With Ross Exiting Disney, More Changes To Come at Studio?

April 23, 2012 · Posted in M&E Daily, Today's M&E Connections 

The resignation of Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross late Friday has movie-industry observers musing on what the executive’s exit may portend for Disney’s home entertainment operations.

• The Los Angeles Times holds that Ross — who previously headed the Disney Channel before taking his studio chairman’s role in 2009 — faced difficulty in transitioning into the film business. Digital distribution pressures only compounded Ross’s challenges, the site says.

• Forbes casts Ross’s departure more as the direct result of the “spectacular” box-office failures of “John Carter” and “Mars Needs Moms.” Variety’s Peter Bart similarly wonders whether Disney’s corporate managers have lost touch with what he calls late founder Walt Disney’s “guiding passion” of “storytelling on film.”

• An anonymous Disney source, in an interview with Deadline’s Nikki Finke, disagrees, arguing that Ross’s exit had “nothing to do with the slate of his upcoming films” and instead involved general management issues.

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