Disney picks D'Amaro
Disney chooses its theme park head to run the entire company, starting next month. Plus, what is Six Flags thinking?
Once again, The Walt Disney Company has selected the head of its theme park division to become Disney’s next CEO. Perhaps this selection will work out better than the last time this happened.
Disney has selected Disney Experience Chairman Josh D’Amaro to succeed Bob Iger as Disney’s CEO, effective next month. But he won’t be alone in the C-suite. Dana Walden will join D’Amaro as President and Chief Creative Officer, reporting to Josh.
Six years ago, Iger stepped down for the first time, with Bob Chapek selected to replace him. That did not work out, with the board dumping Chapek and recalling Iger two years later. But Iger is not coming back this time. It’s up to D’Amaro to chart Disney’s course ahead, with the assistance of Walden.
On Monday, Disney reported another positive quarter of revenue and earnings for D’Amaro’s Disney Experiences segment, partially offsetting losses elsewhere in the company. If you want to know the big reason why Josh won this succession decision, look there.
Meanwhile, over at Six Flags, the company announced a new benefit for mid-level Gold pass holders - free admission not just to their home parks, but to all the parks in their “region.”
By reframing home parks as home regions, could Six Flags be making a play to hold on to at least some of the customers that it likely would lose by closing or selling parks?
We will see Six Flags’ quarterly numbers later this month. At Universal, the quarterly numbers were up like Epic Universe wait times. The company reported record earnings at its theme parks, thanks to the opening of its new gate in Orlando last year.
Finally, for techies, we link the latest ride system patent applications from Disney and Universal. What do you think these might be?
Thank you, as always, for being part of the Theme Park Insider community. Best wishes for the week ahead,
Robert Niles
D’Anaro approved the demolition of Tom Sawyer Island which was a great experience for my three grandkids.
Hollywood Park should have had the Cars attraction.
Smart move by Disney choosing someone whos actually delivered results instead of just talking about strategy. D'Amaro's track record with the parks segment speaks for itself - consistent revenue growth while other divisions struggled. The pairing with Walden as creative officer is intresting too, kinda balances operational strenght with content vision. Wonder if this signals Disney doubling down on experiences over just content distribution.