Disney this morning has named Alan Bergman as Chairman, Disney Studios Content, with Alan Horn continuing to serve as the division’s Chief Creative Officer.
The two previously served as Co-Chairmen since May 2019. News was swirling heading into Disney Investor Day on Dec. 10 that Horn might possibly retire, but that’s not the case for the motion picture industry vet of 50 years. He remains integral to the Disney production pipeline as the company will commit $14 billion-$16 billion to Disney+ streaming content over the next four years.
Both Bergman and Horn will continue to report to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, and all production studio heads will continue to report in to Bergman and Horn as they oversee big-screen features and Disney+ movies and series.
Together Bergman and Horn have seen the 2012 integration of Lucasfilm and the 2019 absorption of 20th Century studios, and have propelled The Walt Disney Studios to industry box office records of $7 billion WW in 2016 and 2018 and $11 billion in 2019 with a slate of heavy branded movies from the Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, Disney Animated Studios and Disney live action feature divisions.
As far as the slight adjustment in titles, I hear that Horn, at 77, is shedding some of his duties to focus solely on Disney’s creative pipeline, and work in conjunction with Bergman on the studio’s creative plans. Bergman and Horn’s new titles take effect on Jan. 1, 2021. Horn has proven everything in the wake of Warner Brothers cutting him loose in unceremonious fashion as President and Chief Operating Officer in 2011, a post which he began serving in 1999. Horn brought a lot of stability to Disney following his arrival in 2012, particularly as the purchases of Lucasfilm and Marvel happened. This after the tumultuous results of the Rich Ross reign when the studio had massive flops such as the $300M+ feature John Carter.
Today’s appointments follow shortly after Disney’s stock hit a record high of $179.45 on Dec. 11, with shares still riding high at $171.18 as of 1:11 PM EST. Despite the studio being upside down financially with theme parks as well as a distressed theatrical marketplace during Covid, Wall Street has responded enthusiastically to Disney’s success in the streaming space. This has entailed putting some of their marquee theatrical product on the service, i.e. Hamilton, Mulan and the upcoming Pixar movie Soul, which is dropping on Christmas Day.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline