It’s been a brutal week for Disney.
Several anxiety-ridden senior staffers ran to the left-leaning Hollywood trade publication Deadline to bash CEO Bob Iger, accusing him of capitulating to President Donald Trump through a series of moves that have Disney employees across the company wondering “What’s next? Where do we go from here? What do we stand for now, keeping MAGA happy?”
“This is not what I expected from Bob — I thought he had our back,” an unnamed staffer told the outlet of Iger.
On Monday, Captain America: Brave New World, Disney’s latest attempt to recapture its diminished box office magic, announced a final forecast opening of $70 to $85 million. “For a new Marvel movie, especially a Captain America movie, those are not very promising numbers,” Breitbart’s John Nolte noted.
Tuesday dumped dueling disastrous headlines on Bob Iger’s desk. “Disney Executives Worried as Soaring Prices Drive Families Away from Theme Parks,” read one Breitbart headline while “Disney Drops Two DEI Programs as Investor Backlash Grows” read another. The latter headline led to Disney employees saying they feel abandoned by Iger.
Wednesday’s news coverage on the Captain America 4 world premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday night was dominated by reports of the protesters who crashed the glitzy event, waving signs and shouting “free Palestine” and “boycott Disney.”
Protesters chant “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Disney” outside the Chinese Theater at the #CaptainAmerica Brave New World premiere pic.twitter.com/fXtVVnCk6B
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 12, 2025
Wednesday’s bad news headlines for Disney also included Nolte: Early Reviews of ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Are ‘Lukewarm’ and Nolte: Disney Waters Down Its Stupid Trigger Warnings on Older Movies. The latter, again, seen as a sign from inside the Mouse House that Iger isn’t woke enough.
As I noted last month in this Breitbart Fight Club essay, Disney has some dark days ahead. The company is still suffering from self-inflicted culture war wounds it endured fighting a Florida law banning radical LGBTQ indoctrination in elementary schools. One in four Americans avoid Disney movies because of politics. Its streaming service shed another one million subscribers last quarter.
It was only a matter of time before Bob Iger would have to accept the same reality that his Hollywood peers have come to welcome: In Trump’s world, woke is an obsolete currency.
Disney’s brand is in a freefall. Iger knows this. He also knows he’s late to the game of distancing Disney from DEI. The exodus of race and gender initiatives in major Hollywood companies, from Netflix to Warner Bros. Discovery, began in the summer of 2023.
The more moves Iger makes, like cutting a transgender storyline from a show for children to canceling a massively expensive and little-watched lesbian witch Star Wars series, the more he alienates the radicals inside his company that run to friendly Hollywood media outlets to bash him.
It does beg the question, at what point does Bob Iger start caring less about repairing Disney’s brand and more about burnishing his own? Indeed, the 74-year-old CEO’s contract with Disney ends in 2026. Soon, this mess will be someone else’s to deal with.
