English Entertainment
Lean Disney to focus on core strengths
MUMBAI: World’s biggest media and entertainment group with over US$22 billion in annual revenue The Walt Disney Company is prepared to restructure its India operations under the recently-appointed managing director Mahesh Samat, who rejoined in October.
Disney has lately been working towards a lean structure, aligned more to the international organisational set-up. The India operations will be focusing on consumer products business and Hollywood films — its main strengths.
After sustaining major losses, Disney has planned to temporarily drop its Hindi film production business that includes interactives, media networks, licensing and merchandising.
Disney India head of revenue – media networks Nikhil Gandhi and head of interactive Sameer Ganapathy have resigned already. Also, Disney India may reportedly trim its workforce by 35-40 per cent in a couple of months.
It was earlier reported that Disney India may be closing down game development at Indiagames. Ganapathy, who had replaced Indiagames co-founder Vishal Gondal after Indiagames was acquired by Disney, lead the interactive business which included development and delivery of multiplatform games and digital products including apps for multi-brands under The Walt Disney Company – Indiagames, Disney, Marvel, UTV, and Disney Pixar.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
