Archive for the ‘disney’ tag
Disney Pixar Not Commercial Enough Say Shareholders
Traders in Wall Street have voiced their concerns over the commercial strength of Disney Pixar recently.They are have been producing high quality films for many years now and but lost of people think they have lost touch with their commercial side.
The news follows the release of their last two films, WALL-E and Ratatouille, which have been the studio’s two worst performing productions. Making profits is not the problem, it is simply that the competition is very fierce, not least from their biggest competitor, Dreamworks. Their new film ‘UP’ has recently been released and the criticisms of previous films have continued with this one.The overriding opinion is that there is a serious lack of marketable characters and they are not as appealing or purchasable as their previous efforts (think Mickey Mouse) or indeed those of their completion. Dreamworks have had a great run recently with films such as Shrek, Wallace and Grommit and their newest release Monsters VS aliens. These products feature easily identifiable heroes and villains, and also cute talking creature or animals that covert well the merchandise war. Toys, books, DVD’s, clothes even more obscure products like dolls houses, all play their part in making up the films overall profits.The ability to market these products is what pixar have been lacking recently as a result of their story structures and character choices.
The counter argument to this has been that Pixar are more interested in creating worthwhile and high quality films than selling pointless toys from their productions. They would rather be able to promote the buying of educational toys rather than cheap tacky stuff. There is however the ever present pressure being put on the company by shareholders and associated businesses to raise profits year on year.Richard Greenfield from Pali Research has reduced the share price of Disney to sell last month, citing predicted poor commercial strength a a reason why.