Rich Ross is out as chairman of Walt Disney Studios

[dwmckim]

Rich Ross has stepped down as chairman of Walt Disney Studios with some sources saying it was Ross' decision and others claiming it was a firing. No current news of possible replacements. I've scanned a number of news articles and while many are including a photo of him at the Muppets Walk of Fame ceremony, none are citing "The Muppets" as a reason or casting them in a negative light. Those that have mentioned The Muppets in the context of the article are citing The Muppets as one of Disney's successes under his tenure.

Ross was very supportive of the Muppets and of course it was under his tenure that the Segel film went from just being talked about to actually produced.

Hopefully whoever takes his place shares his enthusiasm about The Muppets as a Disney property since in a company like Disney, how much weight and support put behind them depends on who's in charge of them at the time.

 

[zoebell]

Yeah, that's the only thing i'm worried about. you'd think with all the attention and the oscar win and the strong financial results, everything would be right on track. so hopefully whoever comes in sees that the same way

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Geez Disney goes through chairmans like a baby goes through milk.

 

[dwmckim]

Geez Disney goes through chairmans like a baby goes through milk.

Maybe they should invest in better chairs...

 

[Pinkflower7783]

I'm thinking more "man" then chairs. Lol!

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Yeah, I really hope everything still goes according to plan. Remember, in 2005 on Bob Iger's first day in office he fired the majority of the staff of the Muppets Holding Company, LLC, putting all their plans on hold for a while. I don't think this will be a repeat of that situation.

 

[Drtooth]

I'd be far more worried if it wasn't such a no-risk gamble. The Muppets made a small amount of money, but it cost a smaller amount of money to produce and market, so they managed to profit from it none the less. At this point, thinking small wouldn't exactly be out of their range. Unless the budget for the next Muppet film is well over 200 mil, I doubt The Muppets Movie 2 is the first thing they want to axe.

It's really more the big expensive John Carter type movie budgets I have a feeling they'd stay away from... but did anyone get fired after Prince of Persia? Just wondering.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Hopefully this won't affect another movie. But worst case scenario and it does, at least the Muppets got to go out on a successful product.

But anyway no point in assuming either way yet.

 

[beaker]

1. Youre alive!

2. We're used to these sudden shakeups by now, but it seems like the ball is rolling too much now for any of these deck reshufflings to affect anything

 

[Drtooth]

2. We're used to these sudden shakeups by now, but it seems like the ball is rolling too much now for any of these deck reshufflings to affect anything

Even if it did... the last movie cost 45 million dollars... if the next one is around the same budget, even if no one in the world saw it, it's still a more solid investment than a big budget movie that only makes up less than half its budget. Green Lantern made more than the Muppets, but because GL had such a high budget, it was considered a flop.