South Carolina Kicks Disney Right in the Teeth, Pulls Its State Funds
Walt Disney Studios marked its centennial anniversary this year.
But instead of a celebration worthy of a century of bringing joy to children, the past 12 months have brought multiple box-office flops and disappointments.
South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis Loftis believes the company is dealing with “structural rot,” which is causing it to turn away from its responsibilities to stockholders.
“I think it’s clear to anybody paying attention that there’s a structural rot inside of Disney. It’s deep, it’s pervasive, and I suspect Bob Iger, since his return as the CEO, now realizes it can’t be fixed,” Lifti told Fox Business Digital.
State of South Carolina Divests From Woke Disney Due to ‘Cultural Rot’ via @gatewaypundit https://t.co/AmvzUoXxT2
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) December 27, 2023
Loftis announced that South Carolina will divest $105 million worth of Disney debt securities due to concerns over the company’s leadership and its embrace of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) principles.
Loftis said Disney has abandoned its fiduciary duty to shareholders in favor of ESG, which he defined as a “speech and behavior code that was … created by the left and delivered to everybody else.”
“The sane, sober, talented, mature people are gone, and now you have the gender studies crowd running Disney,” Loftis said, “That’s why their movies are flops and their market cap, I think, is about half what it used to be. It’s a tremendous loss to America — we all grew up on Disney,” he added.
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Loftis pointed to poor box office performance for Disney films and the 50 percent drop in Disney’s stock price from all-time highs in 2021 as evidence of flailing leadership.
Only “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Elemental” turned profits out of eight major Disney theatrical releases, according to Movieweb. “The Marvels” posted the lowest domestic grosses in the lucrative superhero franchise’s history, according to Variety.
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“Tremendous loss to America’: South Carolina is dumping $105M of Disney investments, blaming ‘structural rot’ in the company.”
Go woke, go broke. see ‘ya bye Disney.https://t.co/vBHHEipnds
— Mustang7292 – COA⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Paul_at_PSG) December 25, 2023
“Woke” creative choices had a great deal to do with the House of Mouse’s disastrous financial year.
For instance, the decision to replace Snow White’s beloved seven dwarfs with “magical creatures” provoked outrage from many Disney fans. Meanwhile, the powerful film “Sound of Freedom” was shelved by Disney, only to become an indie box office hit when released by Angel Studios.
The finances pulled back by South Carolina may not do any major harm to Disney, but the move sends as clear a message as the public’s response to Disney’s movies did.
Disney has lost touch with mainstream America, making politically correct creative choices pushed by elites inside a progressive Hollywood bubble, rather than focusing on its legacy or fiduciary duties.
After a century of magic, Disney finds itself at a cultural crossroads. To restore its connection with the public, it must return to the timeless storytelling that made Disney movies global sensations.
But as Loftis worried, the animation giant may be too embedded in wokeness to be able to “let it go.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
