Walt Disney Restructures Entertainment Businesses to Boost Streaming

FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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Walt Disney Restructures Entertainment Businesses to Boost Streaming

FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Walt Disney Company is displayed above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the closing bell as the market takes a significant dip in New York, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Walt Disney Co DIS.N said on Monday it had restructured its media and entertainment businesses to accelerate growth of Disney+ and other streaming services as consumers increasingly gravitate to digital viewing.

Under the reorganization, Disney will separate the development and production of programming from distribution to be more responsive to consumer demands.

The move came days after activist investor Daniel Loeb of hedge fund Third Point urged Disney to forgo a dividend payment and double its programming investment in streaming.

Disney shares rose nearly 5% in after-hours trading to $130.76.

The media and theme parks company launched the Disney+ streaming service in November 2019. It has exceeded its own targets by drawing more than 100 million streaming customers worldwide to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

Streaming pioneer Netflix Inc NFLX.O boasts 193 million, but has built that customer base over the 13 years.

Loeb had argued that Disney needed to cut its dividend to increase spending on new TV shows and movies to sign up new customers more quickly.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek, in an interview with CNBC, said the company is planning to increase investments in content but he did not say if it was prepared to cut its dividend to finance the strategy.

“Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it,” Chapek, who took the company’s top job in February, said in a separate statement.

In a statement on Monday, Loeb welcomed Disney’s revamp of its media and entertainment structure, Reuters reported.

“We are pleased to see that Disney is focused on the same opportunity that makes us such enthusiastic shareholders: investing heavily in the (direct-to-consumer) business, positioning Disney to thrive in the next era of entertainment,” Loeb said.

Under the changes, Disney’s studios, general entertainment and sports business would come under one division while distribution and commercialization would fall under a separate global unit.

Disney said its creative teams would develop and produce programming for streaming and traditional platforms, and the distribution group would decide where customers would see it.

Chapek told CNBC there would be layoffs as a result of “centralization” of functions but did not say how many.

Kareem Daniel, formerly president of consumer products, games and publishing, will oversee Disney’s new media and entertainment distribution group, the company said.

Alan Horn and Alan Bergman will continue to head Disney’s studio operations, which will manage programming from big franchises including Marvel, Star Wars, Disney animation and Pixar. Peter Rice will run general entertainment programming and Jimmy Pitaro will oversee sports.

AT&T T.N, which debuted the HBO Max streaming service in May, reorganized in August to combine its film and TV operations under one studio head to better compete in the streaming media wars.

Disney said it would hold an investor day on Dec. 10 to provide more information about its strategy.



Movie Review: In 'Heads of State,' a Buddy Comedy with Statesmen

 This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)
This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)
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Movie Review: In 'Heads of State,' a Buddy Comedy with Statesmen

 This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)
This image released by Prime shows John Cena, left, and Idris Elba in a scene from "Heads of State." (Bruno Calvo/Prime via AP)

Say what you will about the Idris Elba-John Cena vehicle “Heads of State,” but it’s surely the first buddy comedy about the fraying bonds of NATO.

The potential collapse of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization plays a surprisingly pivotal role in this fitfully diverting, for-background-noise-only, straight-to-streaming movie. Elba plays the embattled British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, while Cena co-stars as the recently elected US President Will Derringer, a former action star.

“Heads of State,” directed by Ilya Naishuller (“Nobody”), is mostly about their relationship, a tense and adversarial one challenged further when an assassination plot leaves them stranded together in Belarus. But that “Heads of State,” which debuts Wednesday on Prime Video, is such a mild romp makes it all the more surprising to hear a line uttered like: “If NATO falls, there’s no backstop against despots and dictators.”

It’s a funny time to release a comedy set around international political disconnection and imperiled Western democracy. But if you were beginning to worry that “Heads of State” is too timely, don’t. Any nods to current events here serve more as reminders of how much “Heads of State” — like most of Hollywood’s output — is unengaged with anything resembling our political reality.

You could argue that that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could also argue that the greater sin of “Heads of State” is underusing Stephen Root. (He plays an expert working for the bad guys.) But the vaguest hints of real-world intrigue only cast a pale light on the movie’s mostly lackluster comic chops and uninspired action sequences.

The best thing going for “Heads of State” is that the chemistry between Elba and Cena is solid. The “Suicide Squad” co-stars trade barbs with a genial ease. Most of the time, those revolve around their characters’ divergent histories — Clarke was a commando before becoming a politician — in debates like which one of them is “gym strong” as opposed to “strong strong.”

That’s one of the few decent gags in the script by Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Harrison Query. But one problem in “Heads of State” goes beyond the high-concept set-up. The best buddy comedies — “Midnight Run,” “48 Hrs.,” “The Nice Guys” — are predicated on opposites thrown together. Elba and Cena have their obvious differences. (Cena’s Derringer is exaggeratedly optimistic here, too.) But ultimately they’re both beefy dudes in suits.

As the MI6 agent Noel Bisset, Priyanka Chopra Jones gives the movie a kick. But her scenes are left to the beginning and end of the movie. In between, we’re left to wonder where she went, how two political leaders would have such non-existent security and whether a few half-decent jokes are enough to forgive the movie's geopolitical delusions.