Disney Has been going through a state of upheaval lately. They’ve been doing gangbusters on Disney+, but their has been a lot of strife behind the scenes on Marvel, Star Wars, and the company as a whole with new programs that have been put into action by incoming CEO Bob Chapek. In fact, there’s been so much friction around Chapek and his cost-cutting measures that many people have taken to calling him Bob Cheapskate. Now, it looks like one more area of Disney is set for upheaval as Chief Creative Officer, Alan Horn is set to retire at age 78.
Horn came to Disney in 2012 after being dropped by Warner Bros after 12 years (where he was responsible for making the Harry Potter film franchise happen as well as overseeing Batman Begins, The Shawshank Redemption, When Harry Met Sally, and the hit sitcom – Seinfeld). Disney was in crisis and had been making bombs like John Carter of Mars and Mars Needs Moms and they needed a steady hand to guide new acquisitions like Lucasfilm and growing branches like Pixar animation.
During his tenure, Disney has continued to break box office records according to Deadline.
Horn’s nine-year track record saw Disney expand its productions beyond the big screen to streaming. All in, during his reign, Disney set several box office records clicking past $7 billion in 2016 and 2018 and $11 billion in 2019, the only motion picture studio to hit such levels. Twenty movies at Disney surpassed the billion-dollar mark globally, a dozen of which are in the top 20 and five of which are in the top 10 worldwide releases of all time. That includes the biggest domestic release of all time in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the second biggest global release of all time in Avengers: Endgame, as well as the biggest animated releases of all time both domestically and globally in Incredibles 2 and Frozen 2, respectively.
Alan Bergman, the Chief Content Officer of the company has been sharing duties with Horn since 2019 and will take over the position when he leaves. Here’s what he had to say:
“Alan Horn is one of a kind, and we were fortunate that he chose to bring his talents to our Studios,” added Bergman. “He has been one of the most important mentors I’ve ever had, and we’re both very proud of what we’ve been able to do in our time together at the Studios leading this terrific team. I simply can’t thank him enough.”