Ep339: Disney Investor Day

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Disney Investor Day 2020

Disney’s Investor Day was full of exciting announcements for all Disney’s major brands. These announcements included news about the upcoming (massive) slate of content coming to Disney+!

The first portion of the presentation contained business information in which Disney announced that its portfolio of direct-to-consumer (DTC) services has now exceeded 137 million paid subscribers (globally). This is huge considering that Disney+ hasn’t launched in all markets yet. The numbers broke down as follows:

• 11.5 million – ESPN+
• 38.8 million – Hulu
• 86.8 million – Disney+

Alongside this news, Disney is projecting that they will hit 300-350 million total subscribers by fiscal 2024 (based on their new content releases).

Although it was stated towards the end of the call, Disney announced that in March 26, 2021, the price of Disney+ will go to $7.99 per month in the U.S. (or $79.99 per year), and their bundle that includes Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu will be priced at $13.99 per month.

Star

Disney will be launching Star in Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on February 23, 2021 and will be fully integrated into Disney+ and a content tile (similar to the Disney, Star Wars, Pixar, Nat Geo, etc. that you see now). Star will be the place to find 18+ age restricted content.

In Europe, Star will be priced at €8.99 per month or €89.90 per year. The streaming service rollout will also become available in Singapore on February 23, 2021. Other countries that will be added later in 2021 include Eastern Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea.

The information below is taken from Disney’s press release about the event:

Disney Television Studios for Disney+

Disney Television Studios shared a look at some of the high profile family entertainment series in development for Disney+, including two projects inspired by Disney properties: “Beauty and the Beast (working title),” starring Luke Evans and Josh Gad with new music composed by Alan Menken; and “Swiss Family Robinson,” which is a reimagining of the classic from Ron Moore and Jon M. Chu. The studio is also developing “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” based on the bestselling book series by Rick Riordan from Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Disney Television Studios is currently in production on four live action series set to debut on Disney+ in 2021: “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” “Big Shot,” “The Mysterious Benedict Society,” and “Turner & Hooch.” 

National Geographic Content

National Geographic revealed its ambitious Disney+ slate including high profile titles “Limitless With Chris Hemsworth,” “Welcome to Earth (working title)” featuring Will Smith, and a fourth season of the Emmy-winning anthology series “Genius,” which will profile Martin Luther King, Jr.

The studio also announced the new documentary film “Cousteau,” which will debut in theatres before coming to Disney+ alongside new documentary series “Secrets of the Whales,” “A Real Bug’s Life,” and “America The Beautiful.”

Content for Hulu and Star

The Kardashian Jenners will create new global content under a multi-year deal, to stream exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. and internationally on Star, with an expected debut in late 2021. Also premiering on Hulu and Star next year are the premium series  “Only Murders in the Building,” “The Dropout,” and “Dopesick.”

In 2021, the slate of FX originals, which includes “The Old Man,” “American Horror Stories,” “Platform,” “Reservation Dogs,” and “Y: The Last Man” will be available on Hulu in the U.S. and Star in multiple international markets.

Hulu

Hulu’s award-winning, hit drama series, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” has been renewed for a fifth season ahead of its season four premiere and “Nine Perfect Strangers,” starring and executive produced by Nicole Kidman along with David E. Kelley, will debut next year.

FX

In addition to Hulu in the U.S., the FX premium content brand will bring its library of award-winning content and exclusive new originals to Star around the world. FX has ordered four additional seasons of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” for the linear channel, FX on Hulu, and Star, smashing the record for longest running live-action sitcom in television history. The group announced it is developing the first series adaptation of the science-fiction horror classic “Alien” and is in advanced talks for a two-season order of “The Stones,” a drama series about the world’s greatest and most enduring rock ‘n roll band, The Rolling Stones. FX will also embark on one of its most sweeping, sophisticated and adult series with the retelling of James Clavell’s beloved epic saga, “Shōgun,” set within feudal Japan.

Walt Disney Studios Content

Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm announced an impressive number of exciting Disney+ series and new feature films destined to expand the Star Wars galaxy like never before. Among the projects for Disney+ are “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” starring Ewan McGregor with Hayden Christensen returning as Darth Vader, and two series set in the Mandalorian era from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni: “Rangers of the New Republic” and “Ahsoka,” a series featuring the fan favorite character Ahsoka Tano.

Additional new titles announced for Disney+ include “Andor,” “Star Wars:The Bad Batch,” “Star Wars: Visions,” “Lando,” “The Acolyte,” and “A Droid Story.” The studio is also revisiting “Willow” in a new series with Warwick Davis returning in the title role.

The next feature film in the Star Wars franchise, releasing in December 2023, will be “Rogue Squadron,” which will be directed by Patty Jenkins of the “Wonder Woman” franchise. The next installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise directed by James Mangold, a Star Wars feature film by writer/director Taika Waititi and “Children of Blood & Bone,” based on Tomi Adeyemi’s New York Times bestselling novel, round out the feature-film slate.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production

For Disney+, the studio unveiled a star-studded lineup of original movies and officially confirmed it will produce “Hocus Pocus 2,” reboots of “Three Men and a Baby” with Zac Efron and “Cheaper by the Dozen”with Kenya Barris and Gabrielle Union, and a new “Sister Act” film starring Whoopi Goldberg, who is on board as a producer with Tyler Perry.

Additional Disney+ projects revealed include “Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers,” a hybrid live action-animated film starring John Mulaney and Andy Samberg; “Pinocchio,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks; “Peter Pan & Wendy,” starring Jude Law as Captain Hook and Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell; and “Disenchanted,” with Amy Adams returning as Giselle. New live action biographical films set for the service include “Greek Freak,” about NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as projects about Keanon Lowe and Chris Paul. The group is also developing new animated takes on favorite 20th Century Studios’ titles “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”; “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” starring Simon Pegg; and “Night at the Museum.”

The studio also previewed its slate of feature films including “Jungle Cruise”; “Cruella”; a prequel to “The Lion King”; and “The Little Mermaid.”

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios made several announcements today, highlighting the upcoming feature film “Encanto,” which includes new songs by Emmy®, GRAMMY® and Tony Award® winner Lin-Manuel Miranda and is slated for theaters in November 2021. The studio also revealed that “Raya and the Last Dragon” will debut simultaneously on Disney+ Premier Access and in theatres in March 2021.

Marking the first animated series produced by WDAS, the studio also revealed several new series for Disney+ including “Baymax,” “Zootopia+,” “Tiana” and “Moana, The Series,” as well as “Iwájú,” which will be produced in collaboration with the Pan-African comic book entertainment company Kugali.

Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios revealed its upcoming slate of original series for Disney+ and feature films. Among the titles are Pixar’s first-ever long-form animated series “Win or Lose,” which debuts exclusively on Disney+ in Fall 2023, and two brand-new feature films slated for theaters in 2022, Academy Award®-winning director Domee Shi’s “Turning Red,” and “Lightyear,” the definitive origin story of the hero that inspired the toy. Chris Evans will voice the hero on his journey to becoming the most famous Space Ranger ever. Slated for theaters next summer is the original feature film “Luca.”

Additional details were shared about new Disney+ series, including “Inside Pixar,” “Pixar Popcorn,” “Dug Days,” and “Cars,” as well as the upcoming feature film “Soul” and short “Burrow”—both debuting on Disney+ on December 25, 2020.

Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios shared plans for the expansion and future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revealing details about upcoming content for both Disney+ and theaters. Among dozens of upcoming projects, three new series for Disney+ were revealed, including the Samuel L. Jackson-starrer “Secret Invasion,” “Ironheart” with Dominique Thorne as a genius inventor, and “Armor Wars,” starring Don Cheadle as James Rhodes aka War Machine who faces Tony Stark’s worst fears.

These will join the studios robust lineup of Disney+ titles including “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” and “Loki”; the animated series “What If…?”; “Ms. Marvel”; “Hawkeye,” with Hailee Steinfeld joining Jeremy Renner in the series; “She-Hulk,” starring Tatiana Maslany in the title role alongside co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Tim Roth; “Moon Knight”; “Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special”; and a series of original shorts, “I Am Groot,” featuring everyone’s favorite baby tree.

Included in a host of new feature film reveals were “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the third feature in the “Ant-Man” franchise, and “Fantastic Four,” which introduces Marvel’s most iconic family. Marvel Studios’ upcoming feature films also include “Black Widow,” “Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings,” “Eternals,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Black Panther 2,” “Blade,” “Captain Marvel 2,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”

ESPN and Sports Content

ESPN announced a milestone new 10-year agreement with the Southeastern Conference (SEC), expanding its partnership and adding college football’s most-watched TV package, beginning with the 2024 season. The deal will also bring select SEC football games to ESPN+, beginning with the 2021 football season and running through the term of the agreement.

ESPN+, which now reaches more than 11.5 million U.S. subscribers, will also launch several new original series and studio shows in the coming months. “Peyton’s Places,” the Emmy-nominated series currently in its second season on ESPN+, will return for a third season (Fall 2021) and expand to other sports – with some of the most engaging names in sports fronting their own versions of the series, including Abby Wambach (soccer), Ronda Rousey (combat sports), David Ortiz (baseball), and Peyton’s brother, Eli Manning (college football). ESPN+ will also launch “Stephen A’s World,” a new, original program featuring the insights and opinions of one-of-a-kind personality Stephen A. Smith in January. “Man in the Arena: Tom Brady,” the highly anticipated nine-part documentary series coming to ESPN+, is built around Tom Brady’s never-before-seen, first-hand accounts of the journey to each of his nine Super Bowls. Plus, a newly reimagined version of SportsNation will return weekday mornings, beginning in January, exclusively on ESPN+.

Here are some of the preview and teasers from the event:

Returning the magic!

Sadly, the Disney Company laid off over 28,000 cast members (and counting) at Disneyland and Walt Disney World due to the pandemic. There have been many initiatives setup to help cast members and in this episode we talk about shifting our current Teamboat Willie fundraising efforts to help cast members in need.

We’ve setup our own food drive to try to help as many cast members as possible, One of the things we love about what Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County is doing is that for every dollar donated will provide the equivalent of 3 meals per person. That’s amazing! To help, you can click the image below to make a donation or help us out by sharing our donation page with your friends and family so that we can try to help as many cast members as possible.

Below are other resources you can use to help furloughed and recently laid off cast members. 

 Disneyland

Cast Member Food Bank, Hosted by Workers United Local 50

Walt Disney World

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central FL

Cast Member Food Pantry

Cast Member Small business and services

Laid off and furloughed CM Support Sheet

How to help Disney Cast Members – Resource List

If you would still like to donate to our CHOC Walk fundraiser to help the Children’s Hospital of Orange County the information is listed further down in this post.

JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT EVENT!

We are excited to announce that we’ll be participating in the first ever Virtual CHOC Walk to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Orange County!

 or the first time, this year’s walk will be a virtual experience! Even though this year has been a less than optimal we still want to do what we can to help the children at CHOC!  

You can make a difference by making a donation using the link below or by joining our team to help raise money! Our current goal is to raise $1000. We would also like to encourage you to share our donation link as we work towards building a better future.

Together we can MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Thank you for your support!

LET’S DO THIS!