If you are an avid Disney+ or Hulu user, you know that a lot of changes have been coming to the platforms as of late, now, Disney and Hulu fans are asking the President of the United States, Joe Biden, to step in.
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Recently, Disney held their Q3 2023 Earnings Call. Here we saw that direct-to-consumer sales have increased by 9%. That being said, Disney+ subscribers have dropped to 146.1 million. Disney’s goal for Disney+ subscribers was 154.8 million, so this now falls short. Disney’s “core” consumers increased by 1% — regardless, we are starting to see subscribers drop off now that Disney has begun to reduce the amount of content they are able to bring to their audience; the people paying for these services on a month-to-month basis.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger continued to discuss how they have raised prices across Disney+ prices and that ad-supported Disney+ subscription service options have been purchased by 40% of users. Ad-free bundles will also be coming to the US for Disney+ and Hulu, which will, in turn, cost more as their current ad-free options do, increasing Disney+ revenue and decreasing our bank accounts for nothing added — in fact, the service had been detracting and removing content.
Disney CEO Bob Iger expressed the following:
Direct-to-Consumer revenues for the quarter increased 9% to $5.5 billion and operating loss decreased to $0.5 billion from a loss of $1.1 billion. The decrease in operating loss was due to a lower loss at Disney+, higher operating income at Hulu and a lower loss at ESPN+. 4 The improvement at Disney+ was due to higher subscription revenue and a decrease in marketing costs, partially offset by higher programming and production costs and lower advertising revenue.
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Higher subscription revenue was attributable to Disney+ Core subscriber growth and increases in Disney+ Core retail pricing. The increase in programming and production costs was due to higher costs for non-sports content, partially offset by a decrease in sports programming costs. The decreases in sports programming costs and advertising revenue reflected the comparison to IPL cricket programming in the prior-year quarter, as we did not renew the digital rights beginning with the 2023 season.
In less than a year, Disney+ will be increasing the monthly cost of its ad-free plan up $3 to $13.99 in October. Hulu, which Disney owns a majority stake in, will also increase the monthly cost of its ad-free subscription up $3 to $17.99.
Previous Disney CFO Christine McCarthy outlined the company’s plan, saying, “We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation.” The comments come as Disney recently canceled projects like National Treasure and Lucasfilm’s Willow after just one season each.
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“As a result, we will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion,” McCarthy said. “The charge, which will not be recorded in our segment results, will primarily be recognized in the third quarter as we complete our review and remove the content.”
Therefore, Disney+ is currently in the midst of a historic content purge, which has garnered the attention of fans from around the world. Disney removed more than 50 titles from both Disney+ and Hulu, including dozens of full-length films and series, in an attempt to cut costs. Now, having made it to Q3, we can see that this content disposal campaign has not helped their Disney+ numbers.
Credit: Disney Plus
The original purge list was follows:
Big Shot (Disney+) Turner & Hooch [(Disney+) The Mysterious Benedict Society (Disney+) The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (Disney+) Willow (Disney+) The Making Of Willow (Disney+) Diary of a Future President (Disney+) Just Beyond (Disney+) The World According to Jeff Goldblum (Disney+) Marvel’s Project Hero (Disney) Marvel’s MPower (Disney+) Marvel’s Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever (Disney+) Rosaline (Disney+) Cheaper by the Dozen remake (Disney+) The One and Only Ivan (Disney+) Stargirl (Disney+) Encore! (Disney+) A Spark Story (Disney+) Black Beauty (Disney+) Clouds (Disney+) Weird but True! (Disney+) Timmy Failure (Disney+) Be Our Chef (Disney+) Magic Camp (Disney+) Howard (Disney+) Earth to Ned ( Disney+) Foodtastic (Disney+) Stuntman (Disney+) Disney Fairy Tale Weddings (Disney+) Wolfgang (Disney+) It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer (Disney+) The Premise (Hulu) Love in the Time of Corona (Hulu) Everything’s Trash (Hulu) Best in Snow (Hulu) Best in Dough (Hulu) Maggie (Hulu) Dollface (Hulu) The Quest (Hulu) The Hot Zone (Nat Geo/Hulu) Y: The Last Man (FX/Hulu) Pistol (FX/Hulu) Little Demon (FX/Hulu)
CNN commented on the demise of the streaming platform saying “The more than 20% hike in prices means Disney+ will now cost twice the original price when the service debuted four years ago, and Hulu’s ad-free tier is now more expensive than the most popular Netflix plan”
Now, another Hulu film is being removed. BURLESQUE, starring Christina Aguilera and Cher is leaving Hulu on August 31, according to Film Updates (@filmupdates).
When the news broke, Twitter (X) was not happy about it. Jeniffer L. Estrada (@Jeniestra) said, “Where’s the justice system when you need it?” and Jacques (@ejacquesulate) said, “@JoeBiden do something,” tagging the President of the United States.
Many others expressed how upset they were to see the change and removal of the film, while others noted that they have decided to just purchase the movie so that they do not have to rely on the streaming service, which is a trend that many have begun to follow with the ongoing purge removing fan-favorites.
Of course, President Joe Biden will not actually stop BURLESQUE from leaving Hulu, but it is comical that fans are going to such lengths to try and save their beloved movies and TV shows from leaving Disney+ and Hulu.
How is Disney Struggling?
Disney has also been suffering in parks as well as in their entertainment department as of late.
Although the theme parks are increasing prices, creating a higher return for the company, they are also seeing a major drop in attendance, specifically at Walt Disney World Resort.
Credit: Alice S.
Over the past few years, we have seen Disney attempt to be much more diverse and inclusive in all aspects of the company, including casting choices. This, for some, has recently gone too far — and now Disney is seemingly looking to make it right.
Previously, Disney launched the Reimagine Tomorrow initiative, stating that “We haven’t always got it right.” This came after the Cast Member dress code changed when it came to the “Disney Look,” allowing Cast Members to express themselves more while at work. On top of that, we have already heard of the progress coming along on the new Princess and the Frog attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, that is replacing Splash Mountain’s racist undertone scenes due to the Song of the South IP, as well as changing the storyline on both Walt Disney World Resort’s and Disneyland Resort’s Jungle Cruise attraction to ensure cultural appropriation disappears.
Following this, we saw Disney begin to change their casting, placing different ethnicities into characters that were previously created as Caucasian. The first casting choice to make headlines was when Disney announced they had finally found who would play the iconic mermaid, Ariel, for the live-action remake The Little Mermaid. The Disney Princess and mermaid, Ariel, is played by actress Halle Bailey, known for her work in ABC’s Grown-ish and as one half of the famous R&B singing duo Chloe and Halle.
But it wasn’t long before the Internet spoke about the decision on Bailey’s casting. While many fans were highly supportive, others immediately took to Twitter and other social media platforms to express their frustrations about the casting of the Disney Princess character. The hashtag #NotMyAriel immediately began to trend.
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The Walt Disney Company, Jodi Benson (the original voice for Ariel in the 1989 animated classic), Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of the producers and composers for the upcoming live-action remake, and others spoke out defending Disney’s decision and Bailey’s casting of the character.
Then we heard Yara Shahidi, currently known for her role on ABC’s Black-ish, is looking forward to playing the iconic sidekick, Tinker Bell, in the upcoming live-action film, Peter Pan and Wendy.
Most recently, the upcoming Snow White live-action film starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot has hit some heat. There are two main instances that caused fans to outrage with the upcoming film. Firstly, there will be no dwarfs in the film, but seven magical creatures, which deviates from the iconic story that Walt Disney himself created on screen. The second comes from an interview where Zegler and Gadot say that Snow White will not have a prince charming, and there is no one that needs to save her.
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At this point, fans accused Disney of creating a totally different film, and creating a pseudo-feminist film that makes Snow White’s ideals and behavior be seen as wrong, creating a corrupt narrative for females who may dream of finding their “prince charming”, or behaving as more of a softer character, than someone who is constantly trying to be the leader, as Zegler said Snow White will now be. With this, fans have been outraged at Disney pushing their “woke” agenda.
Are you thinking of canceling Disney+ or Hulu amid the recent content changes?
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Credit: Edited by Inside the Magic
