Variety: Disney Seeks Original IP Which Will Appeal to Young Men

Wait wait wait.

You spent $4 billion on Marvel broaden the female-skewing Disney audience to include young men.

You immediately then spent $4.05 billion to acquire Star Wars (and Indiana Jones) to broaden the largely-female Disney audience to include young men.

Then you turned both of those franchises into female-skewing Disney Princess brands, and men stopped paying to see these movies.

And now Disney says: Hey, we need an original IP that will appeal to young men.

(Which, if it succeeds (which is doubtful), we will immediately then turn into another female-skewing Disney princess brand.)

This is like the left whining "We need our own Joe Rogan."

You had your own Joe Rogan. He was named Joe Rogan.

But now Disney says we need our own Joe Rogan demographic IP, because the sci-fi intergalactic war and sci-fi single-battle fighting IPs are now Girl Properties.

Disney's Boy Trouble: Studio Seeks Original IP to Win Back Gen-Z Men Amid Marvel, Lucasfilm Struggles

Many of us -- who are young (or young-at-heart) males ourselves -- have warned that we would stop seeing these movies if they continued insisting they should be Disney Princess movies.

We were called sexist, racist trolls (who only represented a tiny fraction of the audience).

And now, with Marvel in free fall and Star Wars not even producing movies any longer, Variety says we were right. (Without, you know, actually admitting that we were right.)

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty aren't the only ones looking for a prince.

Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months, multiple sources tell Variety, for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way. "Young men" is defined here by sources as ages 13-28, aka Gen Z.

First, duh. Every film studio is looking for better ways to convert young audiences into habitual moviegoers. Numerous studies show that Gen Z men in particular are a lonely, gaming-obsessed group who were hampered in their formative years by COVID-19 lockdowns -- not the easiest segment to grasp.

The amount of pure hatred the Gaslight Media pours on straight boys and men is almost Nazi-level.

But what's surprising producers, writers and other partners in the larger industry is that Disney has been calling for original concepts to lure the demo back to the movies.

LOL. Here's an idea: Make an Indiana Jones movie -- stay with me -- in which Indiana Jones is the actual hero.

No, no, that's too simple.

Disney needs to create an original IP.

Something, you might have noticed, they haven't even bothered trying for a decade.

This is the same Disney whose multibillion-dollar content engines, Marvel and Lucasfilm, have sated men of all ages over almost two decades since the company acquired them. The sources say Disney has been seeking new IP and pitches such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor. The calls come as the Star Wars machine struggles to produce any film project and the superhero genre sheds audiences by the minute.

Woah, global adventures and treasure hunts?

You mean, exactly like Indiana Jones?

Your idea of "original IP" doesn't track with my own.

While two insiders say the mandate to recruit young males goes as high as the C-suite, the task primarily has fallen on David Greenbaum, the former Searchlight Pictures co-head brought on in 2024 to run Disney's live-action film business. That label has been sorely lacking in guy-leaning fare, like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, for nearly 10 years. (Studio insiders say the property is in active development, though not in its last reported iteration involving Margot Robbie). To say nothing of the lackluster attempt to reboot and hand off "Indiana Jones" in 2023, which earned $383 million worldwide on a $300 million budget before marketing costs. A Disney source says that movies for Gen Z men are part of an overall strategy across all labels, but no more urgent than any other quadrant.

Greenbaum recently hired Daria Cercek, the savvy former Paramount Pictures co-chief, to assist in this effort.

Perfect. Daria sounds like the perfect liberal woman to conjure up an "original IP" that appeals to young conservative-tilting men.

Concurrent to Greenbaum's hire, the corporation bought a $1.5 billion equity stake in gaming juggernaut "Fortnite," which will incorporate Disney's iconic stable of characters. Two sources say Disney does not, however, enjoy movie rights to "Fortnite" itself, which would seem a no-brainer in luring Gen Z to theaters.

Well Fortnite certainly would be an "original IP." I mean, it's been around for seven years and you want to pack it full of old Disney characters, but I guess that's "original" by Disney standards.

Yes, Disney was the un-refuted king of the box office last year. It will win again this year, with two films potentially crossing the $1 billion mark ("Avatar: Fire and Ash" and "Zootopia 2").

So much original IP!

...

Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed as much on a quarterly earnings call this month, saying his film group won't favor existing IP over original material. The priority, Iger said, "is to put out great movies."

LOL. That sounds as reasonable a goal as Disney suddenly able to create its own "original IP" that will appeal to straight men.

Much has been written about the narrowing audience for superhero movies. The performance of Marvel's latest release, "Fantastic Four: First Steps," which aimed to launch yet another superhero franchise led by Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby, failed to meet expectations.

It's a flop. Just say so. It will bring in less money that Captain America: Brave New World, which is already recognized as a flop.

That's despite good reviews, a promising opening weekend and the full attention of Marvel czar Kevin Feige. "Star Wars" has not produced a film in seven years (a big-screen adaptation of Disney+ hit "The Mandalorian" is coming next year).

...

"I never thought I'd say it," the exec muses about the Magic Kingdom's boy troubles despite its gem box of iconic IP, "but it looks like Disney is going to have to start trying."

Disney? Trying?

Now we're really in science-fiction territory.

posted by Ace at 04:20 PM

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