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Watching the action at Disney studios has been a great spectator sport for nearly a decade, but last week the game went into double overtime. Jeffrey Katzenberg's unceremonious "resignation" has Hollywood betting on the future of Disney's entertainment division. Katzenberg has been on a losing streak with live-action films, so on that stage he won't be a hard act to follow for newly anointed Joe Roth, a top Disney producer and a former head of Twentieth Century Fox. But Katzenberg was widely credited for the studio's spectacularly profitable animation division. That makes Eisner's choice for the new head of animation -- Roy Disney, vice chairman of the company and Walt's nephew -- seem risky. One Katzenberg ally says of his friend's departure: "If I were a shareholder, I'd be pissed."
Disney was in last place among Hollywood studios when Katzenberg and Eisner took over in 1984. By 1988 they were No. 1. The pair reinvented the studio and stunned skeptics with new animated blockbusters. Last year the studio made $3.6 billion, up from $244 million in 1984. Disney has now achieved a triple crown: "Beauty and the Beast" is the hottest ticket on Broadway; "The Lion King" may be the most profitable movie ever, and "Home Improvement" is No. 1 on TV. The TV unit seems best poised for success. Eisner gets kudos for naming Richard Frank, Katzenberg's TV man, to head a new TV and telecommunications unit. (He'll preside over this fall's animated "Aladdin" series and a sitcom, "All American Girl.")
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But where live-action films are concerned, Disney needs to hold some strategy sessions. Katzenberg was a ruthless cost-cutter, even as he aimed to throw out a daunting number of movies -- 60 a year, say, instead of 20 at other studios. He has hit some spectacular home runs ("Pretty Woman" among them), but his stats of late have been much less impressive. Remember "Renaissance Man"? Eisner now admits the 60-flick strategy "may have been too aggressive," and Roth will almost certainly scale back. Katzenberg has left him some promising fare, including Robert Redford's Oscar-ready "Quiz Show," Tim Burton's quirky biography "Ed Wood" and Merchant Ivory's period drama "Jefferson in Paris."
Disney has been able to afford some duds, thanks to $1 billion-plus animated franchises like "Aladdin." But some worry that Roy Disney won't have Katzenberg's deft commercial touch or useful obsession with quality. "What was the last animation film he [Disney] did on his own?" asks a company source. " "Black Cauldron' -- a bomb." But others say Disney has made major contributions.
Over the next 18 months, American kids will be treated to new animations based on the stories of Pocahontas, Hercules and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. They were Katzenberg's babies, but Roy Disney will be the midwife. Who will win points? The jury will be out for a while.
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