Among other newcomers, Sony and Black Label Media’s Devotion, an inspirational drama about two elite US Navy fighter pilots, grossed $1.8 million. A five-day haul of $10.2 million is expected.

MGM and United Artists Releasing’s “Bones and All” stumbles in its expansion and grossed about $900,000 as of Wednesday. The offbeat tale of young cannibals in love is on track to gross $4.3 million in five days. It opened last weekend in a limited edition.

And Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans grossed $400,000 on Wednesday after expanding from four theaters to more than 600 venues. The semi-autobiographical look at the filmmaker’s early years would gross $3 million over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Searchlight’s “The Menu” earned $1.1 million and was expected to gross $8 million over the holiday season. The domestic gross of the horror comedy is $12.4 million. Warner Bros. and DC’s “Black Adam” earned $660,000 as of Wednesday and is expected to gross $4 million on vacation. The domestic total of the superhero film is almost 160 million US dollars.

It’s a pretty bleak picture for the film business, which has been in a lull since mid-summer and still grappling with the aftershocks of the COVID lockdowns. The holiday box office appears to be down about 10% from last Thanksgiving, when ticket sales peaked at $142 million. That was a far cry from the pre-pandemic Thanksgiving results. For example, in 2019, the Turkey Day frame grossed $263.3 million. The exhibition business had reason to celebrate after it was revealed that Amazon plans to spend $1 billion to produce 12 to 15 films that will hit theaters. The internet giant has alternated between embracing cinemas and focusing on powering its streaming service. The recent shift in strategy is a boon for exhibitors as the announcement has taken a toll on their inventories.

Theater operators could get silent support from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the follow-up to Rian Johnson’s 2019 hit Whodunit. However, Netflix is ​​not reporting any earnings for the film, which is showing in 600 North American theaters.

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

 “Terry [Lewis] and I started writing together when we were teenagers,” Jimmy Jam told me in 2020. “He grew up loving funk; [me], loving harmony groups America, Seals and Crofts, the Carpenters. When we got together he would bring this funky track; I would put this pretty melody on top.”

With this recipe, they garnered more Billboard No. 1s as any songwriting and production team in history, along with five Grammys and 11 Producer of the Year nominations, as well as Oscar and Emmy nominations. And ahead of this year’s Rock Hall induction, Jam and Lewis were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017.

Their journey began in 1983 when they were fired (Lewis prefers “freed”) by their high school friend Prince from Minneapolis funk legends The Time after missing a show (they got snowed in while listening to the SOS Band – Classics “Just Be Good” produced me”). Luckily, I saw her on the Triple Threat tour with Prince and Vanity 6 in Cincinnati a few months earlier.

After that fateful job change, Jam and Lewis worked alongside other legends – Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, George Michael, Gwen Stefani and Kanye West – and earned 100 gold, platinum, multi-platinum and diamond albums. However, it was her historic collaboration with Janet Jackson, beginning with her 1986 album Control, that was groundbreaking for everyone involved.

“Our analogy has always been to make a suit for someone,” says Jam, who I’m proud to call a fellow host of “The Jimmy Jam Show” on Sirius XM Volume. “You can go to a clothing store and buy a suit off the shelf, or you can go to a tailor and look at the fabric, choose the colour, how many buttons – this suit is made to measure for you. [We’re the] tailors with music and tailors each song to the artist.”

Alan Light can be heard on SiriusXM Volume.

This essay is part of a series – in collaboration with on-air talent SiriusXM – to pay tribute to the artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 5th in Los Angeles. Watch the full 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on HBO November 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET, along with a simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Radio (Channel 310). SiriusXM listeners can also catch live, backstage coverage and commentary on Volume on the SXM App and on Faction Talk (Channel 103)..

Black Adam moments that upset fans the most

 Much goes into the storyline of Black Adam, from the plight of the Kahndaq citizens to the JSA’s mission to apprehend Black Adam, and even the Captain himself coming to terms with the reality of living in a world which is 5,000 years away from his own. Overall, however, the narrative itself is more of a literal approach to superhero cinema. Though Black Adam has no qualms about killing, he nonetheless comes to the realization that he has a duty to uphold it. It’s quite difficult to make an unpredictable superhero movie these days, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we can still enjoy the ride.

With that in mind, it can be a bit annoying for fans when trailers spoil the little reveals a film still has to offer. This is an element of modern marketing that is becoming increasingly problematic for the film industry. All too often, trailers are criticized for showing too much. The film eventually reveals that Teth-Adam was not the original champion chosen by the Wizarding Council. We learn that his son received the honor but sacrificed power to save his father and died for it.

Most would have been surprised by the reveal if the trailer didn’t already spoil that fact. Redditor mcfuddlebutt shared some of her least favorite elements of the film. One major critic was for “trying to play his dying son as the storyline when they were literally promoting it as the story”. Another Redditor, shadowst17, wrote, “They even turned the ‘I was the father not the son’ into a reveal, even though it’s mentioned verbatim in the trailer.”