Taking Stock of Disney’s Direction
By Allen Rushing, Contributing Writer
Despite Bob Iger’s November re-establishment as CEO of the Walt Disney Co. and the subsequent bump in market value, Disney stock has dropped again and continues to limp, like a cane-carrying Scrooge, toward Christmas 2022.
Though “Disney executives and the Hollywood creative community initially hailed Iger’s return…after the…missteps of [Bob]Chapek,” viewers remain skeptical; wanting to see tangible improvement to believe it.
“Disney stock, which initially spiked as much as 10% on the day after Iger’s reappointment and climbed as high as $99.43 in the days after, closed Wednesday at $92.15 — just 35 cents more than the $91.80 closing price on Nov. 18, Chapek’s final work day,” reported The Wrap’s Scott Mendelson on Wednesday, December 7.
Since then, the price per share has waffled, hovering around 93.90 as of Tuesday, December 13. This is a modest financial improvement at best.
Such are the numbers. But what always lies behind the numbers, and actually drives these numbers, is worldview; for no one thinks, acts, or tells stories except from out of a particular worldview. In the case of Disney, there is a clear war of worldviews between the outspokenly woke “Disney executives and the Hollywood creative community” and the Company’s much less outspokenly, yet undeniably conservative and often Christian audience.
Could it be that Disney’s meager financial improvement following Iger’s return is actually due to its nonexistent philosophical improvement in its worldview and storytelling?
Examples abound of how the Walt Disney Co. is woefully out of touch with the religious positions of its viewers. From its not-so-inconspicuous nods to Elsa’s lesbianism in FROZEN II to its inclusion of a same-sex kiss in LIGHTYEAR, it is clear that Disney is all in with the woke agenda and culture war.
Hollywood’s own Oliver Stone reminds us: “Film is a powerful medium….Film is a potential hallucinogen. It goes into your eye, it goes into your brain. It stimulates. And is a dangerous thing. It can be a very subversive thing.”
On this point, Stone could not be more right. Film is a powerful storytelling medium and it is clear that Disney chose to wield this powerful tool with the intent to subvert the Biblical Christian values of many of its viewers.
It remains to be seen whether Walt’s venerable Company will see the connection between its financial woes and its worldview woes and act to correct and truly improve both of these. It is apparent that Disney’s success will come, and will only come, when it returns to Biblically-based, family-friendly values and stops incorporating progressive ideals in its movies, series, and other content.
It is in this sense that, as Jennifer Saibil of the Motley Fool writes, “December could be a make-or-break moment” for Disney.
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