Film Slump Prompts Disney Cuts
The Walt Disney Co. has a magic touch, all right: Given three of Hollywood’s biggest stars - Sharon Stone, Jeff Bridges and Whoopi Goldberg - Disney has turned out three of the year’s biggest bombs.
With mounting losses running in the millions, the studio said it will slash its live-action movie slate by up to 50 percent. From a current slate of some 36 movies this year - including Stone’s “Last Dance,” Bridges’ “White Squall” and Goldberg’s “Eddie” - the Disney studios plan to release no more than two dozen in 1997, and output in further years may be reduced further. The studio’s Hollywood Pictures unit also is expected to be closed.
Analysts and rival studio executives said the consolidation was long overdue, and some speculated that Disney’s Miramax Films, which has released a series of disappointing art films, also might be affected.
On Wall Street, Disney stock was up 50 cents at $62 a share.
Joe Roth, chairman of Disney Studios, disclosed the cuts in an interview published Monday in The New York Times. He declined further comment.
Although Disney’s animated musical films are the most profitable franchise in show business history, Roth’s live-action slate has fared terribly in recent months. In April, Disney reported it lost $25 million in the first three months of the year, blamed in part on movie profits that were down 35 percent from the previous year.
Christopher Dixon, an entertainment analyst with PaineWebber Inc., said Disney was spending too much money producing and distributing movies that had only marginal audience appeal.
“All of a sudden, they were left with no tent poles,” Dixon said, using industry jargon for high-profile summer blockbusters. He said Disney also failed to establish name-brand identities for Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures.
Disney’s occasionally good films, Dixon noted, were faced with heavily promoted competition.
“Even a successful film like ‘The Rock’ was eclipsed last weekend at the box office by a horrific film - ‘Cable Guy,”’ Dixon said.
Rival studio executives said Roth, who has been promising for two years to trim Disney’s output, has been spending inordinate sums of money on marketing his lowbrow films, driving down profit margins across Hollywood. Furthermore, Disney’s relationship with the independent producers Caravan and Cinergi Pictures also has been perilous. Cinergi made the washouts “Nixon” and “The Scarlet Letter” and Caravan has failed with “Before and After” and “Celtic Pride.”