Mark Zoradi: Another Disney Studio Executive Exits

LOS ANGELES — Another executive at The Walt Disney Co.'s movie studio is exiting hurriedly as the company's troubles continue at the box office with a weak opening for "A Christmas Carol."

Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group and the head of worldwide marketing for all Disney, Pixar, Touchstone and Disneynature movies, said Monday he is stepping down immediately.

No successor was named.

Zoradi's move came after the 3-D remake of the classic Christmas tale starring Jim Carrey opened to $30.1 million at the weekend box office in the U.S. and Canada.

With an estimated $175 million production budget and a marketing campaign that involved a 40-city train tour, Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz says he expects it to lose $50 million to $100 million.

Last month, Disney named Rich Ross as chairman of its movie studios, following a year of disappointing movie results and the abrupt departure of its former chief, Dick Cook.

Disney's studio revenue has fallen in each of the last five quarters, sinking from $1.82 billion in the March quarter of 2008 to $1.26 billion in the quarter ended in June this year.

The studio also posted a $12 million operating loss in the June quarter, down from a $97 million operating profit last year.

Disney reports its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Comments

[ebroadcast]

I know this isn't the Style section, but someone needs to trim their eyebrows!

[kappa08]

...werd.

[Skeetshooter]

A Halloween release should have been named A Halloween Tale. A Thanksgiving release should have been called A Thanksgiving Turkey. Maybe a film called A Christmas Carol should have been released closer to... oh, I don't know... -Christmas?

[3dtrix]

Rich Ross is the new sheriff at Disney's film division, tasked with cleaning house of a culture of complacency vis a vis box office performance of their releases. The historical pattern for Disney is that because they own all their properties - and related merchandising - outright AND media outlets to recycle them endlessly, that initial release figures were less important than at other studios - virtually every project, even those that tanked on release, would eventually be profitable. This has resulted in a film studio hemorraging hundreds of millions of dollars annually, which in any other business environment would be unsustainable. With the average cost of each new production reaching truly dizzying numbers - approaching 150 million per - and the box-office trend declining precipitously (despite occasional if huge successes like the Pirates movies) something had to give. Zoradi isn't the first exec suddenly interested in spending a lot more time with his family, and he won't be the last - Ross just finished a purge at Miramax (Disney owned) and everyone else in the system is trying to look REAL busy. A lot of hopes hang on TRON Legacy - which won't be released til next Christmas...

[sonnen]

He'll have no trouble getting work as an actor. He would look perfect as a heartless, talentless studio executive.

[Solja]

Now if only we could get Wall Street exec's to do the same thing...