Bob Chapek says if he could go back in time, he’d have a simple answer to being offered the role of Disney CEO: “No.”
Chapek’s short, turbulent time in the top job was marked by his clash with Bob Iger, his predecessor-turned-successor. Chapek said he felt like he’d been left with a “tattoo of a legacy” of Iger, who was Disney’s top exec from 2005 until Chapek took over in February 2020, and served again from November 2022 to March of this year.
“I feel that’s tremendously unfair, not only given the circumstances upon which I took the job, but the fact that the board had a very quick trigger — and frankly, sided with a guy who wanted his job back,” Chapek said in an interview with Business Insider.
Nearly four years after Chapek’s firing, he has set out to rehabilitate his reputation with a new book detailing his rise inside the Mouse House and his dramatic departure from Disney. The book’s rollout has involved a whole lot of Iger bashing and far less soul-searching from Chapek.
Under Chapek, Disney had PR stumbles, including fights with star actor Scarlett Johansson and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Wall Street was initially pleased with Chapek, and the stock more than doubled in less than a year, soaring from its pandemic low of $79 to $197 in March 2021. Disney+ grew to over 150 million subscribers in under three years. Riding high, Chapek set an ambitious goal: 230 million to 260 million subscribers by the end of 2024.
Shares tumbled back to pandemic lows, however, after Disney’s streaming business lost nearly $1.5 billion in a single quarter. In late 2022, Disney’s board dismissed Chapek and reinstated Iger as CEO.
Chapek’s take: He “fell victim” to a plot by his former boss to undermine him from the start.
Representatives for Disney, where Iger is a board member, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Iger hasn’t publicly responded to Chapek’s recent criticisms, though he said in a Harvard Business Review interview published last week that when Disney chose Chapek as his successor, the search “wasn’t as thorough as we thought.” Disney “thought we knew the person extremely well,” Iger said, adding that leadership “needs to be capable of managing an environment in perpetual crisis.”
Iger has previously referred to Disney’s Chapek era as “a period of considerable challenges and disruption.”
Chapek had kind words for current Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took over in March, saying he “was appropriate to be promoted to CEO.” Chapek then quickly noted that he’s promoted D’Amaro “myself about a half dozen times.” Like Chapek, D’Amaro ran Disney’s lucrative Experiences division before taking the top job.
Chapek didn’t opine on Disney’s waves of layoffs — three so far under D’Amaro — other than to say that “it’s interesting that all these tough calls are being made after Bob left,” referring to Iger.
D’Amaro must “develop a healthy, vibrant, long-term growth vehicle” to jump-start Disney’s stock, Chapek said, though he didn’t get into specifics on what that could be.
“If you don’t have a long-term commitment to a growth vehicle, then you’re going to have a bunch of mature businesses that aren’t growing, and the stock’s going to become stuck,” Chapek said. Disney shares have lagged US stocks broadly, rising about 13% in the last 10 years while the S&P 500 has soared 255%.
Disney has driven revenue growth by regularly hiking prices for its parks and streaming services. The price of Disney+ has now risen for six straight years. Chapek attributed that to increased content production costs and said the streamer was initially underpriced.
“When Disney+ came out, it was offered at a very, very low introductory price,” Chapek said. “It was a price that was not sustainable for the long term.”
Other major streamers have also consistently raised prices.
Chapek says political advocacy is ‘where the danger starts’
Chapek’s top piece of advice for D’Amaro was to avoid cultural land mines.
“Disney has to be very careful in picking something that takes a side,” Chapek said, adding that “the danger starts” when Disney gets into advocacy or aligns itself with political groups.
Chapek said he saw this danger firsthand after Disney initially didn’t speak out against Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and drew criticism from progressives and Iger himself. Disney then reversed course, apologizing for its earlier statement and offering $5 million to LGBTQ+ advocacy groups — angering some conservatives who decried Disney as “woke.”
At the time, Chapek said Disney was “reassessing our approach to advocacy, including political giving in Florida and beyond.”
“My first inclination was the right inclination, that you make sure that you respect everybody regardless of where they are on the political spectrum or whatever their social beliefs are, but you avoid advocacy for one group versus another,” Chapek told Business Insider in our recent interview.
“Every time a political controversy has really opened up, it’s largely because they move on from a position of neutrality,” Chapek said.
For his part, Iger also looked to move Disney away from advocacy, saying in early 2024 that Disney must “entertain, first and foremost” rather than “advance any kind of agenda.” Creators “lost sight” of this mandate in prior years, Iger said.
During Trump’s second term, Disney has shifted away from some DEI terminology in its annual report and introduced a “Global Belonging Week” with more politically neutral language.
Chapek’s dovish political approach isn’t a playbook for what happens when government agencies like the FCC take aim at Disney, though. The FCC is reviewing broadcast licenses for Disney-owned ABC stations, citing an investigation into the company’s DEI practices. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump, announced the review a day after Trump said ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel should be fired for a joke about Melania Trump.
D’Amaro has taken a bolder approach than Iger or Chapek by suing the FCC, alleging it is trying to control ABC’s content and accusing it of “blatant retaliation” following Kimmel’s remarks. The FCC reiterated its statement that the review is about DEI practices and said that “Disney is obviously very concerned about the FCC’s proceeding.” The lawsuit is pending, with a hearing set for October 6.
While Chapek said he would “support Josh in whatever decision he believes is right,” he declined to comment on the legal strategy against the FCC.
“I will not do to Josh what Iger did to me,” Chapek said, referring to Iger publicly commenting on his moves.
