The Second Disney Dark Age

By: Elliott Nace Staff Reporter

The “Dark Age” is an unofficial term used to describe Disney from the 1970s to the 1980s. After the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the company was in disarray and began to struggle financially. Their animated films surprisingly began to underperform as the market declined in relevance.

the company’s cinematic release cadence. A noteworthy incident involving the pandemic concerns two recent Disney films, one being the live-action remake of Mulan and the other being Soul. Both of these films prior to the pandemic were slated for big-screen releases, but were switched to releasing on the newly launched Disney+ after theaters began to close. One

In his final decade at Disney, Walt took a massive gamble by entering the theme park business. As it turns out the parks would later become the company’s lifeblood, with 69% of revenue coming from the Disney theme parks in 1981 (New York Times). By the early 1990s Disney was mired in failure, be it from Euro Disneyland or the string of box-office bombs such as The Black Cauldron. However the “Renaissance” of the 1990s, led by film industry veteran Michael Eisner, revived the animation industry as a whole and Disney along with it. Eisner directed Disney’s core ideals toward a contemporary audience, which in turn managed to rescue the company from its financial slump. Disney soon became the untouchable entertainment giant it is today, yet recent trends may be indicative of a different future – a “Second Dark Age,” if you will.

The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on several prominent issues currently plaguing the company. Park closures and production delays stifled the normally churning stream of Disney entertainment, with major changes being made to might expect this odd change to be an isolated case specific to an event like a pandemic, yet the company has continued to redirect films to Disney+ without giving them a proper theatrical run in the United States.

The parks have also encountered problems as of late. In addition to losing tremendous amounts of revenue due to extended closures, little has been announced in the way of new attractions at any of the Disney parks since 2019. After reopening, “attendance has surged by millions of guests per year” (The Healthy Journal). To address this newfound issue of crowd control, Disney has reworked the park experience in ways that have ended up favoring those with prior knowledge of the parks’ inner workings.

In spite of all of this, Disney’s greatest source for concern is its ongoing executive crisis. The company’s last CEO, Bob Chapek, spent a little over two years in the role before being abruptly replaced. His sudden departure was likely contingent on several factors, the first two being the financial losses attributed to animation and the parks. Another reason could have been how Chapek responded to the outcry surrounding Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act. His response to the bill swung wildly from ignoring it to staunchly coming out against it. As public opinion toward Disney began to decline, the stock price plummeted. As of early 2023, Disney stock has gone down almost 30% in the past year.

While one could argue that Chapek’s failure was largely a result of the negative effects of the pandemic, his performance still proves concerning for the future of Disney. By failing to progress forward even after many restrictions were lifted, coupled with his ineffectiveness once met with criticism, current Disney executives are repeating the mistakes made during the Dark Age of the 1970s. Disney’s first 2023 quarterly report confirms many of these issues in writing, prompting returning CEO Bob

Iger to take drastic measures to manage the theme park and entertainment wings of the company. Without firm leadership and an unwavering creative vision, Disney’s reputation as an innovator in the world of entertainment will continue to erode..