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Recommended Reading: Skills Needed to “Live” in Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge

by Ray Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 25, 2019

Writing for Forbes.com, Christian Sylt serves up an excellent piece on what Disney is looking for in its Disneyland Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge cast members, as well as what the company offers beyond a paycheck.

Here are four quick points from Sylt’s article:

• “To operate Galaxy’s Edge, Disneyland created 1,600 new positions for employees who are known as Cast Members due to the role they play in a themed environment. Galaxy’s Edge is one of the most intricate that Disney has ever produced.”

• “In Galaxy’s Edge Cast Members can mix and match parts of their costumes so they look more like actual inhabitants. Adding to the sense of immersion, they can even take sides with some being members of the heroic Resistance whilst others are in the villainous First Order or are double-dealing smugglers.”

• Kappy Thorsen, General Manager of Disneyland Park North Operations, was quoted: “All of Disneyland Park is rooted in deep story, but with Galaxy’s Edge, we are encouraging our Cast to take it to the next level. We’ve taught our Cast Members immersive back stories, living as Batuuans working in Black Spire Outpost. They have choices and get to decide how they feel about the about the Resistance, First Order and smugglers. Cast build their Batuuan story to engage with guests. We know our visitors are going to come prepared with their preferred affiliations and our Cast are ready to play Star Wars with them. This land offers the Cast an incredible opportunity to transport our guests to the planet of Batuu.”

• “Thorsen knows exactly what it takes to cast this spell and says ‘if you enjoy people, like to be challenged, enjoy versatility, storytelling and having fun we have a job for you.’ She explains that she looks for ‘Cast Members with a passion for the guest experience, friendliness, flexibility, confidence in problem solving, caring and working well in a team environment.’”

There’s more to the story – read the full piece here.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

If you enjoyed this article, and since I am the author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories, can I ask you to take at least one (preferably more) of the following steps?

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4) Become a member of the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship, and get all kinds of FREE stuff, including each new book in the Pastor Stephen Grant series. Check out the levels and benefits here.

How About a Very Optimistic Take on Disney Earnings?

by Ray Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 24, 2019

If you like what you’re seeing businesswise from the Walt Disney Company, get ready for the good news to double over the coming five years – at least according to Morgan Stanley.

According to a MarketWatch.com report, Morgan Stanley expects Disney to “nearly double” its earnings per share “from $6.50 in 2020 to between $11 and $12 in 2024.” Why? Morgan Stanley notes Marvel’s “critical role” in the Disney+ streaming service, which is scheduled to come online in November.

Morgan is looking for 130 million Disney+ subscribers, with two-thirds overseas.

MarketWatch noted: “The superpowers of Marvel underscore the type of content likely to buttress Disney+, which is scheduled to debut in November at $6.99 a month without advertisements. Disney stock, up 29% this year, is also likely to benefit.”

Once again, watch out Netflix!

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

If you enjoyed this article, and since I am the author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories, can I ask you to take at least one (preferably more) of the following steps?

1) The new Pastor Stephen Grant novel – DEEP ROUGH – has arrived! You can order the Kindle edition, the paperback, or the signed book.

2) Please join the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories email list, and get the upcoming short story, THE TRAITOR, for free! Sign up here.

3) Buy one of the other Pastor Stephen Grant novels or short stories at Amazon.comor signed books at www.raykeatingonline.com. 

4) Become a member of the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship, and get all kinds of FREE stuff, including each new book in the Pastor Stephen Grant series. Check out the levels and benefits here.

Will the Oscars Finally Recognize Superhero Films? The Lord of the Rings Example

by Ray Keating

Commentary

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 14, 2019

Can Avengers: Endgame lay waste to Hollywood’s Oscar bias against superheroes?

The Academy Awards just announced the date for its 2022 Oscars show, and confirmed the dates for the 2020 and 2021 shows. I understand that February 9, 2020, for the upcoming Oscars seems pretty far off, and we still have plenty of movies to watch in 2019, but this announcement got me thinking about whether or not Avengers: Endgame might finally have the power to break through the Academy’s opposition to superheroes.

If there’s hope on this front, it can be found in The Lord of the Rings movies. The first in that film trilogy – The Fellowship of the Ring – hit theaters in December 2001, followed by The Two Towers in December 2002. Both films were nominated for Best Picture, but failed to win, only taking home technical and music Oscars. And then came The Return of the King in December 2003. All three movies, by the way, were filmed together, and then released over those three Decembers.

It was noted at the time that Academy voters were holding off on awarding the big Oscars until the last movie in the trilogy. However, that was no slam dunk. It needs to be pointed out that no true fantasy movie had ever won Best Picture. In fact, Fellowship and Two Towers were, it can be argued, the only other true fantasy films ever nominated for Best Picture to that point.

So, at the 2004 Oscars, The Return of the King broke through, winning Best Picture, Best Director (Peter Jackson), and a total of 11 Academy Awards.

There are parallels when it comes to Avengers: Endgame, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released in April 2019, Endgame not only was the second part of an epic story that began in Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018), but it brought to a close this part of the MCU that covered a breathtaking 22 films, starting with Iron Man in May 2008.

Also, no superhero movie has ever won a Best Picture Academy Award, with Black Panther (February 2018) becoming the first movie in the genre to be nominated for Best Picture. And there have been assorted snubs in terms of nominations over the years, in particular with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008).

And of course, there is the critical and box office success of Endgame itself (see the DisneyBizJournal review) as the crescendo of these 22 interlocking movies that included very few misses. 

Also, if the Academy sees wisdom in nominating Endgame, and it is considered a serious contender, people might actually watch the February 2020 Oscars show, as opposed to the show’s long decline due to, in large part, a lack of interest among most of the movie-going public for the films nominated.

Endgame and the entire MCU truly rank as a monumental achievement in cinematic history – one that deserves recognition by the Academy. And that recognition should come not just in the form of a Best Picture nomination for Avengers: Endgame, but in the actual awarding of the Best Picture Oscar. It made sense for The Return of the King and it does for Avengers: Endgame.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

If you enjoyed this article, and since I am the author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories, can I ask you to take at least one (preferably more) of the following steps?

1) Please join the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories email list, and get the upcoming short story, THE TRAITOR, for free! Sign up here.

2) Buy one of my Pastor Stephen Grant novels or short stories at Amazon.comor signed books at www.raykeatingonline.com. 

3) Become a member of the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship, and get all kinds of FREE stuff, including each new book in the Pastor Stephen Grant series. Check out the levels and benefits here.

Disney’s Purchase of Fox a Decision for the Long Run, Not a Short-Term Hit

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 10, 2019

Accusations of businesses looking only at the short run usually are hurled by politicians, who, of course, specialize in short-run decisions. In reality, business owners and CEOs make decisions for a wide variety of reasons, and few, if any, are about trying to get a short-term kick at the expense of long-run well-being. 

The latest example is the purchase of Fox by Disney. We’re seeing via the box office that this acquisition wasn’t about boosting Disney’s bottom line in the short term.

When talking about 2019 Disney movies that were in the Disney column prior to the Fox merger, the House of Mouse is looking good in the short run, and for further building its brand and bottom line over the long haul. Disney is three for four so far, with the box office hits being Captain Marvel  (global gross of $1.13 billion), Avengers: Endgame ($2.73 billion, so far) and Aladdin ($607.6 million, so far), with Dumbo ($350.6 million) being the miss.

And it’s hard to see a miss coming among the pre-Fox-merger Disney line-up, with Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on the way through the end of the year.

However, the 20^th Century Fox movies being released post-merger with Disney is a different story. Breakthrough offered a nice return with a box office take at $50.2 million on only a $14 million production budget. But it got ugly with the next two films. 

The botched Tolkien movie didn’t appeal to Tolkien fans, and hence it made a measly $7.7 million. 

And then there’s Dark Phoenix, the X-Men movie that just opened on June 7. It took in only $32.8 million domestically in its opening weekend, and a total global take of $136.6 million. Oh yes, and critics hate it, and audiences are less than pleased. With an enormous budget – widely reported at $200 million – Dark Phoenix is on its way to being a big box office bomb.

And the remaining Fox releases for 2019 look like a mixed bag. And while no one knows in the movie business what will hit and what will miss until the lights go down for audiences, the keys appear to be Ad Astra, Terminator: Dark Fate, Ford v. Ferrari and Spies in Disguise.

Ad Astra and Ford v. Ferrari particularly look intriguing. But we’ll have to see.

The sure bet, if you will, for Disney with the Fox deal was the acquisition of a wide assortment of IP that Disney will use, such as for its streaming service Disney+, and build on as well. For example, with Fox never having done anything well with the Fantastic Four and ending its X-Men run with two busts (Dark Phoenix and X-Men: Apocalypse) – while Logan was quite good, I’m not sure what to do with Deadpool, and who knows what will happen with The New Mutants – it will be Disney’s turn with these and a wide assortment of other properties to reboot and re-energize. 

That’s a long-run thing.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

If you enjoyed this article, and since I am the author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories, can I ask you to take at least one (preferably more) of the following steps?

1) Please join the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories email list, and get the upcoming short story, THE TRAITOR, for free! Sign up here.

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3) Become a member of the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship, and get all kinds of FREE stuff, including each new book in the Pastor Stephen grant series. Check out the levels and benefits here.

Look for “Toy Story 4” To Beat Out “Incredibles 2” and “Frozen”

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 9, 2019

All of the early buzz on Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4 isn’t just positive, but, well, over-the-top positive. Combine that with Disney cranking up the marketing effort between now and the June 21^stopening of the film, and we’re talking a monster box office take.

Many are looking for an opening weekend between $100 million and $150 million. By the way, the current record weekend opening for an animated film is another Disney/Pixar vehicle – Incredibles 2– which earned $182 million in June of last year.

Incredibles 2 wound up pulling in a total of $1.24 billion at the global box office. 

In terms of the Toy Story franchise, the first film, Toy Story, earned $373.6 million in 1995, followed by $497.4 million for Toy Story 2 (1999), and Toy Story 3’s  global box office gross of $1.07 billion in 2009.

Many people questioned why we needed a Toy Story 4. The early quick takes on the movie have told us that, in fact, we did need another entry in the Toy Story franchise. As a result, and given the enormous popularity of Woody, Buzz and their friends, I think we’re looking at a bigger weekend opening for Toy Story 4 than was the case for Incredibles 2, and an eventual box office gross that beats out the current record holder (at least in nominal dollars), Frozen (again, Disney), which took in $1.28 billion.

Look for Woody and Buzz to go out on top – and Disney winding up on top in animation no matter what.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

If you enjoyed this article, and since I am the author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories, can I ask you to take at least one (preferably more) of the following steps?

1) Please join the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and short stories email list, and get the upcoming short story, THE TRAITOR, for free! Sign up here.

2) Buy one of my Pastor Stephen Grant novels or short stories at Amazon.comor signed books at www.raykeatingonline.com. 

3) Become a member of the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship, and get all kinds of FREE stuff, including each new book in the Pastor Stephen grant series. Check out the levels and benefits here.