The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the first steps in the creation of the Disney universe. This year is also the centennial of the Warner Brothers company. The result has been a hundred years of entertaining people around the world — and making piles of cash in the process.
The success of those Alice films, and a series around a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, led Disney to begin work on his most famous creation, the 1928 cartoon,. That vehicle introduced the world to the instantly recognisable figure of Mickey Mouse. Moreover, as Wainwright says, “much of the output of ‘Hollywood’ is now overseen by tech firms to the north. Apple, 300 miles up the coast in Cupertino, won the Oscar for best picture in 2022, just three years after launching its TV+ service.
— an hour-long programme with its Mouseketeers . The show included excerpts from Disney films released years ago, or episodes from films just out in local cinemas. Over the years, Disney has sold untold millions of branded T-shirts, sweatshirts, Mickey Mouse watches, hats, mouse ears, books, comic books, posters, plush dolls and stuffed animals, videos and so much more, that the company became the virtual king of tie-in sales. And that was before it gained control over both the Star Wars and Marvel universes and the ESPN sports broadcasts, and thus shares of the royalties from their tie-in merchandise as well.
All of this, of course, was taking place as California itself was undergoing a massive population explosion from in-migration, even more expansive than just the national baby boom — and so the state was a huge client base for “The Magic Kingdom,” even if much of the rest of the nation could not visit. But, of course, millions did.
Central Florida, for example, became a massive tourist destination — with hotels, motels, other adventure destinations and more, all playing off the success of Disney World. Globally, the Disney empire now employs around 220,000 people. Foremost in this list may be the structure of the company itself. During Bob Chapek’s time as CEO, all programming decisions were centralised under one deputy. According to Bloom, this was to address thefundamental challenge facing all diversified media companies: how do you decide what projects should go where, in a way that maximises revenues and controls mounting costs? Somebody has to be the traffic cop.