Even though it was Josh D’Amaro’s first full week on the job as Disney’s CEO, the weekend could not have come soon enough for the first-time CEO and 27-year Disney veteran. The week brought three crises across three distinct areas of Disney’s business, with the cancellation of this season’s THE BACHELORETTE, OpenAI’s shutting down of Sora, and its Epic Games business announcing that it would let go of one-fifth of its workforce.
Disney had spent $60M on production for the new season of THE BACHELORETTE and had struck $1B deals with both OpenAI and Epic Games. The string of negative developments points to the challenges D’Amaro and Disney face in navigating the turbulent media landscape.
Of the three crises, the one that was most directly related to movies was OpenAI shutting down Sora, a platform that allows users to create new videos that feature various characters or actors, for example, a fanciful scene in which Mickey Mouse has lunch with The Minions. After many studios threatened legal action against OpenAI for copyright infringement, Disney became the first major production company to sign a deal with OpenAI, allowing its intellectual property to be used by the artificial intelligence engine. In a $1 billion licensing deal, Disney allowed OpenAI to include over 200 Disney characters in new videos that would then become available to stream on Disney+.
Disney CEO Bob Iger hailed the deal as a catalyst to “expand what is possible for storytelling.” However, that all came crashing down this week when OpenAI announced its intention to shut down Sora, citing slowing adoption and changing business priorities. The outcome moves Disney back to square one on how to take advantage of AI partnerships, a question D’Amaro will now have to navigate on his own.
See also: Disney’s New CEO Faces Three Major Disasters during his First Week on the Job (The Independent)
