Walt Disney Studio’s Mark Zoradi Exits

COMMENTS (41)

• Mark’s great example, understanding and insight of marketing in an increasingly competitive international market place will be hard to follow and even harder to emulate.

  Comment by John Birchell Hughes — Tuesday November 10, 2009 @ 3:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• I CAN’T WAIT until Iger uses up all the people Disney’s has for high-end scapegoating. Then all eyes will look at him & see him for the miserable failure he really is. Watch the morale drop at Mousewitz over the next year… this story isn’t finished, and that asshole who thinks he walks on water is going to be very surprised indeed at his new promotions’ failures.

  Comment by JChambers — Tuesday November 10, 2009 @ 3:28pm PST  Reply to this post

• Oren Aviv is the one who should be getting the axe. He’s the nimrod who greenlight all those horrible failures and he’s the one who over the past 20 years has beaten that ridiculous excuse for a marketing department into submission that no matter what the movie they do the same sell EVERY f’ing time and they beat a joke to death and when they try to be different, Surrogates outdoor campaign, it reeks of desperation. They need to axe Oren and his zombies who worship at his throne.

  Comment by snarky — Tuesday November 10, 2009 @ 6:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• …and while they are at it, when on earth are they going to get rid of Jim Gallagher…rude, obnoxious, incompetent…and he was the man at the switch of the very expensive and true marketing mess for A Christmas Carol.

  …if only people knew the real story of how this guy’s mess…

  A great deal of odd comments here. Look, Iger is a very smart fellow. These expensive adventures with Zemeckis all trace themselves back to Cook and his team. No question that Iger recognizes that this purge was completely essential. Will he have the courage, and the understanding that these expensive Zemeckis empty eye-ed “films” must stop? We shall see. But Cook advocated–at a time when lean and mean is essential–outrageous and frivolous luxury on the Zemeckis failed experiment.

  When this thing is all looked at in the long run, despite the “popularity” in some quarters, the Cook regime did not recognize that the business has moved from a “trend” to a “transition” and could no longer follow the old model, could no longer sustain crazies like Zemeckis.

  People do not realize, that although popular, this gang actually harmed relations with talent. There was no foresightedness, a good deal of steamrolling over people, and as I mentioned, while they are at it, Gallagher should be next…he is a real piece of work in the worst tradition…

  Comment by Tiny Tim — Tuesday November 10, 2009 @ 7:01pm PST  Reply to this post

• Thj is right… When Cook re-orged the studio a few years ago, the only people who came out ahead were his buddies from marketing. Bob Chapek and Oren Aviv are the last ones left, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

  Comment by The Replacements — Tuesday November 10, 2009 @ 8:20pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Heard Gallagher is out. Too bad, he’s a nice guy, but if he’s out hopefully Dave Singh goes with him. Now that guys an ass.

    Comment by snarky — Wednesday November 11, 2009 @ 2:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• Although I know that ABC Daytime is not on as big of a scale as the rest of what is going on at Disney, can someone please whisper in Bob Iger’s ear to get rid of Brian Frons because that is a man that is really incompetent at his job.

  Comment by Pretty Please — Tuesday November 10, 2009 @ 11:01pm PST  Reply to this post

• While it’s hard to tell where the comment from “Snarky” is coming from, I must say that the comment from “Tiny Tim” just reeks of being way too personal. Hell, you may as well be Iger’s assistant for all one knows. People should spend less time trying to falsely attack people that have been fiercely loyal to Disney and worked their asses off to try and deliver the numbers for opening day weekends and maybe spend a little more time looking at the fact that the Idiot know as Iger may very well be wrecking the very trademarks that make Disney stand out as a studio. To stand out in the marketplace as a name that people (and shareholders) can identify immediately and feel like it’s a part of their home life, their holidays and their entertainment is a quality that no amount of money can buy. Middle americans don’t feel a thing or give a damn when the Universal logo comes up, or Warner Brothers or Sony. Only 2 studios in this town have the distinction of being familiar faces and Disney has been number 1 in that department.

  As for Jim Gallagher, what sort of drugs are you on? What? Did Gallagher yell at you once or twice when he was in the midst of editing, mixing, scheduling, brainstorming or just getting something out the goddamn door that would live up to the Disney standard? If so, get tougher. That’s the way Jim works. On the inside, the guy is a teddy bear. He’s loyal, he’s dedicated to doing the best damn job he can, and for all huffing and puffing, well, that’s just his creative process. And if you’re in a bind, all of a sudden, out of all the people possible, he’s the one that will come through for you.

  BTW – I don’t work for Gallagher, I’m not related to Gallagher, and NO, I don’t spend time socialising with him. So no ulterior motives here.

  Here’s my suggestion for what Iger should do next:

  1) fire Jim Gallagher, (I’m sure there’s no other studio that would love to scoop him up!)

  2) Fire all their most talented marketing execs (since after all, they were employed there while Cook was running things). (Once again, I’m sure there’s no other studios that would cream over scooping them to up their opening weekend returns!)

  3) Ax Oren – Yep, the guy’s such a schmuck that other studios already WANT the “nimrod that greenlit all those horrible failures”.

  Note: if you didn’t catch the sarcasm in the above, then you really have no business commenting on on executive power structure.

  Finally, I’ll say the same thing that I said on the Friday afternoon that Dick walked out of Disney. Bob Iger is operating on a very false sense of security. It may not bite him in the ass tomorrow, it may not bite him the ass next year, but check back in three years and see where he stands. I have two words for Mr. Iger: Michael Eisner. And two more: Michael Ovitz. Two cold-blooded bastards that thought they could shake up the system anyway they wanted because they had the power – one used an agency to terrorize the studio system, one used a studio to terrorize anyone who disagreed with him. Hollywood waited, quietly. And just like Michael Corleone when the time came, when the chance arose, they let those two cold blooded thugs sink themselves. If Iger thinks that he is any different, than he’s not even operating out of some false sense of safety, he’s friggin delusional.

  Iger’s biggest problem isn’t his employees, it’s all the real powerhouses that made deals with Disney and then watched the Cook oust. A good healthy %90 hate and despise Iger. They put the smile on their face and they shake his hand, but if he fell in to a ditch tomorrow, none would shed a tear. I was privy to Eisner’s fall from grace and Ovitz’s public shunning and if Iger goes through even a half of that, he’ll be proverbially f@cked.

  Any by the way, I don’t work for a studio. I’m not an exec or an underling. But I do happen to come from a power family that has led me from a young teenager visiting Lew and Edie Wasserman, to an older teen who told Mike Ovitz to ‘F Off’ to finally a grownup who usually hears some really interesting things at the family table that always end up coming true.

  Good luck Mr. Iger – You Prick.

  Comment by X marks the spot — Wednesday November 11, 2009 @ 2:53am PST  Reply to this post

• I have to step in on Gallagher’s behalf–the guy is nothing but a professional, and a decent human being to boot. He gets a ton of pressure both internally and externally, and it’s a thankless job, but he does everything he can. He’s one of the few truly good guys at that hellhole.

  Comment by Ex Mouse — Wednesday November 11, 2009 @ 4:36pm PST  Reply to this post

• I am amazed at this craven interest in defending Gallagher–which more or less proves my point above. Since people are focusing on this topic, and taking me to task, I will respond specifically about this jerk and these ridiculous comments.

  No, I am not Iger’s assistant. No, I to not work at Disney. And no, I have no personal ax to grind. Gallagher is not my boss–and it could even be construed that he occupied a lesser professional position than I.

  However, I have had plenty of what might be called by some as “professional experience” with this guy–although the experiences would not pass as professional my any measurement. As already indicated by me, I found the guy stupid, manipulative, lying and obnoxious (without reason or purpose) to a level I have not found in many years in this business. Our business needs to weed out everyone of these characters and move on.

  Look, we are in the middle of a transition all across the entertainment industry. To read into this entire story motives that made sense ten years ago is shallow thinking. I could write a book about what is happening and why.

  But, the bottom line of the story is this: every single model, and every single idea of planning that we have relied upon or reacted to in the past especially in the motion picture industry no longer exists. There are too many wild card factors–and suffice it to say, the word chaos would be very well used.

  Leaner, meaner, more profitable, more sensible risk–and anyone who is superfluous to that will go. All across out industry. We have seen one major talent agency simply vanish in the past year, another will soon follow, perhaps even two. We have seen capital unavailable, foreign markets collapse, expenses rise at every level, and several distributors closed with more to follow.

  There is no place, in my view for characters like Gallagher, and some of these others. Time for everyone to move on.

  Comment by Tiny Tim — Thursday November 12, 2009 @ 7:15am PST  Reply to this post

• This had nothing to do with a hair trigger based on the 1st weekend of returns for a movie, nor whether he was a nice guy. This is all about results. The studio (and all studios) has been underperforming for years and failed to make the changes based on the audience shift and their purchasing habits. Disney Channel was highly successful at this so now we will see if it translates to the big time.

  Movies cost a lot of money and they must get a return on their investment. That’s the bottom line.
  As far as Disney, that also involves Synergy within the other business units to enhance a properties financial success. This cooperation between units hasn’t been where it needs to be.

  Comment by dbunch — Thursday November 12, 2009 @ 9:41am PST  Reply to this post

• I’m sad to see Mark go. Unlike Dick and most of his other executive groupies who kept information to themselves and only imparted it when they deemed “the riff-raff” had squirmed long enough, Mark made everyone feel like part of the team, and that those who did the day to day work and weren’t just riding DC’s coattails and collecting fat undeserved paycheck for being a good crony deserved respect and appreciation. Mark also cared about people and community. Despite his loyalty to Cook, he was a good guy, and not just a “presentation” of a good guy wrapped around an elitist like Cook. Unfortunately, his loyalty was probably his undoing. He’ll be missed.

  Comment by minnie — Saturday November 14, 2009 @ 7:50pm PST  Reply to this post

• I will tell you…this guy is one class act. He is one of the few remaining guys who understand what the word “integrity” means. I was in a meeting with him once about a film that he was distributing (that went on to eventually win an Oscar). Without giving away details, he was under pressure to keep spending money on it, even though it was essentially all coming straight out of the producer’s pockets. He refused to do it. The film made a huge profit for Disney, but without screwing the producers. Who, in Hollywood, thinks like that anymore?

  Comment by James — Saturday January 23, 2010 @ 3:26pm PST  Reply to this post