Your honest thoughts on Disney?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Dude, they literally force smaller theaters out of business by forcing them to run their movies way past the "expiration date"; as in, say your small town of a couple thousand people has one small theater, and after two weeks, everyone's already seen "Aladdin" three times, they're sick of it. But their "agreement" with Disney explicitly states that they HAVE to run that movie on X number of screens, three times a day for 6 to 8 weeks, or else they don't get to show the movie at all. For one thing, if the theater only has a few screens to begin with, 50-80% of them are all showing the same ONE movie. And after two weeks, the whole town's burnt out on that movie, and they CAN'T just show something else or Disney will sue them into oblivion. So NOW they're playing that movie to empty seats for over a month, making ZERO profit for themselves, while Disney keeps 80 cents on every dollar for every ticket sold. At the same time, the theaters don't even have the option to show other movies from Day One, because Disney commonly holds their films "hostage" with some variant of, "Well, if you show that ________ movie from Sony/WB/etc., you don't get Star Wars." They do it ALL the f*cking time.

So the theater owners have to deal with the very real issue of, if they don't get the Big Disney Movies that everyone wants to see - while playing entirely by Disney's "rules" the whole time - they'll lose tons of money. That screws the theater owners. Then they can't even offer their paying customers a decent variety of films, because of a limited number of screens and Disney's "You're not allowed to show 'Movie X' or no Avengers for you!" bullsh*t, which means any money they DO make is going to be very short-term, BUT they have to run these films forever or not at all, so they get screwed on the back end, too. And all of this ultimately screws over the paying customers in these more rural areas, because if their little Mom N' Pop theater doesn't get "The Lion King", they're now forced to drive to the nearest mall or chain theater, sometimes 30-60 minutes away, which they'll ultimately end up doing but they don't WANT to.

That's just off the top. And as mentioned, their percentage demand for every dollar earned and ticket sold is WAY higher than any other movie studio; I'd have to verify it, but I've read that in some cases it's as much as 80%. EIGHTY PERCENT. Eight pennies out of every goddamn dime, just because they know they can get away with it. By the way, movie theaters don't make jack sh*t on movie tickets, since most of that goes back to the studios, anyway, but MOST studios are a lot more reasonable when it comes to splitting the difference. Even the bigger theater chains have been quietly calling "Bullsh*t" on Disney for their exploitation of this practice for years, but it's absolutely death for the smaller, local joints. But long story short, the more money a studio demands per ticket sold, the more the theater has to charge for "extras" just to stay in business. So the next time you go to the movies and start bitching about $8 sodas, blame The Mouse. It's 100% their fault; they set an exorbitant "per ticket" rate, and every other studio has to raise theirs just to stay competitive, and then the theater has to nickel-and-dime the piss out of their customers just to keep the lights on. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

I won't even get into my opinions about their products, because all of that is subjective. What's NOT open to debate or opinion is that Disney is a f*cking predator shark that wants to ensure that nobody in the entire entertainment industry makes a single dollar except THEM. I don't care how big a piece of anyone's childhood they are or how masterful they are at banking on peoples' nostalgia; they're a ruthless conglomerate that owns almost 3/4 of every single thing people are able to watch, read, or listen to, and globally they're guilty of everything from price-fixing to literal slave labor. These aren't opinions, they're facts, and "Everyone else does it too, just less so" doesn't wash with me.

And don't even get me started on how their theme park employees can't even get paid enough to feed themselves; that's been ALL over the news, recently. There's "The Magic Of Disney", right there: Snow White, sleeping in her goddamn car after a 14-hour shift in 105-degree heat, wearing company-issue underpants that are crawling with goddamn lice. Fun.

Liking/defending their products is one thing. As a company, they're completely indefensible.

It has nothing to do with being "anti-Disney" or looking for "hit pieces". Facts are facts, and they don't care about nostalgia or 'Member Berries. I feel sorry for anyone who'd defend a billion-dollar corporation that engages in such anti-human business practices on a global scale, just because they make some pretty cartoons sometimes.

It does some good to read once in a while.

That does sound very ruthless of them indeed.

[Prowler]

For years I've been thinking that there's something really shady about Disney, but I could never put my finger on what it was exactly. So thanks for that, Leo.

What do you guys think of Walt Disney? One of the biggest rumours is that the man was a nazi-sympathiser. No idea if that's true, though.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Prowler

What do you guys think of Walt Disney? One of the biggest rumours is that the man was a nazi-sympathiser. No idea if that's true, though.

Well, I do recall watching a documentary or something where we learn that while Disney was a very socially conservative man, the people working around him refuted the idea that he was anti-semetic.

He also made some anti-Nazi propaganda cartoons during World War 2, and attempted to enlist in the military during World War 1.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Well, I do recall watching a documentary or something where we learn that while Disney was a very socially conservative man, the people working around him refuted the idea that he was anti-semetic.

Well, even if, let's say, for argument sake, that he was indeed one. Anti-Semitism wasn't exactly an uncommon belief in Europe and the West overall back in the first half of the 20th century. It's not like the nazis invented it. Anti-Semitism goes back to biblical times already.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by snake

Seriously, leave already. Mew, Etsy, Goku, Commenter42- whichever one you are.

Glad to see I'm not the only one catching those vibes.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Wesley

True. A lot of children just had 2-3 channels back then myself included.

In Portugal we only had two channels up until 1990 or so when the 3rd channel, and the 1st ever private channel, was created here. A few years later, the fourth channel, and the second private..owned Portuguese channel, debuted.

Around 1999 or so we got cable TV at my house and suddenly we had nearly 100 channels from all over the world. It was amazing

[Leo656]

I read a lot.

I've spent my fair share of coin on Disney products myself - less so in recent years - but their actual business practices are completely contrary to everything that was done in the first half of the 20th Century to break down and prohibit monopolies in the first place. And you know what they say about people who fail to learn from history.

They get away with it because they literally have all the money in the world, and thus can pay their lawyers to make things go their way no matter what. Which is why Mickey Mouse isn't public domain and never will be, no matter what the law says or how many decades pass. That's small potatoes, but it's a clear example of how they operate. "Laws" are just words on paper that poor people have to follow. Whether "them's the breaks" or not, it's not supposed to be that way.

The fact that they own such a huge piece of the entertainment pie is bad enough, because it limits freedom of choice and eliminates competition, but what's really scary is how they're also encroaching upon the rest of the media. That means TV, newspapers, magazines, and of course, reviews of their own products. Which is technically illegal as hell, but hey... since when does that matter to These Guys?

Nike makes a quality shoe. But it's abhorrent that they charge $200 for them while the women and children who make them do so for about five cents an hour under threat of physical violence and starvation. Disney's business practices are equally vile to anyone who bothers to check Forbes once in a while. None of this is any secret; but people dismiss it because either, "They're my entire childhood", or "At least we'll get to see the X-Men fight The Avengers".

It's like, I love movies and sh*t more than most people, but if people could one day somehow get back to caring more about individual human beings and less about a giant corporation that wouldn't piss fairy dust on any of you if you were burning alive, well, that'd seriously be great.

[Voltron]

For me, it's such a double edged sword. On one hand, I love that the MCU churned out such fun and memorable movies. One the other hand, as pointed out by others, the monopoly is pretty horrifying.

I'm not thrilled about them owning a huge chunk of the franchises I grew up with. I don't want to give them anymore money.

[Wesley]

I started to think there was something about shady about Disney a long time ago when I watched a documentary about the history of Celebration, a town the company created and wanted full control of.

[Papenbrook]

I wonder what would happen if they ever purchased a popular social media website ( via Twitter, Reddit, Tik Tok, etc. ).

It ... seems scary to think about that.

[Vegita-San]

after hearing what they where apparently planning to do to spiderman (After two lackluster seeming debut movies), I'mrather glad sony got him back.

And Sony isn't much better than disney. they didn't learn their woke lesson yet either. and both are going down the same road.

Ever since Eisner came along, Disney has slowly been going down the path of evil. Eiger just continued it.