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Bob Chapek’s Hail Mary

Disney’s subscriber growth is holding up, but the playbook has changed and Chapek lags in the metric Wall Street now wants—actual revenue. With the goalposts of success moved and added pressure on Marvel and the rest, the embattled C.E.O. is making bold promises and writing checks his company may not be able to cash.

Bob Chapek
Disney C.E.O. Bob Chapek. Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
May 13, 2022

I’m on a text chain with a couple executive friends at Disney, so the three of us decided to live-chat yesterday’s much-anticipated earnings reveal. I’ll spare you most of the dumb jokes and poop emojis; it’s safe to say it got pretty cynical, pretty fast.

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