“It Pisses Me Off”: Bob Chapek Blames Iger in Disney Memoir
Festivus has come early for Bob Chapek. The former Disney CEO is airing his grievances in Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth. Excerpts shared by The New York Times suggest he has a few to get through.
“I didn’t get a chance to finish what I started. In truth, it pisses me off.”
Bob Chapek
Chapek places much of the blame for his failed tenure on Bob Iger, who served as Disney’s CEO before and after Chapek. He writes that Iger had an “intentional and preconceived role in abruptly ending my ride as Disney CEO.”
Another excerpt shows he feels he did nothing wrong: “My abrupt dismissal hurt my reputation, leaving those close to me, outsiders, and some within the kingdom trying to figure out what I did wrong. The answer, again, is nothing.”
A series of bad choices
Iger did remain at Disney as executive chairman after handing Chapek the CEO job. That couldn’t have been easy. And COVID threw Chapek’s plans into a blender. But I doubt his book will change the minds of Disney fans who had to live with the decisions made while he was in charge.
Free FastPasses were replaced with paid Lightning Lanes. Disney’s Magical Express, the complimentary bus between Walt Disney World and Orlando International Airport, went away. Tickets, Annual Passes, and food got more expensive.
And apparently he saw room to do more. Chapek said Disney had left revenue opportunities on the table “to avoid stirring the hornet’s nest.” As a customer, I’m grateful for his restraint.
The trouble extended beyond the parks. Chapek’s handling of a Scarlett Johansson contract dispute angered Hollywood. His plan to move roughly 2,000 California-based employees, including Imagineers, to Lake Nona, Florida, forced workers to relocate or quit. Many left. Iger canceled the move after his return, but some employees had already sold their homes. It was a disaster.
It’s taken years, but Disney has started to regain some goodwill with fans. And Imagineering is thriving once again. The recent D23 event gave us plenty to look forward to, as more details were shared about Magic Kingdom’s Villains Land, Hollywood Studios’ Monstropolis, and Animal Kingdom’s Tropical Americas.
We still pay to skip lines, and some of us still need park reservations. But Disney has also promised to fix the Yeti. So, yeah. Things are looking up.
The tip of Chapek’s spear
Those good vibes are happening under Josh D’Amaro, who took over as CEO in March. Chapek has thoughts about that, too. He wrote, “I consistently suggested the idea of promoting him. He had been a relative unknown in the corporate hierarchy before I singled him out.” He also said that D’Amaro was the “tip of my spear.”
Maybe Chapek helped D’Amaro’s career. I don’t know. But claiming credit for the new CEO’s success while taking zero responsibility for his own tenure comes off as beyond petty.
I doubt this book will change anyone’s mind about Chapek’s time at Disney. I hope writing it was therapeutic, and I’m sure he’ll sell some copies. But in the excerpts we’ve seen, he doesn’t seem willing to own a mistake. Nobody gets every decision right. Admitting where you went wrong would make a more convincing case than blaming Iger and taking credit for D’Amaro.
Anyway, I can’t wait for that Yeti.
