The Hollywood Reporter - 21.08.2019

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THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 15 AUGUST 21, 2019

MAYER: COURTESY OF DISNEY. LIU: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES. HALPERIN: BRENT N. CLARKE/FILMMAGIC. RAPPER: JASON LAVERIS/FI

LMMAGIC. WACHOWSKI: GREGG DEGUIRE/WIREIMAGE. BLANCHETT: NICHOLAS HUNT/GETTY IMAGES.

Illustration by Bartosz Kosowski

↑ Film

Disney Dilemma

Mulan movie in crosshairs of

Hong Kong protesters p. 16

Tech

Sony’s Web

Why the studio bought the

Spider-Man game maker p. 22

$210.35 (+5%)

APPLE (AAPL)

The new-media giant will

reportedly roll out its Apple

TV+ streaming service before

November and offer free

trials as it builds its library.

$1.55 (-18%)

COMSCORE (SCOR)

The audit committee chair

resigns from the audience-

measurement firm, following

departures of the COO

and chief product officer.

acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel,

Lucasfilm and most of Rupert

Murdoch’s Fox assets, not to men-

tion that shares of Disney have

risen 490 percent, compared

with 135 percent for the S&P 500,

during his reign. But Iger him-

self filled the shoes of Michael

Eisner, who, in two decades as

CEO helped Disney shares surge

2,300 percent, also more than

three times the S&P 500’s gain.

“Iger is a giant who has only

grown in stature with the Fox

deal and all-in strategic shift to

streaming,” says analyst Steven

Birenberg, founder of Northlake

Capital Management. “How

well Disney+ is doing next year

... will have an impact.” Many

industry insiders see the race to

replace Iger as still a wide-open

competition. “There is no one

who obviously comes to mind as

a successor,” notes Birenberg.

“Iger will be difficult to replace,”

adds Ben Weiss, chief investment

officer of 8th & Jackson Capital

Management. “He had vision and

wasn’t afraid to bet big” and has

O

n Aug. 23, thousands of

Disney’s most faithful

fans will trek to D23 Expo

in Anaheim, where they’ll be

treated to sneak peeks of the new

live-action Lady and the Tramp

as well as Star Wars series The

Mandalorian and a High School

Musical reboot, all of which are

headed for Disney+, the stream-

ing service set to launch Nov. 12.

They’ll also hear from CEO Bob

Iger, and, unknowingly, they

might be given a shot at mingling

with Iger’s eventual successor.

Some observers now believe

the inside track may belong to

Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-

to-consumer and international

who is expected to appear at the

convention to showcase Disney+.

That Iger has called the upcoming

streamer the “most important

product” to launch since he

became CEO in 2005 speaks vol-

umes about the stakes for Mayer,

57, and how the performance

of Disney+ could influence who

takes over when Iger retires at the

end of 2021. With global content

As the Disney CEO goes all in on streaming, insiders say direct-to-consumer chief

Kevin Mayer is ‘poised’ for a boost — that is, as long as Disney+ becomes a hit

BY PAUL BOND

and advertising sales in his pur-

view, “Kevin is controlling well

over 50 percent of the company’s

revenue,” notes Neal Lenarsky of

STI Management, an executive

search firm for media. “Running

the direct-to-consumer puts him

right in the bull’s-eye of Disney’s

strategic future.”

But Disney has been down this

road before. Iger, 68, has changed

his mind multiple times about

retirement, citing big initiatives

he needs to see through before

leaving, the latest

being the partial

merger with 21st

Century Fox, which

closed March 20.

Not only might Iger

extend his run again, but the

succession bake-off also could

change dramatically, as it did

when former CFO-COO Thomas

Staggs — once positioned as the

primary contender — left the

company in 2016.

Certainly Iger will leave big

shoes to fill, given that his tenure

has included bold moves like the

Lana Wachowski

Warner Bros. greenlights

the filmmaker’s Matrix 4 with

Keanu Reeves reprising

his role in the $1.6 billion-

grossing franchise.

Chance the Rapper

The 26-year-old hip-hop artist

and hitmaker becomes the

first independent creator

to reach the 1 billion stream

milestone on SoundCloud.

Cate Blanchett

Her Where’d You Go,

Bernadette opens outside

the top 10 and with a splat-

tery 43 percent on Rotten

Tomatoes, a rare critical

and commercial miss for the

Oscar winner.

Mark Halperin

The Game Change author

nabs a book deal, but many

of the Democratic strategists

interviewed for it distance

themselves from the project

over earlier accusations of

sexual misconduct.

Iger’s Evolving Succession Race

Aug. 12-

Mayer