Disney Promotes Studio Executive Amid Box-Office Boom
May 01 2019 - 1:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Erich Schwartzel
LOS ANGELES -- Walt Disney Co. said it is shuffling the
executive ranks at its film operation, elevating studio President
Alan Bergman to help oversee a division behind Hollywood's biggest
hits.
Mr. Bergman, who has been president of Walt Disney Studios since
2005, will become co-chairman of the division alongside its current
chairman, Alan Horn. Mr. Horn also assumed the role of chief
creative officer of the division, which manages some of Hollywood's
most lucrative brands, including Pixar Animation and Marvel
Studios.
Together, Messrs. Horn and Bergman will oversee a film slate
that is the envy of Hollywood, but the power-sharing arrangement is
also a reflection of the challenges created by the ambitious bets
the studio is making in the coming years.
Disney is about seven months away from launching a
video-streaming service that requires the studio to produce even
more movies under a separate distribution structure than
traditional theatrical release. The company is also at work now
integrating entertainment assets it acquired from 21st Century Fox
in a $71.3 billion deal. Disney Studios is combining with Fox's
film operations, which include Fox Searchlight and characters like
Deadpool who don't necessarily fit the family-friendly Disney
mold.
Mr. Bergman is currently helping oversee that Fox tie-up with
Mr. Horn, and helped lead the integration of Pixar, Marvel and
Lucasfilm, which produces the Star Wars series. He joined Disney in
1996 and was named chief financial officer of the studio in 2001.
Mr. Bergman was named the division's president about four years
later. He and Mr. Horn will both report to Disney Chief Executive
Robert Iger.
The elevation of Mr. Bergman, 53 years old, also suggests a
possible succession plan for when Mr. Horn, 76 years old, retires.
Disney declined to comment on how long Mr. Horn's current contract
runs.
Since Mr. Horn became chairman of Disney Studios in 2012, the
company has dominated the box office on the strength of franchises
like "Star Wars," "Frozen" and "Avengers," which saw its "Endgame"
installment set a new opening-weekend record last week. "Endgame"
has collected about $1.48 billion so far and is the No. 8
highest-grossing movie of all time after one week of release.
Mr. Horn's tenure at Disney was an unexpected second act after
he'd spent several years as president and chief operating officer
at rival Warner Bros. Entertainment before leaving in 2011. After
joining Disney in 2012, Mr. Horn was charged with stabilizing the
studio, which at the time was seen as an erratic performer.
By all accounts, he's done the job. Disney became the first
studio in Hollywood history to collect more than $7 billion at the
global box office in a single year in 2016, and then did it again
in 2018.
The company's 2019 docket of films is considered by some
analysts to be its biggest yet. In addition to the blockbuster
performances already generated by "Captain Marvel" and "Avengers:
Endgame," the studio is releasing a "Lion King" remake, sequels to
"Toy Story," "Maleficent" and "Frozen" and the final installment of
the Skywalker series of Star Wars films.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2019 14:14 ET (18:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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