Drinker's Chasers - Disney Sued For Lying About Box Office Numbers 

It still blows my mind just how far Disney has fallen. Its almost impressive. It'd be sad if it weren't completely deserved.

imagine owning the rights to star wars and not being able to make money with it

It’s important to remember that Disney is no longer Disney. The people who made all those beloved films from the past are either retired or sadly passed away. Not a single member of the original company is around anymore. It’s quite literally nothing but radical activists wearing the corpse of Disney as a suit.

We don't need Disney. The world is filled with great writers and artists that are interested in creating culture that is pertinent and wanted, they will simply fill the void when Disney is gone. Shareholders will have to sue Disney for their misleading behaviour.

Disney has become the very personification of "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Disney is the epitome of trading a 10$ bill for two 1$ bills and thinking you just made yourself more money in a fancy deal. 😂

And how much has Disney spent to get outlets like Rotten Tomatoes to game the ratings for their films?

It speaks volumes about the damage that Disney has done to itself and its brand that this news made me genuinely, legitimately, incredibly happy.

As usual, they lost money trying to save money.

Its crazy to me how a lot of people were ready to call Disney a monopoly less than 6 years ago and now they are reaching bankruptcy ever so surely

Disney has tried everything they can think of to make money, except making good movies

And folks who insisted Disney inflated its box office numbers were called crazy. 😏

Neither the FTC nor the FCC would green light a sale of Disney to Apple. Way too many Anti-Trust implications.

Part of what's awkward about Disney is how it recently undermined its own brand. If any other company were to buy it and settle its debts, the company would also need to rehabilitate the brand to regain parents' trust. I'm not sure they can do that.

It's a running joke in Hollywood that no movie in history has ever actually made a profit. Wouldn't want to have to be paying off all those backloaded deals.

I've never seen a company dig their own grave like Disney have. Keep it up! ⚰

Disney has gone from being a benchmark to now sleeping on a bench

I am still in shock that Disney was able to take THE definitive and most iconic movie saga of all time that had loyal customers of all ages for merchandise second only to Pokemon and just fucking screwed it up so badly that it only functions as a ball and chain that weighs down the rest of the company. They rolled a nat 1 on Star Wars lol.

I remember having an entire conversation here about this very thing. It was very suspicious to me how Disney is spending all this money and nobody seemed to know where it was going or even where it was comimg from in certain cases. Some denied that there was even anything suspicious about this largess. To serious people it was only a matter of time before someone sued them for cooking the books. I wouldn't be surprised if more lawsuits are filed.

People forget that Disney lied for 25 years about theme park numbers. But that came out right before Covid 19 was spread into the west.

As someone who's habitually browsed 4chan for many years I can assuredly state that I have a thick skin against conspiratorial bullshit, but the one theory I've ever really bought into was that Disney was fluffing Captain Marvel's box office numbers. That movie was directly preceded by Wonder Woman - a much better female-centric superhero movie - and that thing was a phenomenon the likes of which I haven't seen since the 00's. Everyone was talking about it, even my mother watched the movie before I did and told me how great it was... yet we are to believe the movie headed by Brick Larson made substantially more than it at the box office, with pictures of empty theatres abounding? Nah, the Disney Box Office bamboozling goes much, MUCH deeper than merely what's alleged in this lawsuit, and they might be truly fucked if these proceedings start to turn over some rocks.

Let Disney be a lesson to you. _Nothing_ is too big to fail. It simply takes more time and hubris for larger entities than smaller ones.

Putting the "Disney" back in Disney is pretty much an impossible task at this point. That fish has been gutted, cleaned, cooked and served up for dinner.

Worst part is:they will get a bailout. Which means our money will go to them no matter how rotten they are. Piracy is the answer until order is restored. These laws need to change.

Reminds me of the movie 'Alien' - $11 million production cost, $180 million box office + accounting shenanigans = a loss. Result seriously ticked off investors.

This is SOOO great! Can’t gender/race-swap your way out of this. Time to sell.

All those DEI hires really elevated the company 😂😂😂

They definitely lied about a lot of movies. Captain Marvel did not make a billion, didn’t they say it made a billion? 😂

Imagine if Thanos snapped his fingers and disintegrated himself. That’s basically Disney right now.

Disney really does cook the books? I thought that was a rumor.

When your accountant is more creative than your production company…

I remember when Disney bought Lucas Film and was in the talks about making more Star Wars back in like 2012ish. I was working at a pizza shop at the time, and my boss and I were excited about it and milling over ideas on what they might do and what we'd like to see. It's sad that in that time frame, I've gone from being excited about Star Wars to "Maybe this next project will be at least decent, even though I seriously doubt it" or just outright "yeah, that's definitely going to be garbage, and I can't wait to hear reviewers talk about how shit it is" because sadly it's more entertaining to hear people talk how bad Star Wars has gotten than the Star Wars material itself.

Disney can save themselves by doing one simply thing: Stop. The. Message.

Kinda' like all the "sold out" shows for Captain Marvel that were realistically half-full theaters...

Oh man I hope this is true. Any Disney L I hear about nowadays is music to my ears

Once I wanted to work for Disney and saw it as the greatest achievement one can make. I remember reading all the fairy tales that Disney hasn't made into animated movies. Watching the old Disney classics over and over again, going frame by frame to understand what makes a Disney movie well... a Disney movie. And having written stories and drawn storyboards to recapture the magic of the Disney classics while also sprinkle in the uniqueness of each fairy tale. Made one of Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, The Princess and the Pea and more (They were not great and would absolutely need several redrafts). My dream was to work in Disney and be part of the creation of a movie that is on the same level as the Disney classics that I grew up with. That mindset is long gone thanks to being constantly patronized and disrespected by them, watching them doing the same to the very movies that made Disney as big as it is (or rather was) and being bombarded by such horrific writing that it is insulting (And don't get me started on all the shady the shit they've done). I don't care about that stupid company and I hope they burn on their way down.

Modern Disney is reaping what it sows

Everyone remember that they sacked their CEO in the middle of the night after he started to ask questions about finance... there's no smoke without fire

I saw this in person with Captain Marvel. I kept hearing about sold out tickets, so im thinking this movie must be alot better than i expected. Not only were there 7 people in my theater including 2 of my friends, but it was day 5 since it hit theaters 😂😅. To make it worst the movie was 💩

Disney makes another brain dead decision and keep losing money. Me: If he dies, he dies.

Amazon can turn Disney into a huge money maker? Have people already forgotten Rings of Power?

Sounds like someone got a look at Captain Marvel’s box office.

The CEO and BOD’s incompetence and lack of accountability is the real story - these guys have been ripping off investors for years. The SEC needs to step in.

Oh no! Who could have seen this coming? No wonder they have lawyers up the wazoo.

You mean they had lower grosses? HAHAHAHAHAHA. This is just Hollywood's Enron.

So how long is it going to be before some of these big Disney investors start a class action for breach of fiduciary duty?

Took long enough for a lawsuit to appear. I am shocked it took this long

This goes all the way to the top. It's all about quality control, or rather lack of. When you greenlight shite, lose money, you only have yourself to blame. This is all senior mismanagement.

I think if a sale happens then it's going to be parts of Disney and different IPS not the whole company, just like what Marvel did in the 90s.

As someone in the tech space, Apple buying Disney just doesn't make any sense.

I remember getting so much heat from even saying Captain Marvel's box office numbers were inflated, as many other people got the same crap for saying the same thing. We'll find out if this enforces our notions.

Seeing how woke both Apple and Amazon are, would Disney being bought by either one of them really improve the brand as far as making better movies/TV show goes? All it would accomplish is taking care of Disney's debts which honestly I don't want to see happen.

I read an article a while ago that talked about an whistleblower coming forward and saying Disney does some funny stuff with it's in-park sales numbers. Maybe they've just been lying for years and it's all finally catching up with them.

I always thought it was weird that shareholders were okay with film companies buying up millions of dollars in tickets for opening weekends. It seemed criminal when I first heard it

Why would "the kind of family" that goes to Disney theme parks not also have Apple products? As for Apple wanting to integrate everything into its ecosystem, that's true, but I think they would be making a serious error if they tried that with the Disney IPs if they do end up buying Disney. Great conversation, thanks guys!

What a lot of people don't remember is that Cable was originally supposed to be ad free as well. It didn't work there for the most part, either.

Disney had whistleblowers back in 2015 where they said they were cooking the books on those billion dollar movies they were cranking out.

I think Disney's downfall was the Avengers Series and every other movie that came out of that universe. They thought they had a set base that would support their other crap because they had the Avengers universe.

If Disney had spent the past ten years producing high-quality movies and TV they'd have plenty of money and wouldn't be in this position

Disney lied? But...but...that's not possible! They're the guardians of morality!

Those profits went somewhere. If they actually tried to include them in their shareholders statements, why did they think it would go unnoticed? The other option is 'stealing' which is a great look for 'Disney'. My, how far they've fallen.

God I miss Fox, they didn’t always succeed but they at least took chances.

Companies need to be allowed to fail and parish due to bad business decisions

But guys!!! Imagine how much they could charge for the new iPhone 17 in the Disney Princess Editions!!!😂

2:49 Disparu, are you forgetting attacking the audience and the fans? This is 100% the Disney playbook. Don't be shocked that they also $hit where they eat and sleep. Dare I say it's the mean girls playbook.

Oh Disney, the cronies of deception for animation, they will soon collapse faster than the first raindrop

This year I've been sitting comfortable and just eating popcorn watching this happen to Disney. And I love it, couldn't happen to a better company.

" In our defence, we really though we could get away with it. "

Critical doggo is the only one without eyewear… time to get them some goggles

I think Disney has become so radioactive that any company who acquires it will inherit Disney's woes. I would not want to wish that on any company, even ones like Apple and Amazon.

Remember when Disney was called out by one of their accountants for supposedly fudging the corporations worth?

Disney was once a great entertainment company. I don't know if anyone still remembers when Disney would put out a film people would look forward to it, to watch with your family, your children, your parents. Now, these failures has to be on purpose.

Why is this man in charge of an iconic company like this, he has totally destroyed it.

Disney is the proof, that "too big to fail" doesn't exist. Sure, their downfall is totally in house made and deserved, but if Apple is clever enough to see that, maybe they will keep off Disney altogether or wait long enough to pick up only pieces they really want. Question is - do they want anything? The only assets Apple would be interested are brands like Star Wars, but the damage done by Disney...is it worth it? Are people going to tune into any Star Wars show in the next 5 - 10 years, even "under new management"?

Who would even go see a Disney film anymore? Who would even pay for Disney +, let alone actually watch any of it?

At this point it feels like Disney is just trying to see what they can get away with

You reap what you sow. That’s all I gotta say about that.

I think any one buying Disney at this point would be an idiot, unless they drive the price way down. In fact I don't think Disney is worth a single dollar at this point. Just taking on all their debt and fixing their image problem is enough work on it's own. Paying extra above and beyond settling those debts is not worth it. Not for something with no effective profit earning projects outside of maybe the Parks. Which haven't been maintained properly in decades.

All the problems the Disney Company is experiencing today are Bob Iger's fault. -- Bob Iger is NO Walt Disney!

I love these discussions, you each have unique perspectives and insights and are genuinely respectful in debate. Love it!

Watching this company self-destruct has been facsinating

If Apple bought them out, they'd have to fire all of Disney's creative people and replace them with talented people.

I don't think Apple wants to deal with the park side of Disney.

Something I really like and find funny is that the little platoons animation actually ‘reacts’ properly to a lot of the comments lol.

When you are a publicly traded company you are not allowed to lie about your financials.

So the empty Captain marvel seats aren't a conspiracy theory...

Disney prestige - is there any left? How much prestige does the village bicycle have?

The audience: what happened to Disney? Iger: Gone. Reduced to atoms...

(Nelson Laugh)

For a while now Disney has been ogling the absurd profits made by Magic: The Gathering, and has just today launched its own trading card game called Disney Lorcana. Notably, the company they've chosen to publish the game (Ravensburger) has never run a TCG before, so there are already supply issues. Ravensburger also tends to charge distributors a higher percentage of their sale prices than many other manufacturers, meaning less profit for game stores that carry the product.

In any case the problem here lies in that film studios try to act as companies... it's the equivalent to politicians forgetting that their positions exist to serve and protect the people - not the other way round.

As an Apple stockholder, I am not excited by the idea of Apple acquiring Disney

I hope that they are forced by the government to prevent Apple from monopolizing which would hopefully force Disney to sell IP's to independent creative entities. The potential for good entertainment would go up... I mean, honestly, they can't get much worse..

Disney owns 65% of all media in the US. They are a much bigger player than described here. They might not have the ability to access capital like Apple or Microsoft, but they have greater power in their ability to control information and influence people.

Drinker and Crew with the pointed analysis! Always on point and interesting! Thanks!

I've never understood hollywood accounting. How do you spend $200 million to bring a film to market, gross $500 million in a few weeks, and yet say the movie made no money. I've never understood that.

I dont mind commercials my issue is that steaming puts ads in without thought, sometimes mid scene or mid sentence. I cant get into the show or movie. Tv shows wrote around commercial breaks to keep audiences hooked.

Please Disney... for the love of God, sell Marvel!!!

Old Walt must be turning in his grave at what Disney has become.

Hulu is worth 40bn? How is that possible!? Lucas film was 5bn!