Written by Joe Lane
Published: August 31, 2004 at 5:49 PM
It’s tough being king. Just ask Eisner.
His Majesty, the Disney CEO, has suffered many slings and arrows over the course of the past year. Many Disney purists might view these trials as the results of a decade of bad business decisions. The short-term profits are beginning to take their long-term effects. At this point in the drama, does the company have any hope of being rescued and rejuvenated? Is Disney too far gone to be pulled out of its downward spiral?
The family of the late Solomon Linda, a songwriter who penned the original version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, is taking Disney to court over the brief rendition used in The Lion King. Linda’s family, residents of Pretoria, South Africa, only recently saw the Disney film for the first time and have decided to file suit. To make matters worse for the company, the family’s lawyers issued a court order last month, effectively holding hostage more than 240 trademarks in connection with the $1.6 million dollar suit.
After the Pooh controversy, this kind of copyright infringement comes as no big shocker, but I have to wonder if the Linda family realizes that hundreds of musical artists all over the world have produced covers of the Solomon Linda song.
Yep. It’s tough being king.
Remember Javier Cruz, a CM at WDW who was killed by a parade float in February? Few people do--the incident was soon followed by the historical investment meeting in Philadelphia and the entire accident was swept under the proverbial rug. TPI featured an entire thread dedicated to the accident. Questions ranged from the accountability of character leads to whether the same maintenance cutbacks that contributed to the Disneyland Big Thunder Mountain accident was responsible for this tragedy?
Ultimately, OSHA decided to fine Disney $6,300. Employees who are exposed to the hazard of motorized vehicles are a violation of OSHA standards and a company can face fines of $7,000 (although repeat offenders face upwards of $70,000).
When you're king, it's hard to hide.
The Village opened to mixed reviews. Some folks enjoyed it, saying it was more of what they loved from M. Night Shyamalan. Others felt differently, calling the movie uninspired and lackluster.
Kevin Baxter hated it so much he went into shock.
Disney and Shyamalan have been on edge for the past few weeks thanks to rumors of plagiarism of a children’s book. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, claim there are far too many similarities between Shyamalan's story and that of author Margaret Peterson Haddix's book, Running Out of Time--and at a first glance, there does appear to be some parallel.
And yet, why would a filmmaker like Shyamalan, who has met with great success with his previous films, want to willfully and knowingly steal someone else's concept? Besides, by the sound of things, the idea behind the twist in The Village and Running Out of Time has been done before--so much so that any Hitchcock/Twilight Zone/Outer Limits veteran could discern the surprise before it was even revealed.
Oh yes, my friend. Being king isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Of course, I also didn't bother touching on the subject of the Pooh case. And you might want to consider the disbanding of Disney Feature Animation Florida, although there are no law suits involved in that fiasco, it's just as important as the major issues.
BTW, The Village has basically died after limping past the $100M mark. It's pathetic when a movie makes half its take in the first weekend. That right there tells you there were more people who agreed with me than disagreed!
Fortunately for Shyamalan it was fairly cheap and will make its money back. It isn't a bomb, but it is most certainly a disappointment. A MAJOR disappointment. A movie with such bad feelings toward it will only hurt his next film. How many people who rushed out to see this will rush out to see his next one?
As for the book, who knows what happened? But something clearly did happen. Or do you deny the two tell practically the same story?
The Village, on its own right, will be quite profitable and a success. Unfortunately, The Village had more pressure on it than it probably deserved as it was Disney's last hope for something to save its poor domestic summer filled with some real duds. Princess Diaries is doing reasonably well also, especially for a sequel that probably never should have been made, and it MIGHT even cross the magical 100 million mark by the end of its run. But Disney's luckily still got The Incredibles and National Treasure before the year is up, both films which could do very well.
As for the potential suit against The Village, doesn't this sound similar to the claim that Pixar/Disney stole the idea of Nemo last year from some children's book? And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't that already dismissed in Disney's favor?
On another note, I personally see the selling of the Disney stores (of which a letter of intent from Children's Place has already been signed) as a positive for Disney. Having somebody else take upon the risk of operating a chain of mall stores while still selling your merchandise could be beneficial, if Children's Place maintains them well....its much like the successful OLC contract Disney has for Tokyo Disneyland and Japan's Disney Stores.
And in regards to the parks, I'd have to say that by the time May 5, 2005 comes around, Disneyland will be in better shape, both aesthetically and operational-wise, than it has in a LONG time. The work Matt Oiumet has done in his short time there is phenomenal, and the stuff still to be done will be as well...and I've never thought WDW, in general, looked neglected.
As for the 'Lion Sleeps tonight' lawsuit, it might be that I just have no clue what its about, but why are they suing Disney over this and not the countless artists and recording labels that have been involved with that song? In fact, didn't Disney get the rights to use the song from a recording studio who actually OWNS the song or does Disney now own all said rights? Again, it might be my ignorance here, but it sounds to me like another joke of lawsuit against Disney, just because they're "Disney".
Disney has been lucky that domestic stinkers Home on the Range and King Arthur have done okay overseas (still nothing spectacular) but once again it has benefited from distributing more product than almost anybody else. They've just now limped past a billion, meanwhile Warner Bros is already at $1.7B overseas.
Then look at the other studios and you realize that Disney is doing its best to pretend it releases movies in a vacuum. DreamWorks is approaching half a billion ON ONE FILM. Sony is nearing a billion, with Spidey 2 almost at $400M, and no other big movies helping it. (The Terminal hasn't been released overseas and Collateral has JUST had limited release.) Just a lot of smaller films doing okay. Hell, even perennial also-ran Fox is in range with Day after Tomorrow doing gangbusters at about $350M and I, Robot already at $140M early in its run. And most of these studios have only two or three on the international market!
To delve even further into this something-that-isn't-really-anything, more than a quarter of this billion came from Miramax - the Kill Bill franchise and Cold Mountain - and Eisner is driving away the man behind them. The biggest overseas "hit" for Disney? Brother Bear with $140M. Making it less of a hit than the four already mentioned, plus Prisoner of Azkaban (duh... it's at $520M and still going!), Passion of the Christ ($239M), Troy ($358M), The Last Samurai ($340M), and a couple scary ones for you: Love Actually at $181M and VAN FREAKIN' HELSING at $148M.
Add to all this the fact that The Village seems to be dropping sharply after strong openings, like it did here, meaning it won't do much better overseas. How it will do on DVD is anyone's guess. I'd say not well, and that's where all the money is.
Disney can crow all they want, but it's all smoke and mirrors. When they can get their per-movie profit margin up, I'll be impressed.
Even worse for Disney, South African courts have a kind of eye-for-an-eye going on, and the courts currently have denied Disney rights to their copyrighted characters in South Africa. Meaning, I guess, that if Disney doesn't start ponying up some cash, Mickey Mouse will be seen all over South Africa and Disney won't make a dime. If not this exact scenario, any alternate scenario certainly isn't making Eisner a happy man. (I find it more than a little hilarious that Eisner keeps begging the US government to extend copyright laws while doing whatever he can to take away others', like those in the Pooh case.)
Once again, Disney's moronic lawyers aren't helping matters. Instead of a quick payoff (a million would probably do), they instead publicly attack the case in a land where EVERYONE is on the plaintiff's side. An even dumber argument is this one: That there is no infringement, but if there is, Disney's subsidiaries should be in court, not the parent company. Say WHAT? Is this really the best this gargantuan company can do???
Other stuff... The Nemo "case" and the Village case are clearly not the same. Yes, people are constantly suing other people for stealing their ideas. But when the woman involved was told by her READERS that he stole the idea, then that means there is more to it than just "Mine had fish; theirs had fish!" I want to get my hands on the book to see how similar they are. Plus, I'm sure the book HAS to be better.
On the parks... I'm impressed with what Ouimet has gotten accomplished too. And the 50th will certainly be big there. But will that affect DCA, which isn't getting anything new? How about WDW, where they make the most of their money? Animal Kingdom certainly won't bring in a few million more with just a damn dinosaur! How about Disney/MGM with another stunt show? Epcot will probably have a good year with Borin'... I mean Soarin', and possibly MK, but that makes three out of six.
I agree that selling the Disney Stores the way they are doing it is a good idea. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the Stores USED to be HUGE moneymakers. Moving Pressler from there to the parks hurt not one but TWO big operations. Stoopid stoopid stoopid.
As for WDW getting stuff, once again, this is DL's big event, not WDW's, even though its a "global celebration". Then again, it might just be my optimistic mood right now, but I still think its impressive that in the span of DL's 50th anniversary WDW will open Expedition Everest, Soarin', the already proven hit Lights! Motors! Action! stunt show, Cinderellabration at MK (the hub in front of the castle and castle stage are reported to undergo a huge transformation sometime after the holidays just to accomodate the show that's been amazing crowds at Tokyo Disneyland)...and perhaps even Stitch's Great Escape could be included as part of the celebration too...that doesn't sound to shabby to me. Especially since less than a year ago they 'opened' three of WDW's most popular things according to guest surveys..Mission:Space, Mickey's Philharmagic and Wishes!. There is also quite a bit of construction at Typhoon Lagoon that MIGHT turn into the yet unannounced/rumored new "water coaster" type slide. I don't see any other theme park vacation resort doing so much quality stuff within a span of 2 1/2 years unless they were building a new park...not even in WDW's own history. And not even DL, where all the attention should be for the 50th. WDW is in fine shape if you ask me and no "spinning the story" to make it sound negative because some are clones and some are "just shows" rather than rides (despite the expense to set them up) and whatnot will make me see it any differently. Even WDW is seeing some great rehabs recently as the May 5th date approaches...some of them minor (like finally removing that gaudy Tomorrowland stage) to major (ripping out the 20,000 leagues area or the all-out rebuilding of IASW basically from scratch).
Joe,
Don't forget these other Disney problems as well:
1) The DL Paris possible bankruptcy.
2) The folding of the Disney Stores (or being sold).
3) ABC stuck in 4th place behind Fox (the only way to get wrose is if HB and UPN becomes more popular than ABC. Don't laugh, this may happen next month).
4) How run down the parks became during the last 10 years.