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“People Go to Watch a Movie to Be Entertained, Not to Get a Message”: Billionaire Disney Investor Hits Out at Woke Company After String of Flops

by Will Jones
23 March 2024 3:00 PM

The billionaire activist investor waging war against Disney has hit out at the media giant over its use of all-black and all-female casts. The Telegraph has more.

Nelson Peltz, who owns a stake in Disney worth roughly $3.5bn (£2.8bn), sided with accusations that the Hollywood behemoth has become too woke.

He said: “People go to watch a movie or a show to be entertained. They don’t go to get a message.”

Mr. Peltz, whose daughter Nicola is married to Brooklyn Beckham, took issue with recent blockbusters The Marvels and Black Panther, which portray female and black superheroes respectively.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the tycoon said: “Why do I have to have a Marvel that’s all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that?

“Why can’t I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-black cast?”

Disney’s recent push into more diverse casting marks efforts by the U.S. company to balance its output after decades of films starring mostly white and male characters and actors.

It has also updated some of its classic fairytales, including Cinderella and Snow White, for the modern era.

But the moves have fuelled criticism that Disney is focusing on political activism at the expense of its audiences.

After years of delivering blockbusters, Disney’s film studios, which include Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm, have suffered a string of disappointing box office openings.

The Marvels recorded the worst box office debut in the history of the franchise when it was released late last year.

Mr. Peltz has cited this lacklustre performance as one of the driving forces behind his activist campaign. He has also raised concerns about huge pay packets for executives and poor succession planning.

The investor, who owns shares in Disney through his vehicle Trian Fund Management, is campaigning for board seats for himself and former Disney finance chief, Jay Rasulo.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: DisneyDiversityGo woke go brokeNelson PeltzWoke CorporationWoke Gobbledegook

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25 Comments
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10navigator
10navigator
1 year ago

I agree with Mr Peltz and sympathise with his plight——.I wouldn’t wish the gormless Beckham boy as an in-law on anyone.

103
-4
Heretic
Heretic
1 year ago

Nelson Peltz is absolutely right: people go to movies to be entertained, inspired, lifted up out of their ordinary lives of struggle and sorrow. Movies are supposed to be like a kind of mini-holiday, something people can immerse themselves in to forget their own troubles for a while, and go home having thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

That’s where porn and horror movies, and depressing “noire” films, fail.
Who wants to pay money to have your spirit dragged down into the mud?

Last edited 1 year ago by Heretic
80
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Heretic

I find depressing films sometimes cheer me up, if they are done well – watching great artistry can be uplifting and seeing other people’s troubles puts your own into perspective. But I wouldn’t expect to be uplifted by anything that is preaching at me – which seems like most stuff made these days.

This is a rare bit of good news – someone with money and power, willing to use it and not afraid to say things that result in him not being invited to the “right” dinner parties.

83
0
Smudger
Smudger
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

He is only saying what he is saying because he is losing money when going woke was supposed to make him money.

Extract from a book review.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy argues that corporations have devised an elaborate scam: advertising a hollow fight for social justice in order to reap unprecedented profit and power. Ramaswamy calls this fusion of progressive ideals and capitalism “Wokenomics.” By engaging in Wokenomics, these “woke companies” go beyond selling a product; they are selling Americans a new standard for the right way to think and live. He contends that their false alliance with social causes allows them to influence legislation, manipulate consumers, and silence dissent. He argues that Wokenomics’s deceptive practices are weakening democracy—polarizing citizens and concentrating political power in the hands of a small group of corporate elites. 

14
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Smudger

It’s quite possible he has an ulterior motive, yes. But not beyond the realms of possibility that he also feels strongly about it, given the social consequences of saying what he did.

Ramaswamy was/is an interesting figure – shame there are not more like him in the UK.

8
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

If it’s being depressed you want, watch the Parliament Channel.

5
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

lol I don’t want to be suicidal though

4
0
AlexJ08
AlexJ08
1 year ago
Reply to  Heretic

It just has to be a good film, made by a good filmmaker. Horror films can be good/exhilarating/shocking: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining or A Clockwork Orange. Some of the most arresting cinema ever made.

Nelson Peltz is right: we don’t go to the cinema to get our daily dose of government political messaging, like in communist countries. We go to see exhilarating films, with beautiful/fantastic movie stars, like in the 50s/60s/70s/80s/90s

Last edited 1 year ago by AlexJ08
30
0
Heretic
Heretic
1 year ago
Reply to  AlexJ08

Well, not only beautiful movie stars, but also the small bit-part actors and extras with interesting or ugly faces all add to the fun, some of them even cheekily stealing scenes. Personally, I loathe horror films, sex scenes and films that dredge the depths of human misery and evil, unless the miserable ones have happy endings. There’s enough misery in real life. Anyway, I’m glad Nelson Peltz has spoken out with such honest good sense.

20
-1
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  Heretic

Er, porn movies have a long, successful and profitable life, but have a narrower audience. As for noire films, they appeal to a niche audience too. Both are successful within their sectors.

Disney is supposed to be for the mass, wider audience and particularly young children and whole family entertainment.

If Disney made films only for the Woke *ankers sector, it would probably do well.

4
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

I do actually go to watch a film to learn something, to “get a message”.

I do not, however, go to be lectured. Which I hope is what he meant.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
41
-6
zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

You don’t go to Hollywood to learn anything. U-571 for example.

6
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

It’s a crazy self-defeating agenda. Some people are perplexed how and why corporations do this to themselves given that they can see in real time the damage that it is doing and can even refer to the fate of other corporations who attempted to promulgate this agenda. There are some interesting andwers to this question. The American film industry has been propaganda since the introduction of the Hays Code in 1934. In the 1950s Truman told the director John Ford “just make Westerns!”. You would have to look far and wide to find subversive tendencies at that time. But this new agenda is absurd and thrust forward with such aggression that it is bound to get almost everyone riled up and aesthetically it is incredibly ugly.

38
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 year ago

I struggle to understand how all black casts are diverse.

if the idea is to equate casts with current demographic proportions it will be difficult to make films unless based on stories about today.

in the UK the Asian proportion far exceeds black while both were insignificant until recently. Any film about the UK more than (say) 20 years ago cannot easily balance demographics.

But why try.

We do not want films as a factual representation of life. If they were so there would be fewer murders and fewer successful police investigations!!

The worst representation in Britain is in adverts and BBC presenters. I want to know why Asians, people who are not photogenic and white middle aged men (who are not sex pests) are under represented.

53
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

This is just meant to be a chapter of distraction at the moment when we enter the last stages of collapse. You might want to think about any assets that you think you might be holding. At this late stage they become very predatory. There is a scene in The Lady From Shanghai where Orson Welles tells Rita Hayworth about the shark feeding frenzy. Where intitaially the might be drawn by blood and then they might bite at the carcass and more blood and more sharks arrive and they start biting at each other. In the end they are so crazed and ravenous that they bite at their own stomachs until they bleed out. This is the sort of pathology that we are facing.

21
-1
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

This quickening period – more will happen in the next week than has happened in the last year. And then just pure conentration of moment where more happens in a day.. I say this because you shouldn’t become alarmed at what happens over the next few weeks, It is written in. There are no safety guarantees for any of us. If you want any such guarantee then you are not tuned into the time that we are lviving in.

6
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

Well actually people do go to movies to get a message. ——-But it usually one of good people living happily ever after, and the baddies getting their comeuppence. ——Today all media has assumed the role of the morality police and the Liberal Progressive busy body deciding what we all should think and what we should be allowed to say on the 5 main fashionable agendas of the day. Equality Diversity Race Gender and Climate, The vehicle for this preaching increasingly has become Dramas, Motion Pictures, Adverts, TV news and Documentaries and we are SICK of IT.

33
0
RW
RW
1 year ago

Can someone please tell Disney that both Cinderella and Snow White are German fairy tales and that Germans are usually not black? Further, that dwarves are one of the creatures of Germanic mythology and are often powerful warriors, cunning sorcerors or hoarders of extreme wealth, ie, that this has nothing to do with making fun of short people. If you feel you must “update” something, please appropriate your own culture for that instead of ours.

Last edited 1 year ago by RW
43
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  RW

But the fashionable thing nowadays is “colour blind casting”. ——-This is where they pretend that it doesn’t matter what colour the people are in films. But I would like to see the flames spitting from the eyes of the silly social justice people if someone made a film and cast George Clooney in the role of Nelson Mandela or Muhammed Ali. —-But hey wouldn’t that also be “colour blind casting”?

19
0
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  varmint

I don’t care about the fashions of these people. They’ve invented term cultural appropriation. Hence, their conduct can justly be measured against it and – in this case – judged obviously wanting. They see nothing wrong with it when they’re doing it. Hence, there is nothing wrong with it.

Besides, that’s not color blind casting (American spelling intentional) but Do your buddies favours. Insofar it’s not just trolling, that is.

5
0
Covid-1984
Covid-1984
1 year ago

What the elite don’t realise, is that wokery is driving a huge wedge between any respect we used to hold for them.

13
0
RW
RW
1 year ago
Reply to  Covid-1984

I think their theory is that they don’t need this respect anymore as they nowadays have the power to terrorize us. Eg, to use a current exampe, they hate football as it’s a traditional pasttime of those they consider to be the lower orders. Hence, they’re going to kill it by replacing the game with neverending display of tokens of their queer predilections. They know that the very fanbase of this (ex-)sport is more or less strongly opposed to these. And because of this, they’re forcibly rubbing them the wrong way all the time in order to sprititually break them or turn them away from the game which will then hopefully wither and die.

‘Playfully’ removing the English flag from what’s supposed to be the English national team is in the same league as ‘payfully’ destroying some statues of English greats of the past or ‘playfully’ defecating in the middle of Westminster cathedral during a church service. They call this ‘playful’ to indicate that it’s their way too have fun at the expense of others.

5
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago

The latest “woke” Disney nonsense, being plugged relentlessly on YouTube, is Renegade Nell …. about an 18th century Highwaywoman. The adverts prominently display black men and women in English 18th century upper class clothing, complete with long curly wigs, and participating fully in upper class English society.

It’s blatant historical revisionism and another reason to boycott Disney.

21
0
Jackthegripper
Jackthegripper
1 year ago

If the guy feels that strongly, stop investing in the company.

8
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago

The market decides. It is doing its job with Disney.

5
0

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