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showtoonzfan · 2 years

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I get we need lots more LGBT+ representation around in the world, but, like,,, media with straight couples is still going to, y’know, exist??? Wether we like it or not. It may be a little redundant and disappointing to see yet a another straight couple, but just because it’s a movie where the two romantic leads are heterosexual, it doesn’t mean that the movie is automatically going to be bad. Hold your judgements for until it releases.

Sorry if my point sounds offensive or muddled, I just wanted to say my piece.

Agreed, and it’s alright. Like…..here’s my gripe.

I get it, I want more gay stories too, but the hypocrisy really shows when people say they want more cultured stories, and then when they finally get that, they bitch because it doesn’t meet their standards. And once again, the damn movie isn’t even OUT yet. Like I can see where the LGBTQ+ community is coming from, but if you’re a person who’s attacking and bitching about a movie that isn’t even out yet simply because it’s a straight story, then I don’t sympathize with you. And yes, I get that people are also sick of the “forbidden love” trope but just because a movie has a trope that’s been used a lot, doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad, so long as it can add something new and creative to the table. We’ll have to wait and see. But yeah, I didn’t want to say this but people really need to wake up. I get that we all want more gay stories, but people need to realize that it’s fucking DISNEY. We’re never going to get an upfront movie that is a love story between two gay characters, at least not now. The closest we have to that are the Disney channel shows like Luz and Amity from the Owl House, and Molly and Libby from The ghost and Molly Mcgee. Disney doesn’t care about gay people, most of the time they have few gay characters only for clout and people need to realize that, like how they hyped up Lefou from the live action version of Beauty and the Beast, only for the “gay scene” to be 2 seconds long. I’m not saying you can’t want for more and demand more, but honestly at this point, if y’all want more gay media, watch something else and don’t turn to Disney, cause they’re mostly greedy assholes. It’s sad, but it’s the truth, I mean look at what Alex Hirsch had to go through when he was writing Gravity Falls, or how Disney cut out a character in Turning Red that was supposed to be trans, and another character that was going to kiss a female.

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sound like I’m saying “oh the people who keep saying “we want more gay stories” should drop it lol”- cause I’m all for wanting to make a change and expanding on storytelling and media, and people deserve to ask for that, it’s just that they’re doing it in the worst way possible. By shitting on a movie that isn’t even out yet, you’re not getting your point across well. If you want to turn to Disney and ask for more stories regarding the LGBTQ+ community, do something like protesting, or making blogs and having your voice heard. Or, you could work on a story yourself. But again, I wouldn’t be so mad had some of the community not once again acted like jerks (not every member, just referring to the people who are mad at this movie because it’s straight). Y’all need to realize that Disney is the last…the LAST company you should expect to provide you with gay media. I do hope they change some day, but it ain’t ganna be now. Just don’t take it up with a movie that isn’t even freaking out yet.

#ask #my asnwer #my response #anti disney #lgbtq

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disregardcanon · 1 year

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kinda doubt i’ll ever do anything with this but i have a tentative idea for a gravity falls cis swap with the twins.

dipper is still called dipper most of the time, and mabel has a charming little old man’s name. i’m going with merlin as the placeholder. the big differences here would be

1. merlin still makes sweaters and dresses basically the same, but he incorporates a lot of space imagery into his crafts because people were mean to dipper about her birthmark when they were kids and he was like NUH UH SPACE IS GREAT! MY SISTER IS WAAAAYYY COOLER THAN YOU!

2. merlin is visibly very very gay. like he’s basically just... always known. his parents are supportive enough that when he was a kid and kept showing interest in so much “girl stuff” if he was an egg they would have let him socially transition. but merlin’s really just really visibly, flamboyantly gay. boy bands. glitter. he’s a lot more careful with his flirting and crush of the weeks than in original canon because. you know, not always safe to be as upfront about that for a gay boy as a “straight” girl, but the gnomes, mermando and gabe all still happen.

2. the teasing about dipper not actually being “manly” enough slips into much different places. merlin laments a lot of the time that his sister doesn’t want to do girly things with him, he’ll gently poke her about how tomboy is another word for “baby butch”, and a lot of “ugh, you’re hopeless. you could at LEAST let me do some makeup for you”

3. One of the first things that happens when they get to gravity falls is merlin saying “HI! I’M YOUR GAY NEPHEW!” and then grunkle stan says, “uh, i’m your gay uncle?”

“Wait, really?” merlin asks.

Dipper crosses her arms over her chest. “I thought dad said you were married to a woman once.”

Stan rolls his eyes. “Fine, I’m bisexual. That clear enough for ya?”

“CRYSTAL QUEER!” Merlin crows. Dipper groans.

4. Okay so. There is no copyright restriction in my fanfiction ideas (plus i think that disney would actually LOVE the synergy of this) so dipper is very into percy jackson and she projected HARDCORE onto annabeth. She’s like look! there she is! A smart tough tomboy!!!! And she has a lil crush on percy so she’s like smushing her dolls together in her head. But a lot more subtly because she’s dipper and she’s embarrassed about everything.

5. Merlin loves Sevral Timez. Dipper HATES them. While dipper does sometimes like guys, she is insistent that boy bands are a cash grab, manipulative, a way for companies to bleed girls dry while making fun of them, and pathetic. Merlin tells her to lighten up and goes to the concert with candy and grenda. Dipper reads her little mystery novels in their room.

6. Dipper IS bi. She DOES like girls, but she’s been in denial about that already for years. She had a boyfriend in fifth grade. They hung out on the playground and held hands and junk. Merlin is still convinced that she’s bisexual and brings it up CONSTANTLY, but stopped and now only brings it up when it’s the two of them because he knows it upsets her. (he thinks that she’ll be much happier once she just accepts who she is though!)

7. Merlin tried his best to ignore his own bullying, stay away from the guys it wasn’t safe to be around, and stick to hanging out with either the girls who were legitimately fine with him or wanted to pretend to have a gay best friend. He was caught up enough in avoiding HIS bullying that he didn’t notice DIPPER’S bullying. Dipper is a bit of a “not like other girls” type in this scenario, but that’s mainly the result of most other girls being mean to her. While SHE hasn’t accepted that she likes girls, the mean girls in class have decided that it’s gospel truth. There’s a lot about her “finally coming out” and her “finally matching” her brother. I would go into further detail but I think “the bullying was homophobic, partially due to her gender presentation and partially due to her brother, and a lot of it is centered around their first year of middle school gym and changing in company”. Dipper and Merlin both change inside a stall to prevent harassment. Not yay.

8. Dipper’s crush on Wendy is not any smaller than in canon, but she frames it to herself as just wanting Wendy to stay single because boys suck. Merlin is very pushy about it being a crush crush and. Well. Robbie is an insecure little shit and he’s not super emotionally intelligent, but he knows that Wendy is bi and a little girl isn’t any less threatening to him than a little boy. When Robbie spills the beans about Wendy liking girls too (which is a lot of reason that he’s still threatened by dipper and still so confrontational right back at dipper who thinks that she’s just Protecting Her Friend From Shitty Boys), Dipper goes through about six and a half crises as she realizes that it would actually be. Possible. For wendy to want to date her.

9. Once she’s done freaking out about that and has to talk to wendy about it (because merlin forces her into the same situation as in canon) Wendy assures her that it’s perfectly okay that dipper has a crush on her, she knew, but that it’s just not going to happen. She DOES take one of the queer pins off of her shirt and give it to dipper as a keepsake, though.

10. when stan finds her in the pin he’s THRILLED

“You bi too, kid?” stan asks. Dipper nods. Stan claps her on the shoulder. “Welcome to the family.”

Dipper frowns. “Aren’t I already family?”

“The other type of family,” stan says, winking. And that’s when it sinks in that it’s a euphemism for queer. <3

11. things are probably still going to suck when they go back to piedmont, but... both the twins are a lot more confident in themselves after this summer. after saving the world, how could they NOT be?

#gravity falls #gf aus #dipper pines #mabel pines #cis swap #gender bent pines twins #the mystery twins #the pines twins

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spiderdreamer-blog · 7 months

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The Prince of Egypt (1998)

When Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney in 1994 to form DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, it was essentially seen as a declaration of war against his former compatriots in the company. The first volleys in that war, however, would not come until 4 years later in 1998 with Antz and The Prince of Egypt. Both were bold statements, the former a CGI comedy directly designed to compete with Disney's new comrades at Pixar, the latter a big-budget traditionally animated musical taking aim at the prestige and box office returns of the Disney Renaissance that Katzenberg had helped shepherd at Feature Animation. Both made a strong impression at the time, and while Antz is somewhat forgotten today (especially thanks to the increasing controversy of Woody Allen as a filmmaker/performer and public figure), The Prince of Egypt has held on as a genuine classic. Does it deserve to be? Absolutely.

The plot is certainly familiar in its outlines to anyone who ever attended Sunday school. Hebrew slave Yocheved (the late singer Ofra Haza, absolutely haunting in only a few sung lines) places her baby Moses (Val Kilmer) in a basket and sets him down the River Nile in Egypt to rescue him from a purge commanded by Pharaoh Seti (Patrick Stewart). Moses eventually drifts towards the palace and is adopted by the Queen (Helen Mirren) and raised in the palace alongside his brother Ramses (Ralph Fiennes). They grow up as troublemakers, much to the consternation of Seti and the high priests Hotep and Huy (Steve Martin and Martin Short). When Moses helps free a captured Midian woman, Tzipporah (Michelle Pfeiffer), he learns a shocking revelation from the slaves Miriam and Aaron (Sandra Bullock and Jeff Goldblum): he is their brother. Disturbed by this and the full reality of the purge, he accidentally kills a slave-driver in a struggle, then leaves Egypt. After reuniting with Tzipporah in Midian, he begins to make a new life for himself. One day, when trying to retrieve a sheep, he comes across the fabled burning bush and speaks to God, learning that his task is to free His people from the Egyptians. But it will not be easy, God warns, and you DEFINITELY know the holy ass-kicking coming up next if you've read your Scripture.

First things first: this is in the top 5 of the most beautiful animated features ever made, regardless of country or studio. This is as grand, no, grander than many live-action films in the scope of its vast settings-deserts, palaces, chariot races, plagues of frogs and fire, the Red Sea-yet the tiniest gesture from its characters can have just as much impact. Spielberg brought much of the staff and talent from his short-lived Amblimation studio in London to work on this, and the talent is well in evidence. Animators like Rodolphe Guenoden, William Salazar, and Kristof Serrand give stellar, realistic renderings that avoid much of the scenery-chewing instincts of Western animation. (Katzenberg did some poaching of his own, bringing in James Baxter to do some truly stellar scenes of Moses' acting that anticipate his great realism on films like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron) The CGI is used brilliantly too, even if, like Hunchback, the crowds look a little obvious nowadays if you look too closely. I also want to shout out the direction by Brenda Chapman (another Disney vet), Simon Wells, and Steve Hickner. They guide the story brilliantly in terms of shot choices, such as in a famous scene where Moses goes on his journey across the desert and becomes smaller and smaller in the frame.

Like Hunchback, this is a story that demands a certain seriousness, and it avoids the pitfalls of that film by eschewing goofy sidekicks for more natural character-based comedy amidst all the sturm and drang. Even Hotep and Huy, while they get some funny moments, undergo a darker, hypocritical turn when their power is threatened. While there are changes made to the Biblical story (addressed upfront in my favorite "please don't kill us" disclaimer of all time), they all pretty much work for the story this tries to tell. Moses is reframed as a man desperately in need of a purpose, and God certainly gives him one, but also someone who truly loves his adopted brother and wishes things didn't have to be this way. Ramses, too, is seen with remarkable complexity as a figure who adores Moses, but is simultaneously all too aware of and completely blind to the privileges he holds, which costs him everything. The supporting cast gets some nice moments too; I especially like Tzipporah's subtle shift as she grows to love Moses, even if she never loses her spirit.

(A quick word on the voice cast before we get into the aural end. You would probably not cast the film the way they did today, with predominantly white or non-Jewish actors as Hebrews and Egyptians, and I think that's certainly worth considering even if visually, the characters obviously look much closer than previous Biblical films using very white casts. The main observation I will put forth is that the film WAS shepherded by two of the most powerful Jewish men in Hollywood, Spielberg and Katzenberg. And given that the story was important enough for them to consult an army of religious experts from various cultures to get things like clothing and traditions correct, they presumably could have gotten any cast they wanted. They ultimately landed on this one, and I think that was their right. I do not object to anyone who feels differently, especially as a non-Jewish white guy myself.)

In terms of the soundtrack, Stephen Schwartz possibly outdoes his collaborations on Hunchback with the songs here, aided by an equally great score and arrangements by Hans Zimmer. "Deliver Us" is a powerful opening number that visualizes the plight of the slaves with heartbreaking cruelty. And as said, Haza's vocals cast a spell that will hang over the entire film. "All I Ever Wanted" is the shortest, probably weakest song in the film, but I like how it plays almost as an inversion of the typical "I Want" song in terms of Moses trying to convince himself that this is what he actually wants. "Through Heaven's Eyes" boasts a robust performance from Broadway vet Brian Stokes Mitchell as Tzipporah's father Jethro that is genuinely uplifting in the new spirituality offered to Moses. (Mitchell is so good, in fact, that I wondered why they even brought in Danny Glover for the character's few spoken lines, even if those are well-delivered). "Playing With The Big Boys" is easily the most sinister I've ever heard Steve Martin and MARTIN SHORT, of all people, sound, though I suppose it helps when you back them up with badass chanting. "The Plagues" too is ominous and rumbling, with a heartbreaking counterpoint duet between Moses and Ramses right in the middle. And "When You Believe" genuinely soars as the newly freed slaves embrace life.

The voice cast is star-heavy, as mentioned, but all are well-chosen rather than distracting, and it certainly doesn't sound like anyone's phoning it in to my ears. In particular, I think this is one of the best performances of Val Kilmer's career, equal to his Doc Holliday in Tombstone, as he goes to the mat emotionally in scene after scene. (He also plays God, doing a wonderful job of making him seem mysterious, unknowable, and sympathetic all at once). Fiennes is his match, tragic and vile in equal measure, though perhaps his cruelest delivery is his most offhanded, a casual "Slaves" when Moses observes their father murdered children. (This echoes Stewart, who goes from sternly warm patriarchy to a truly chilling moment where he tries to comfort Moses by saying "They were only slaves", much to his adopted son's horror). Bullock doesn't get a ton of screentime, but she paints an effective portrait of a woman trying to hold onto hope and faith because that's all she has left. Goldblum gets some proper Goldblum-y comic relief moments as Aaron, but also a crucial cynical beat where he questions why Moses cares so much about them now. And as said, I really like how Pfeiffer gives Tzipporah a lived-in toughness rather than seeming fake (she also gets a priceless reaction when she helps save Moses from a well).

I come to this film from a number of different angles: as an animation fan first, and as someone for whom it was a fixture in a mixed secular-Christian household growing up. I grew away from God as time went on, but stories like this can still take hold in my imagination because of the pictures they paint. There is a genuine sense of wonder here, beautiful and terrible by turns, and I feel it every time I watch. The faith that a true miracle is occurring.

#the prince of egypt #dreamworks animation #reviews #media analysis

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mediacinemtographyartetc · 2 years

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[In case anyone gives a shit, I'm ace/bi. I love queer romance etc and when I say explicit I don't mean sex. I mean being bold and upfront is it queer or not.]

man in the past I would rip into 'queer' stories on how they're not good enough, especially since it's 2022 and when love,simon came out I feel as if we're going backwards going back to subtext.

And when I point it out others call me queerphobic and yet there the ones who want to keep the status quo.

you have cartoons that have girls kissing, yet men can't even express they love each other almost leads back to sexism and only lesbians are approved for the male gaze. And the only LGBT rep we get are tv series that no one watches compared to love simon we havn't had any movies with lgbt as the main protagonist.

And as an ace I want ALL romanctic/queer stories written with subtext and good chemistry.

So when you see het having sex and lesbians kissing and barely any other type of stories of lgbt that aren't in high school going to prom.

I'm so sorry that I'm bitter and not sucking disney's dick for doing the bare minimum for doing they're 'first' gay characters that they can easily censor for 'international releases' and sorry I'm not nodding along like everyone happy with the 'scrap' that the western media is giving because I'm looking at all of these chinese releases such as White snake/Untamed that was released in a country that is so anti- lgbt make blatant queer content.

Meanwhile ours barely blurs between friendship and subtly romance and when pointed out we have two others argue it's not/is queer in a area that is SUPPOSED to be open and accepting of LGBT I can't help but compare the two and think,

Like companies that paint their logo a rainbow in june meanwhile actively funding anti-gay bills behind the scnes. Like the media we have thats actually trying to subtly shove true lgbt in the closest and make it straight washed comes across like a lie.

And when you have 'ally's tell the queer communtiy that expresses their sexuality that they're fetishishing the lgbt community when it's like, I'm supposed to find women attractive that's the point?

Either way I can't help but I don't feel very prideful instead I just feel disgusted that in the past I could complain that the community has issues and are silencing queer voices because it doesn't align with their family friendly ideals or influencer friendly.

Like June is slowly turning into a holiday to sell LGBT like merchendice like it's a brand and yet fail to use that money to fund LGBT communties- it's just a cash grab and I'm so fucking tired that no one is talking about it.

That lgbt is being exploited that we're not getting explicit movies about the whole community explaining what trans is or intersex etc a movie about a protag exploring their sexuality, a queer couple as adults who are not kids going to prom.

Worse is when people say "It's not subtext it's queer-code!" We don't need codes anymore. It's either queer or it's not. Queer code was fine in the 90's 20's. It's 2022. We should have MORE stories more quantity so excuse me for wanting better written stories that explores sexuality.

Excuse me for wanting a lot of stories that explore peoples relationship without using sex/kissing etc.

So yeah as an asexual I can't help but feel disgusted that people are using my sexuality as an EXCUSE to keep the lgbt stories as queer-code/subtle combared to the BLATANT hetero stories, and when I express my disgust they immedeitly become vulgur and say that if you want LGBT stories in that way you sexualising it.

As if to say that LGBT is deviant, and sexualised is digusting a platonic relationship/domestic relationship can still be conveyed WITHOUT being fucking gross about it.

Also, the fact that with current media saying something is 'LGBT' even though it's like grasping at straws and reading between the lines for a bare miniumum of a SLIVER of being queer. Is like a slap to the face.

Compared to 2015-18 we had a slew of LGBT media but now sure we have something in a tv series but I was expecting MORE like i don't know.

A love actually type story of multiple queer relationships. Thats completely platonic i don't know maybe I just want rent.

I also hate when I convey that compared to the 90's that had blatant representation current rep just feels watered down I get ally's calling me homoephobic and it pisses me off. ugh

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ear-worthy · 2 years

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Day One Of The IAB Upfronts: Ad Revenue Up, NPR Shines, iHeart has A Heart

From May 10–12, the IAB Podcast Upfronts are held via a digital conference forum. It’s the podcast version of “you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”

What is the IAB? The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an organization that works with publishers to foster the growth of advertising on the internet.

Every year, the IAB holds a three-day virtual conference This is a special marketplace designed for brands, agencies, and media buyers to preview the latest in innovative podcast programming. Leading audio and podcast networks showcase their brand and announce new shows.

On day one, host Franchesca Ramsey began with a spirited introduction and a lot of enthusiasm. Ramsey brought energy to the three-hour forum and infused the upfronts with the boundless optimism that seems to engulf podcasting today.

The first presentation featured IAB VP Eric John, who showed the meteoric climb in podcast revenue over the last five years. According to John, podcast advertising revenues will exceed two billion dollars by the end of 2022 and then soar to 4.2 billion dollars by the end of 2024.

One key message that John clearly communicated is that there is now a greater diversity of industries by sector that are using podcast advertising. The days of podcast ads consisting largely of mattress, audiobook, and meal delivery services spots are gone. Ads now range from insurance to retail stores.

Although dynamically inserted ads represent 84 percent of all podcast ads, host-read ads still appear to generate the most listener consumer response.

After that, a host of companies — large and small — made presentations about their existing and future content. For example, Disney had a wide range of podcasts due to its extensive brand ownership.

Paramount, which owns CBS, made its presentation later in the day and, along with Disney that owns ABC, demonstrated a clear trend. Broadcast networks are re-packaging their most popular shows as podcasts. ABC has 20/20, CBS has 60 Minutes and NBC has Dateline — all long-running news / true-crime shows that translate well to podcasting.

Moreover, late-night shows are now moving beyond clips on YouTube to produce abbreviated podcast versions of their TV shows. I don’t know the data analysis of whether a YouTube or podcast clip of a late-night show’s monologue helps either live or DVR viewing, or hurts it.

I think iHeart Media’s presentation was interesting because they focused on the “democratization of access” several times when speaking about their podcasts. To me, that’s smart. I believe there is some “paywall panic” that podcasts will eventually be walled off from unfettered access and podcast networks will shield their content like streaming TV networks currently do.

iHeart’s message was clear. Our shows will be accessible to all.

Later in the day, a smaller company, Spoken Layer, made an interesting presentation about short-form audio. To me, the presentation targets several concerns of advertisers and listeners. First, podcasts are becoming longer, even though podcast listeners typically reserve listening to restricted time periods like commuting, performing a task at home like cleaning, or exercising.

Second, podcasts can be, and should be, more cognizant of the time restrictions of its listening audience.

Finally, the most intriguing presentation was made by NPR. Not so much due to the content of its shows, although Everyone And Their Mom by Emma Choi is definitely “ear worthy.”

The NPR presentation offered a key point: podcast ads should not overwhelm the listener, just like broadcast and cable TV have blanketed their content with endless ads that allow viewers to perform tasks like wash and wax their SUVs in between commercials.

NPR talked about its low ad slippage (10%), which is the percentage of listeners who skip ads. Their point was simple but effective. Too many ads encourage listeners to skip ads, while a reasonable amount of ad time encourages listeners to listen to — and pay attention to — the ads presented during a podcast episode.

What will day two hold? We will find it.

#podcasting #podcast #advertising #content marketing

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felassan · 3 years

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Article: ‘The Most Powerful Woman in Gaming Wants to Make EA Loved Again’

Laura Miele is helping direct the company toward a future where it’s more attuned with consumers.

One of the first things Laura Miele did when she became chief studios officer of Electronic Arts Inc. three years ago was to gather 19 video game influencers in a conference room. “What do you want me to hear? Lay it on me,” she recalls asking them. “One guy sitting at the corner of the table, he just said, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t give players what they’re asking for.’ ”

[rest of article under cut for length, pasted as Bloomberg has an article read limit]

It’s something many gamers have wondered about EA for years. The $40 billion company, one of the biggest in gaming, is responsible for Battlefield, Madden NFL, and other megahit franchises. But many gamers have long seen EA as a necessary evil, resenting the direction in which it took some games and bristling at its aggressive attempts to extract money by charging extra for digital items in games that cost as much as $70 upfront. This dissatisfaction was no secret in 2018: Gamers spent their days filling up Reddit and other message boards with free advice for EA—but many felt its decision-makers weren’t listening.

EA’s leadership knows it has to improve that relationship, and Miele is a key player in its efforts to do so. Her focus group asked for new content for Star Wars Battlefront II and requested new types of games. Miele quickly assigned 70 people to the Battlefront development project, which dramatically improved its net promoter score, a measure of how likely people are to recommend the game. She also prompted EA to create a skateboarding game and committed to reintroducing its college football franchise, the two genres at the top of the influencers’ list.

In a sense, the guy at the meeting became a stand-in for all of EA’s long-suffering customers in Miele’s eyes. “I wanted to do right by this player,” she says.

As chief studios officer, Miele manages 6,000 staffers and thousands of contractors globally. She oversees EA’s 24 studios, where she makes personnel decisions and sets strategy, and she’s reshaped how the company uses analytics to create and market its games.

In the process she may have become the most powerful woman in gaming. In a 2019 International Game Developers Association survey, fewer than 30% of the more than 1,100 respondents were women, and few if any hold a more central role at such an important company. “It’s a tough place for a woman,” says Peter Moore, who was Miele’s boss when he was EA’s chief operating officer. “It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but she battled her way through.”

Proving good intentions is more important for EA than ever, as the business model of gaming continues to shift in ways that have the potential to alienate customers. Like its rivals, the company is increasing its focus on free-to-play games, making money through sales of digital products such as outfits and weapons for characters.

There are signs it’s succeeding. Apex Legends, EA’s free-to-play hero shooter game, has posted more than $1 billion in sales since it was first published in 2019, and it continues to grow. “The way to succeed with free-to-play games like that is to listen to and engage your customer base and earn their loyalty through incremental purchases,” says Doug Clinton, managing partner of the venture capital firm Loup Ventures, who says Miele deserves much of the credit for Apex Legends. “It feels like a proof point for her that the company is adapting well beyond traditional disk sales.”

Miele, 51, was born in San Francisco but grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. She got her start in games—the kind that require a board—during family nights, when she pitted herself against her brother in Monopoly, Clue, Yahtzee, and backgammon. While attending the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, she worked at architectural companies. By the time she dropped out she’d moved on from receptionist positions to more senior roles, while gaining a reputation for organizing lunch-hour card games with her co-workers.

Miele landed a job as a project manager at Westwood Studios, a video game developer best known for Command and Conquer, in 1996. She eventually took over all marketing for its parent company, Virgin Interactive.

It wasn’t always a hospitable atmosphere: Miele remembers her colleagues expecting her to take notes at meetings, then clean up afterward. “That is just not something I would do today,” she says. “I adapted a lot because I was so passionate about what I was doing. I found my voice along the way.”

When EA acquired Westwood in 1998, she stayed on. At the time, the company did revenue forecasting by looking at sales data once a month and putting together spreadsheets by hand. Miele was tasked with developing more advanced analytics. She hired a group of data analysts, nicknamed “the Jedi,” and had them build EA’s first statistical regression models to examine sales trends, seasonality, and preorders. It took almost two years to put the system in place, but it overhauled the company’s business processes, and executives were soon using it to determine how to invest in advertising and promotions. “I loved how data and analytics can inform your judgment and your gut instinct,” Miele says.

Miele also decided to make one major break with EA’s existing business practices. In 2011 about 80% of game advertising budgets were spent on TV ads. But she saw how much time gamers spent online and decided to spend the bulk of the ad budget for Battlefield 3 on digital, downplaying other types of ads and cutting the TV ad budget to only 30%.

Messing around with the plan for Battlefield 3 was a good way to make people nervous. Miele remembers two executives calling her in for a meeting and demanding to know why they weren’t seeing billboards for the game as they drove in to the office. “It was scary for me, too, and I don’t blame our executives questioning me on that,” she says. But the game ended up being EA’s fastest-selling, moving more than 5 million copies in its first week. From that point, Miele’s marketing strategy became the standard for the company.

When EA signed a 10-year deal with Walt Disney Co. in 2013, Miele became Star Wars general manager. In 2014 she took over publishing operations, marketing, and other key areas, first in the North American region, then globally in 2016. At the time, the game industry was moving from physical disks to digital downloads, transforming its relationship with retail partners such as Walmart Inc. and Best Buy Co.

Miele was in charge of smoothing things over, explaining that EA would start competing with them for customers even as the retailers accounted for the largest portion of the revenue. “I never said to them, ‘Hey, see you later, we are moving on,’ ” she says. “It was, ‘How can we move forward together?’ ” EA began making physical cards with digital credits that its retail partners could sell at their stores, allowing them to share in the revenue from digital sales.

EA’s studios are spread around the globe, and Covid-19 altered Miele’s routine radically. “It was a very difficult year, and I’m really proud about how our company showed up,” she says. “I considered myself a wartime leader last year. You had to get in a bunker with everybody.”

Days became an endless progression of Zoom calls. To keep up with gamers, Miele started spending evenings listening to Clubhouse chats while answering work emails. Because she hasn’t been on the road, she’s also had more time to dine at home and play board games or Apex Legends and The Sims with her 16-year-old twins. As the pandemic retreats in the U.S., her schedule might change, but she still envisions providing more flexibility to her employees to work from home and office. “I do think we’re going to have a different work environment as we go forward,” she says.

Miele is itching to get back to the studio visits. She’s helping steer EA further toward smartphones. The company plans to release mobile versions of Apex Legends globally this year and spent $2.1 billion in April for Glu Mobile Inc., a mobile game publisher, while also preparing the next releases in its existing franchises. “I think the next Battlefield and the mobile shooter games, along with how successful the M&As come out will be key litmus tests of her management this year,” says Matt Kanterman, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Her scope is clearly rising.”

— With Dina Bass and Jason Schreier

[source]

#video games #interesting..#long post #longpost

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septic-skele · 3 years

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Rating the BHC boys based on our compatibility

I’ve seen a few posts like this going around and thought it looked fun, so I’ll give it a go! Feel free to try this yourself if you want!

Sans: 9/10

We’d definitely be comfortable with each other. I’m not high maintenance company, I’d be happy to have a night in with some fast food. And I enjoy cool air and the night sky, even if I don’t look at it often enough. He could probably teach me some things about astronomy.

Papyrus: 7/10

He’ll find a lifelong spaghetti fan in me and his optimism does wonders for my mood. If he doesn’t mind that I’m a lot like Sans, we’d get along. That being said, he might end up hurting my feelings if he believed/implied that “laziness” is the reason for my lifestyle.

Blue: 6/10

He’s upfront but not overbearing, which is sweet, but he’s got competitiveness and high energy, while I definitely don’t. I wouldn’t be able to keep up and I’d lose the bets by default. He might wear me down quickly and I don’t want to hold him back. But hey, he would probably love my dog!

Stretch: 9/10

I love his sense of humor and style. He makes me laugh. I have a feeling that he would enjoy lowkey flustering me, which I’d enjoy too even if I didn’t admit it. Nutmeg and pumpkin spice are also a win. We share similar tastes and we’d probably have a lot of great inside jokes.

Red: 4/10

He can be brusque and I might be what he would consider oversensitive. I’m also not a big gamer, so we don’t have much in common. I love baked goods, but I don’t know if we could get close enough in the first place that he’d let me in to try his cupcakes.

Boss: 5/10

I can make some mean spaghetti so I have that going for me. I’d love the chance to sample his! I’m a big Disney fan and while I may not shop there often, I do enjoy Hot Topic. Still, his sarcasm might get old, and cats usually don’t like me as much as dogs do.

Nox: 8/10

He’s a classy guy with a voice that melts me into goo. We’re both good with money and enjoy being left alone so we’d probably be happy each doing our own thing until we were both available. If he can accept that I don’t drink wine and avoid seeing the clutter in my room, we’ll get along just fine.

Rus: 7.5/10

For some of the same reasons as Sans, we have a lot in common, but he’s a smidge lower because our social anxieties combined would make me worry about him (and probably vice versa) and his money troubles might stress me out. But we could spoil each other’s sweet tooth!

Ash: 3/10

I’m sad to say I don’t think we would mesh that well. I’m not an outdoorsy person and I’m also not a very good conversation instigator so there would be a lot of silence and awkwardness between us. I think he’s cute, but we don’t have many common interests.

Poplar: 8/10

He’s a fellow foodie, he has a really nice accent, and can understand the disabled experience. That means a lot to me! I’m a good listener so I’ll let him infodump about his special interests if he lets me infodump about mine! He seems like he would be a really nice confidant.

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cari28ch3-me · 2 years

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while I'm here I'm going to go ahead and mention that the reason Netflix never seems to turn a profit is that they have to pay a fuck ton ahead of time in order to get stuff made.

Regular studios manage to pay less upfront because they can tell their talent "if the movie does well in box office you get a percentage of that" and for tv it is "as the show goes into syndication and runs forever you can get bonuses for good ratings"

It doesn't matter that much if after huge shows like Friends, The Fresh Prince, and Modern Family, those actors don't have the most profitable careers ever; they will get paid forever thanks to syndication. The media will judge them as "wow that career went nowhere" anyway in spite of them making big bucks forever thanks to the popularity of the show.

Netflix doesn't do this because they don't run on syndication, they HAVE no choice but to pay upfront a fuck ton of money. I wouldn't be shocked at all if a big part of why Stranger Things season 4 is, reportedly, costing 30 Million per episode is that the actors are now too famous and demanding bigger pays for what is a good chunk of their lives filming for Netflix. They get no backend deals so demanding the money upfront is an actually smart tactic.

This sadly means that Netflix has no choice but to spend a fuck ton of money for shows that, at times, get no viewership at all. I can assure you that Jamie Foxx's sitcom made him a crap ton of money, but no one watched it at all because the trailer looked cringe (no good reviews came after so I guess the initial trailer was accurate).

"What about new stars?" they get a very small salary in the first season because of the whole "you are not famous yet so no point in giving you more money" and then when the show is successful they can ask for more later. Netflix then cancels the show in about 3 to 4 seasons (if we are lucky) so that the new star they made doesn't ask for mroe money later. Also yes, popularity is what defines how much money you make in a show, which is why the conversation about equal pay went away after a while. Complaining that Claire Foy made less money in the Crown than Matt Smith is a conversation that went nowhere cause Matt Smith was already famous before the Crown and she wasn't.

Netflix will never turn a profit that way because it can only do so by lowering costs. Lowering costs means that big starts won't do it as they only get one paycheck. If they spend the budget on the star then writing, sets, and special effects suffer. This is on top of Netflix being famous having understaffed sets.

This isn't a Netflix only problem btw I'm pretty sure that the CW is also often understaffed because they never turn a profit either as all the money goes into the actors that get famous off of the projects; but in this one they do get to make money on re-runs so they at least make more in the long run.

There's a reason only big studios from the beginings of Hollywood like WB, Disney, and Universal tend to sit at the big boys table; they have been around long enough that they are sitting on enough money to make this a non-issue. I would add MGM but they have very few movies nowadays, and I did not add Sony because like its follower, Apple, they are technological companies first, and they pretty much just promote their products on their movies. Spider-Man movies may be great but it is ooc af for Peter to have a Sony phone.

#long post #netflix #came to mind and had to put it down #happy saturday

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john-barkston · 2 years

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I wish companies were just upfront about being evil greedy money loving assholes instead of being like, "Wew....we have to waise pwices because of demand :(((((((" or whatever bullshit they come up with to make it sound like they aren't doing it because they want more money of because they've monopolized whatever they are providing.

yes it's disney i'm always talking about disney lol

#LOL i watch dfb waiting for the day they finally snap and can't make whatever bullshit disney is on positive/indifferent #but also it's like netflix raising prices for no reason or amazon or whatever billion dollar company is not hurting in the slightest

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coolchevistianofficialsite · 3 years

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What inspired you to create a site to cover news on Disney TV Animation and why you decided to expand it to other studios of the company?

Well to be honest i was not in to Disney as i am right now in 2012, i was more in to Hasbro Studios, if you where part of the boom and peak of the brony fandom you might know a site named Equestria Daily, I was inspired by them and i wanted to make my own news site for LPS 2012 similar to that site later Wander Over Yonder premiered, i watched it and i liked it and i decided to have a section for that show on my site later i got more inspiration by The Mystery Of Gravity Falls Tumbrl and i discovered more on TVA later on Comic Con 2014

TVA dropped the preview for Star Vs The Forces Of Evil and Penn Zero Part Time Hero instead of putting them in my site i decided to make the classical FY Tumbrl blogs and oh boy i really was impressed by TVA and its legacy so in all 2015 i made gifs , screenshots and news on both shows i also had a Harvey Beaks blog which was followed by CH Greenblatt and i decided to make blogs for Pickle And Peanut & Future-Worm! which had poor reception but after a stroke of deppresion i decided to delete those accounts in 2016 later TMOGF contacted me on that time of deppresion and he told me he was imppresed by my covership on Star & Penn and he give me a offer, back in January 2016 he decided to make a blog on Disney TVA and wanted me to run it (as might you know Tumbrl DMCA his original Gravity Falls blog for copyright)

I had nothing to do and i accepted it and it was during the Disney Upfront of 2016 where they announced BH6 The Series, Billy Dilley,Country Club etc... and well the first months where hard but i decided to have a schedule and one of the rules for me was

TVA Shows

Disney Junior Shows

Don't Cover Marvel & Star Wars

Later in 2018 the 21st Century Fox Acquisition got announced and well we also going to cover FOX shows so i decided to expand the lineup to every single animation studio of Disney and have the news in one place. And now 5 years later in 2021 well things are going great

#question #anonymous

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boku-no-loveletters · 4 years

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(1/3?)Hi! Idk if you're still doing match ups but I was wondering if i could get a prohero match up pls! If not, please feel free to ignore my ask, I completely understand and hope you're resting 💕 if soooo-I’m a straight cis Hispanic female that’s 5ft tall, I have wide hips, big butt/thighs, my top half ain’t special tho and I have black hair/bangs and dark brown eyes+glasses! I’m a cancer with an INFP personality, I’m shy and closed off at first but as I get used to you I open up.

Also, my favorite season is fall, I have been told that I have a motherly, clownery, therapist type of vibe. I’m stubborn, not big on commitment (when I commit tho, I COMMIT) My ideal date is napping, eating our junk foods and watching anime and movies! I’m a cancer sun, Leo moon and Libra rising. I’m an introvert and Hufflepuff.

I’m shy and closed off at first but as I get used to you, I open up. I like sleep, anime and boys (But I like anime bois more than real ones :( )…I also have daddy issues…the following info has nsfw/sfw, if it makes you feel uncomfortable, feel free to ignore it! My hobbies include dancing and singing! My turn on: Love and understanding (Nfsw-degradation and praise/daddy kink)-(I base my love life off of Disney movies and Wattpad)

LAST ONE! Turn offs: not willing to understand that I need space to cope with my moodiness. (NFSW-someone that doesn’t care about my consent!) I’m the type of person that tends to want to listen more than I want to talk. I’m always on TikTok cuz crackheads things. My names Larissa, but my friends prefer “Dummy”, “idiot, ”, or clown cus even though I may be book smart, I am very stupid. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE IF YOU DO CHOOSE TO DO THIS, MAKE SURE YOU DRINK WATER, REST AND PLS EAT!

Heyo, I did your match-up!

-I had a lot of fun with this one! I enjoyed reading your description and being really specific helped me determine which Hero was better for you. At first, I was torn between All might and Hawks since they both seemed to be really laid back in certain activities they do, but hawks and you seemed to have similar interests and similar attitudes.

-I felt that Hawks would like someone with an attitude like his, laid back and idealistic, yet healing and therapeutic. Hawks needs someone that he can confide in since he goes through a ton of pressure daily despite not looking like it. Having someone that is gentle to a level where he can let his guard down is important, trust is important for him. Plus, what kind of relationship is it if you don’t trust your partner?

-I think he would absolutely adore planning out little dates that specifically involved only you and him since he just wants some time with his girl alone, but if you asked him that you wanted to go out he wouldn’t mind at all. I think that he’d like Movie marathons with take out KFC more since that just kinda sounds like his thing. I think there’s also a really high probability that he’d like anime too, but I think he’d be a fan of sports animes like Haikyuu!

-Hawks is a thinker and I think he’d be more than happy to give you your space since he understands how much some people, like him, need their alone time or a break depending on your mood.

-If you dance and you sing, then you already have your number one supporter on your hands. This man will cheer you on and/or secretly videotape you doing one of your most beloved activities without you noticing and when you’re done, he will come to you and show you how beautiful you look or sound and compare it with the other videos he took of you.

-He has a hard time deciding which one is going to be his new ringtone, he thinks it’s nice waking up and hearing you singing before he gets ready for the day.

-Daddy issues? No worries! The number 3 pro hero, to the rescue! He will try as many humorous antics as he can to get your mind off of family problems, sometimes he'll go in for a scare to completely snap you out of the subject if it takes your attention away from more important things.

I think that the way you guys meet would be by pure coincidence, You are another citizen of the city while he was the number three hero, it ‘s bound to happen by some point unless of course, you both were known to come to a common place that you loved.

Ah, yes. Today was a Friday, AKA the perfect today to start on another one of your most favored series along with various amounts of snacks that you are sure will mess up your stomach afterward. But hey, who cares about that? It’s the weekend! That means no work, no worries, and certainly no more bothersome people!

You took in a deep breath and smiled happily, content that your day of work was already over which left you the remaining of the last day of your workweek and the rest of Saturday and Sunday! Your right hand gently steering the wheel of your vehicle while your left hand held the small wad of cash for the food that you were using for something special.

You pulled up to the parking lot of the convenience store, picking up your purse and stepping out of the car with your money already in your hand. The door opened ahead of you with a small ding, revealing the rows of food and the clerks' desk upfront.

You scanned over the store’s range and noticed how weirdly empty it was, not a lot of customers were present at the moment though the woman already at the front desk looked oddly excited. Maybe it was someone important? Well, it was probably none of your business anyways, you’re just a customer after all so you just paid attention to what you came here for.

Fried chicken. Hell yeah.

Fried chicken along with potato chips and drinks was the main ingredient for a great marathon to where you could binge-watch all the episodes you wanted. ALL the episodes, although your parents would probably scold you for your unhealthy habits, as you said before, you could care less.

So you began walking down the aisles, dragging your finger over the tags to look for your favorite brand of chips under their company name all the while obliviously ignoring the floating crimson object that drifted across the air.

You then felt a little tickle at your neck at which you swiped to the back of your head and grabbed what appeared to be..a feather? Which was strangely familiar as it was red too.

The only red feather you had ever seen was that of a certain famous hero's wings and it's not like he'd pick such a low profile store to get some food, right? But then you really couldn't think of him any less based on the current decisions you're making right now.

Just as you were about to inspect the small little feather, it zoomed from out of your grasp and flew ahead over the aisles. By then, you had finally paid attention to the conversations that carried over the wave of food and products.

You craned your neck over to look at the superintendent and... a man?

Much to your surprise, it was the number three pro hero, Hawks! His cheerful demeanor was just as laid-back as ever. His blonde hair was slicked back with a few stray locks framing his face while he donned a leather jacket and matching black pants for an outfit.

Your mouth was wide open in surprise, what a coincidence! You were right! So you leaned in quietly and began listening in on their conversations, being sure not to make yourself get exposed and labeled as another one of Hawk's stir crazy fangirls.

Your ears then picked up on Hawk's smooth yet rough voice, the volume of his speech echoing across the store as he asked a certain thing about the manager's day or what he'd thought about doing all the while digging through his pocket, both front and back.

He must've been looking for something...like money.

You clasped a hand over your mouth to silence yourself from laughing before you were caught. The number three pro hero, Hawks, had forgotten money to buy some things at the store...which was fried chicken.

Respectable choice, a faith that you had to save a fellow chicken eater from.

So you quietly walked over to their positions, being mindful not to interrupt their conversation and gently tugged on Hawk's jacket. He gradually turned around and met your gaze directly with just a hint of surprise and turbulence.

"Oh, hey! Another fan? You need me to sign something of yours?" he spoke in a cheerful manner to which you simply shook your head and brought his hand to yours and put in a couple wads of cash before walking out of the store and waving him and the superintendent goodbye.

Perhaps another time would be better, you could always wait for your paycheck and get a much higher paying. 'Yeah, that'd be much better than that shabby amount.' you thought to yourself while bringing your purse closer to your chest in giddiness and opening the door to your automobile.

He was confused for a moment before he brought his attention to his hand and gently opened it. The slips of cash you left in his care were just the amount he had been missing to get himself a quick snack ere going back to his house.

He felt a small blush creep up his neck when the realization hit him, you must've seen his crappy attempt at finding some random change in his pocket when you were just a few aisles behind him in the store.

So, wasting no time to say his thanks, he quickly paid for his food and said his goodbyes before rushing to the front of the store and catching your vehicle leave just at the last moment.

He used his large vermillion wings to wave to you while you left and hazily watched your car leave to the next street on the highway. How oddly nice of a citizen to give him some spare cash, maybe he'd repay you the next time you came around...that is, if he could find you.

-So after that, Hawks did manage to find you the next time around and he did keep his promise of returning your fair share of money. Although the other times you guys did meet up around the store was when you returned to get more snacks and he was simply buying more chicken, claiming that the store had good quality food.

-He tries to make small talk with you either by using the fact that he doesn’t have enough money as an excuse or that he’s just simply another pro hero passing by and checking in on his favorite citizen.

-The time when you guy’s actually agreed to dating was by him confessing and using chicken drumsticks as a gift for your first date. It worked.

-Both You and Hawks have energy that matches each other, you practically fit like puzzle pieces based on how I view it. You both share similar views on how the world could work if it would differ on a creative basis or when you know how to take a break from certain things and just be in each other’s presence.

-He tries to get as many breaks as he can from doing hero work, so if he consults his agencies about how much time he’s missing being away from you, he’ll try and send little trinkets from his workplace to you and let you know he’ll be home sooner or later.

NSFW!

-Now, this guy has the DNA of a hawk, you can definitely expect him to randomly go into phrases involving sexual matters such as mating season and i’d imagined that would happen mostly around the spring with the summer sometimes being an exception.

-Hawks is that one bitch that prays before eating you out, I will not hold a discussion for this. HE IS THAT BITCH and NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE.

-Oh, a daddy kink you say? Hawks is going to enjoy this. No doubt this man here is going to get rough in the bedroom and he will waste absolutely no energy on you. Just one slip up of calling him that name and he will ravage into the bed mattress.

-If you’re really into making him wait a bit before actually getting into bed, this man will praise your body throughout the whole session as if he had never had a drip of pleasure in his life.

Hope you liked your match-up!

@animeboihoe

#Hawks mha #Keigo Takami #Takami Keigo #Hawks #bnha #mha match-ups

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disneytva · 4 years

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Bob Iger Returns To Chairman And Chief Executive Officer Of The Walt Disney Company Due COVID-19 Crisis At Disney

Bob Iger has taken CEO responsibilities back from Bob Chapek at The Walt Disney Company.

"A crisis of this magnitude and its impact on Disney actively treat and help Bob Chapek. Especially for the company that lasts 15 years."

The former C.E.O. thought he was riding into the sunset. Now he’s reasserting control and reimagining Disney as a company with fewer employees and more thermometers.

The Walt Disney Company turned franchises like Marvel and “Star Wars” into the biggest media business in the world, and last fall it was putting the finishing touches on the image of a storied character: its chief executive, Bob Iger.

In late September, Mr. Iger, 69, published “The Ride of a Lifetime,” an engaging work of self-hagiography. The handsome executive, who seriously considered running for president this year, spent the next month on the kind of media tour that Disney is known for: he reveled in the successful start of a streaming service that immediately rivaled Netflix, was hailed as “businessperson of the year” by Time and described as “Hollywood’s nicest C.E.O.” in an article in the The Times by Maureen Dowd. Even his friends wondered if the soft-focus Instagram ads produced for his MasterClass on leadership were a bit much.

It all went so well that Mr. Iger decided it was time to do something he had postponed four times since 2013: retire as C.E.O.

In early December, Disney executives say, he told his board that he was ready to leave. Around that time, a handful of people in Wuhan, China, began developing mysterious coughs.

At the end of January, a few days after Disney was forced to close its Shanghai theme park as the coronavirus spread, Mr. Iger and the board stuck with their plan, agreeing that he would step back to become executive chairman and that the low-profile head of the parks and cruise business, Bob Chapek, would take over immediately as chief executive. They finalized the arrangement even as the stock market began to shudder. And on Feb. 25, they shocked Hollywood with the news that Mr. Iger’s 15-year run had ended.

The seemingly abrupt announcement prompted intense speculation about the reasons for Mr. Iger’s exit. “Sex or health?” one media executive who knows him texted another that night. Two weeks later, a different question emerged: Had Mr. Iger, with his deep ties to China and legendary timing, seen the coronavirus about to devastate his global realm? Did he get out just in time?

Mr. Iger, who has always carefully managed his image, told me in an email, there was no more than met the eye.

“No surprises … nothing hidden … nothing different or odd to speculate about ….,” he wrote, ellipses and all.

In fact, people close to Mr. Iger and the company said in interviews that the real question wasn’t whether he saw the crisis coming — but whether his focus on burnishing his own legacy and assuring a smooth succession left him distracted as the threats to the business grew. No big media company is more dependent on its customers’ social and physical proximity than Disney, with its theme parks and cruise lines. Few have been hit harder by the pandemic.

And now, Mr. Iger has effectively returned to running the company. After a few weeks of letting Mr. Chapek take charge, Mr. Iger smoothly reasserted control, BlueJeans video call by BlueJeans video call. (Disney does not use Zoom for its meetings for security reasons.)

The new, nominal chief executive is referred to, almost kindergarten style, as “Bob C,” while Mr. Iger is still just “Bob.” And his title is “executive chairman” — emphasis on the first word.

Mr. Iger is now intensely focused on remaking a company that will emerge, he believes, deeply changed by the crisis. The sketch he has drawn for associates offers a glimpse at the post-pandemic future: It’s a Disney with fewer employees, leading the new and uncertain business of how to gather people safely for entertainment.

“It’s a matter of great good fortune that he didn’t just leave,” said Richard Plepler, the former HBO chief. “This is a moment where people first and foremost are looking to an example of leadership that has proved itself over an extended period of time — and Bob personifies that.”

The story of the Walt Disney Company since Mr. Iger’s predecessor, Michael Eisner, took it over in 1984 is one of astonishing growth that has become the model for the modern, global media business. The company turned its tatty icons like Mickey Mouse into cash cows. Mr. Iger has spent more than 40 years working for companies that are now part of Disney, and has earned his reputation through bold acquisitions. He bought Pixar, then Marvel, then Lucasfilm, for single-digit billions, and quickly created many more billions in value with them. Mr. Iger had the greatest job on earth, ruling not just a company but a “nation-state,” as California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, described Disney recently.

But Disney’s much-imitated model was almost perfectly exposed to the pandemic. The shift from on-screen entertainment into in-person experiences helped Disney become the biggest media company in the world. But those businesses have been impossible to protect from the pandemic. The company’s largest division brought in more than $26 billion in the year ending last June by extending its brands to cruise ships and theme parks. Those are all shuttered now. It has three new cruise ships under construction in Germany, their futures unclear. The jewel in its second largest division, television, is ESPN, which in a sports-less world is now broadcasting athletes playing video games. The third group, studio, had expected to bring in most of its revenue from movie openings in theaters, which are now closed.

There has been a glimmer of good news in the introduction of Disney+. The company’s troubled share price jumped about 7 percent in after-hours trading last Wednesday on the news that the streaming service had attracted 50 million subscribers. But the project is still an investment, years away from generating revenue that could replace a big movie opening in theaters. And the service is desperate for new content — at a time when television and film production has ground to a halt.

This all means the company is losing as much as $30 million or more a day, the media industry analyst Hal Vogel estimated in an interview. The company borrowed $6 billion at the end of March, a sign both of its desperate plight and lenders’ confidence that it could rebound.

In an emergency like this, Mr. Iger said, he had no choice but to abandon his plan to pull back.

“A crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, would necessarily result in my actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it, particularly since I ran the company for 15 years!” he said in his email.

That realization appears to have hit just after the company’s March 11 annual shareholder gathering in Raleigh, N.C., which served as Mr. Chapek’s debut and was staged as a carefully scripted handoff.

“I’ve watched Bob [Iger] lead this company to amazing new heights, and I’ve learned an enormous amount from that experience. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to work closely with him during this transition,” Mr. Chapek said at the meeting. (A Disney spokeswoman declined to make Mr. Chapek available for an interview.)

The men flew from there to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., to meet executives worried about the effect of social distancing on their business; they announced the park’s closing the next day. Then, they flew back to Los Angeles and on the way, said a person familiar with their conversation, they discussed the depth of the crisis. Mr. Iger made clear that he would remain closely involved.

The next day, March 13, was their last in the office. In early April, Mr. Chapek sent a bleak internal email announcing a wave of furloughs. He pushed immediate cuts and freezes on everything from development budgets to contractors’ pay.

The company employed 223,000 as of last summer, and won’t say how many workers are furloughed, but the numbers are huge. It includes more than 30,000 workers in the California resort business alone, according to the president of Workers United Local 50 that represents some of those workers, Chris Duarte. Another 43,000 workers in Florida will be furloughed, the company confirmed on Sunday. All the workers will keep their benefits, but their last paychecks come April 19.

The mood at Disney is “dire,” said a person who has done projects with the company. “They’re covering the mirrors and ripping clothes.”

Mr. Iger, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what the company will look like after the crisis. One central challenge is to establish best practices for the company and the industry on how to bring people back to the parks and rides while avoiding the virus’s spread — using measures like taking visitors’ temperatures.

Mr. Iger also sees this as a moment, he has told associates, to look across the business and permanently change how it operates. He’s told them that he anticipates ending expensive old-school television practices like advertising upfronts and producing pilots for programs that may never air. Disney is also likely to reopen with less office space. He’s also told two people that he anticipated the company having fewer employees. (Mr. Iger said in an email on Sunday evening that he had “no recollection of ever having said” that he expected a smaller work force. “Regardless, any decision about staff reductions will be made by my successor and not me,” he added.)

Mr. Iger’s own narrative had been written to a neat conclusion. Now, his legacy will probably be defined in the unexpected sequel of one of the great American companies fighting for its life.

And Disney’s endlessly troublesome question of succession — which had finally, for a couple of weeks, seemed settled — may be open again. One person close to the company said Mr. Iger assured Mr. Chapek that the extraordinary circumstances would be taken into consideration in the board’s evaluation of Mr. Chapek’s performance. But in reality, two hard, unpredictable years will determine if he can hold the job. Two other executives who were passed over for Mr. Chapek — Kevin Mayer and Peter Rice — remain at the company. Nobody knows when Americans will go to the movies again, much less get on cruise ships.

And nobody knows when — or whether — Mr. Iger will have another moment to leave on top.

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