Richard Gottlieb looks at how Disney’s misfortunes impact the toy industry and asks whether it’s time for a new generation of leadership.

Richard Gottlieb is the founder and CEO of Global Toy Experts, a consultancy to US and international toy companies. He is also the publisher of Global Toy News, a web-based magazine founded in 2009 that covers toy industry news and provides resources to the toy industry. Richard co-hosts The Playground Podcast and publishes The Toy Intelligencer report. Here, he shares one of his latest columns with Toy World readers:

Disney stock is struggling. It closed the day on Thursday, August 24th, 2023 at $82.47. That is its lowest close since October 16th, 2014, nearly ten years ago. What is going wrong – a lot? Theme park visits are way down, the latest movies have been flops, and Disney + went from being a hopeful part of the company’s future to a disappointing viewership collapse.

Disney’s misfortune heavily impacts the toy industry. After all, Disney owns a high percentage of the intellectual property the toy industry licenses. And as we all know, movie licences are the lifeblood of the toy industry. If Disney movies fail at the box office, the amount of bankable licences decreases.

Most commentators were happy when Bob Iger returned to Walt Disney to take back his CEO position from Bob Chapek. But so far, he has disappointed, as witnessed by the company’s current stock price.

To read Richard’s full article, which appeared on Global Toy News, click here.