Bob Iger’s Pay Package Is Revealed As Exec Spends His First Day Back In Disney CEO Chair

Yesterday’s DC chaos about the unplugging of Patty Jenkins’ version of Wonder Woman 3 coupled with rampant rumors of the studio’s new co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran turning the comic book label upside down sans a Henry Cavill Man of Steel 2 and possible re-casting of many current big superhero roles has left the town with a bad case of PTSD.

Disney + Basic, a cheaper version of the 3-year-old streaming service, has officially gone live.

With the unexpected return of Bob Iger last month for a new stint as Disney CEO, the entertainment giant’s veteran chief financial officer Christine McCarthy has emerged as a leading contender to take over the top job.

When Disney launches the ad-supported tier of Disney+ later this week, about one-quarter of current U.S. subscribers are expected to opt for the lower-cost version with ads, according to new research from Kantar.

When Michael Eisner was making a ceremonial exit as Disney’s CEO in 2005 he acknowledged that the intrigues of succession had become “Shakespearean.” Rival corporate factions were vying for power. Some insiders were persuaded that Eisner never would actually depart.

A media sector squeezed by streaming losses, anemic stocks, layoffs and executive turmoil unveiled its latest casualties today – 20% of AMC Networks’ U.S. staff, or about 200 people, along with the departure of CEO Christina Spade.

Disney said an upcoming restructuring under new/old CEO Bob Iger could result in impairment charges. It also noted that, as expected, it’s acquired the remaining 15% of streaming tech company BamTech it didn’t already own, paying $900 million. The news was tucked in a long year-end SEC filing today after a tumultuous ten days for the company.

“There is a lot to do,” Bob Iger told Disney staffers today of the state of the company he is now running again. “Quickly,” added the newly re-minted CEO at a town hall at the company’s Burbank HQ heralding his official return.

Death, taxes and films that bomb at the box office.

Disney stock faded more than 1% on the second day of Bob Iger’s return engagement as CEO, reflecting investors’ divergent outlooks on the media giant’s prospects

The surprise return of Bob Iger as Disney CEO, replacing his own replacement Bob Chapek, is not without precedent in corporate America, as Jimmy Kimmel reminded viewers last night.

Dancing with the Stars‘ first season on Disney+ has come to end! So much change has already been announced going into tonight’s season 31 finale. First, judge Len Goodman and Cheryl Burke have called it quits. Then, Disney gave Bob Chapek the heave-ho and rewarded Bob Iger with his old CEO seat. A desperate plea from the cheap seats, Mr. Iger: return the mirror ball to ABC! I think we can all agree that this streaming experiment has gone the way of the polka: no one wants Disney+ anywhere near the ballroom. Perhaps moving it back home to Mondays on ABC can be your next major decision after lowering the price for the Genie+ line-skipping service at the parks?

Call it a holiday tradition as common as sweet potatoes on the Thanksgiving table, but Disney is going to rule the five-day holiday stretch again after wins in 2016 (Moana), 2017 (Coco), 2018 (Ralph Breaks the Internet), 2019 (Frozen 2) and last year (Encanto), as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s third weekend looks to do $40M over Wednesday-Sunday and Disney Animation’s Strange World hopes to squeeze out $30M+. All of this occurs as Bob Iger is re-installed as the CEO of Disney and the studio’s distribution czar Kareem Daniel exits.

Many Disney employees woke up this morning trying to make sense of a surreal Sunday night that some say felt like a dream.

Kareem Daniel is exiting Disney as head of its Media and Entertainment Distribution division, one day after the ouster of CEO Bob Chapek.

Among those quite happy with the re-installment of Bob Iger as Disney’s CEO was exhibition giant, AMC’s Adam Aron, who took to Twitter in the wake of the news exclaiming, “Based on box office grosses, Disney is the biggest film maker of any movie studio. Bob Iger coming back to again lead Disney as its CEO is a big deal. Let me shout this from the mountain top. I have the absolute highest respect for Bob Iger.”

So much for the retired life of Bob Iger. Deadline reports that after less than a year into retirement, Iger returns to the Walt Disney Company as CEO.

Disney shares busted out of the starting gate, rising 8% in early trading on a wave of optimistic sentiment about Bob Iger’s return engagement as CEO.

Wall Street has already embraced the news that Bob Iger has returned as Disney’s CEO, replacing Bob Chapek’s short and tumultuous reign: Shares in the entertainment giant climbed nearly 9% in premarket trading on Monday, to $99.85. Chapek, the former Disney parks chief who himself replaced Iger as CEO less than two years ago, has struggled during his brief tenure amid COVID pressures, economic issues as well self-inflicted management wounds — and Disney’s shaky revenue picture has driven its stock price down 41% since the start of the year.