For more than a decade, Sean Bailey has been running Disney’s animated reimagining factory with quiet efficiency and superhero-sized results. His live-action “Aladdin” grossed $1.1 billion at the box office, while a photorealistic “The Lion King” grossed $1.7 billion. A live-action “Beauty and the Beast” grossed $1.3 billion.
Disney loves the money. The company also sees Mr. Bailey’s remake operation as crucial to staying relevant. Disney’s animated classics are cherished by fans, but most of them show ideas from another era, especially when it comes to gender roles: be pretty, girls, and you might be fine.
The reimaginings, as Mr. Bailey refers to his remakes, find ways to make Disney stories less retrograde. His heroines are powerful and his casting emphasizes diversity. A live-action “Snow White,” due out next year, stars Latina actress Rachel Zegler as the princess known as “the fairest of them all.” Yara Shahidi played Tinker Bell in the recent ‘Peter Pan and Wendy’, making her the first black woman to portray the character on screen.
“We want to reflect the world as it exists,” said Mr. Bailey.
But that worldview — and business strategy — has increasingly put Disney and Mr. Bailey, a low-profile and self-effacing executive, in the middle of a very loud, very rude cultural battle. For every person who applauds Disney, there seems to be a counterpart complaining about being forced to “wake up”.
Many companies are in this vice — Target, Anheuser-Busch, Nike – but Disney, which has a powerful impact on children as they form life beliefs, has been uniquely challenged. In this hyper-partisan moment, both sides of the political divide have hammered on Disney to back them up, with films emerging from Mr. Bailey’s corner of the Magic Kingdom come as prime examples.
Consider his remake of “The Little Mermaid,” which hit theaters two weeks ago and cost an estimated $375 million to make and market. The new version sinks problematic lyrics from the 1989 original. (“It’s she who shuts up who gets a man.”) In the biggest change, Halley Bailey, who is Black, plays Ariel, the mermaid. Disney has long depicted the character as white, including in its theme parks.
Support for Ms. Baileyparticularly from people of color and movie critics, was offset by a deluge of racist comments on social media and movie fan sites. Others have blasted “The Little Mermaid”. not acknowledge the horrors of slavery in the Caribbean. A few LGBTQ people have criticized Disney for hiring a straight male makeup artist for villainous Ursula, whose look was in the animated film inspired by a drag queen.
Disney has long viewed these kinds of social media storms as storms in teapots: trending today, replaced by a new complaint tomorrow. For example, in 2017, an Alabama theater refused to play the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” because it included a three-second glimpse of two men dancing in each other’s arms. It became a worldwide news item. In the end, the scuffle didn’t seem to affect ticket sales.
The result? Disney hoped “The Little Mermaid” would gross as much as $1 billion worldwide, with the furore evaporating once the film arrived in theaters. Test impression feedback scores were strong, as were early ratings. “Alan Menken just told me he thinks this one is better than the animated movie,” Disney CEO Robert A. Iger said at the film’s premiere last month, referring to the Oscar-winning composer.
Instead, “The Little Mermaid” will hit closer to $600 million, box office analysts said on Sunday, largely because the movie faltered overseas, where it was “review bombarded,” with online trolls flooding movie sites with racist one-star reviews. . The film did well in North America, outperforming “Aladdin” and receiving an A grade from ticket buyers in CinemaScore exit polls, though white moviegoer attendance was weak in some parts of the United States, analysts said. Support from the black and Latino public has made up for the slack.
Mr Bailey declined to comment on the racist reactions to the film. “Although the international opening was softer than we would have liked, the film plays exceptionally well, which we think sets us up for a very long run,” he said on Saturday.
Mr Bailey, 53, has survived box office school far worse. His failures include “The Lone Ranger” and “Jungle Cruise”. The less said about his live-action “Mulan,” the better. But Disney has always supported him. “I’ve had some big swings and some big misses,” said Mr. Bailey. “I’m grateful that the company’s leadership understands that this is part of any creative business.”
Mr. Bailey has been president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production for 13 years – an eternity in Hollywood, where movie executives are often jettisoned every few years. At the time, Disney was beset by executive layoffs, multiple restructurings, and shifting film distribution strategies. The steadfast Mr. Bailey, who is popular with stars and their agents, has provided stability.
“He’s a nice, decent, respectful, honest guy who goes about his job quietly and without fanfare,” said Kevin Huvane, co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency. “But that doesn’t mean he’s passive. Quite the opposite. He gets his hands dirty. If a deal doesn’t work, he steps in and finds a way to make it happen.”
In 2014, for example, Mr. Bailey flew from Los Angeles to Budapest in a heartbeat to have dinner with Angelina Jolie. She had agreed to star in “Maleficent”, but seemed to get cold feet after reading a revised script. Whatever he told her worked; “Maleficent” and a sequel grossed $1.3 billion combined.
“Sean is something we don’t see very often these days, and certainly not in movies,” Ms Jolie said by email. “He’s consistent, stable and decent. When we have challenges, like all movies, he’s even and fair. It might not be exciting for a story, but it’s what we need more of.”
Disney’s live-action movies didn’t often feature women before Mr. Bailey’s arrival, and diversity was almost non-existent. Mr. Bailey has focused almost exclusively on female-led stories. He has also championed young actresses of color – Storm Reid, Nico Parker, Naomi Scott – and female directors, including Ava DuVernay (“A Wrinkle in Time”), Julia Hart (“Stargirl”), and Mira Nair (“Queen of Katwe”) ).
“I think what he’s doing is hugely important,” said Geena Davis, an actress and gender equality activist. “It’s not just about inspiring little girls. It’s about normalizing for men and boys, making it totally normal to see a girl doing interesting and important things and taking up space.”
The next movie from Mr. Bailey,”Haunted house”, hits theaters July 28 and stars LaKeith Stanfield (an Oscar nominee for “Judas and the Black Messiah”), Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson and Tiffany Haddish. “Haunted Mansion” was directed by “Dear White People” creator Justin Simien and inspired by a Disney theme park.
“I felt like we had a chance to try and make a really cool, Disney-appropriate PG-13 movie that’s really terrifying, but also has charms and delights,” said Mr. Bailey.
Mr. Bailey, who has watched “The Little Mermaid” 18 times as it works its way through Disney’s pipeline, has more than 50 films in various stages of development and production, including live-action versions of “Moana,” “Hercules.” and ‘Lilo and Stitch.” Yes, “Hocus Pocus 3” is coming. (His division makes two or three big-budget movies for theater releases and three low-budget movies for Disney+ each year.)
“Mufasa: The Lion King,” a photorealistic prequel directed by Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” screenwriter, is scheduled for release in 2024. Bailey said “The Lion King” could develop into “a big, epic saga”. like the “Star Wars” franchise. “There’s a lot of room to run if we can find the stories,” he said.
The five-movie reboot of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series is another priority, though nothing has been officially announced yet. “We think we have a really good, exciting story that pays homage to the films that have been made before, but also has something new to tell,” said Mr. Bailey. Will the franchise’s problematic star, Johnny Depp, return as Captain Jack Sparrow? “No strings attached at this point,” Mr. Bailey said, seemingly opening the door slowly.
One of the blows to Mr. Bailey is that he hasn’t created a new franchise; almost none of his bets on original films paid off. Made for Disney+ in 2019, the sled dog drama ‘Togo’ was one critical blow which did not break out. “Tomorrow Land”, an ambitious fantasy from 2015, crashed and burned. At some point, studios can’t endlessly recycle old stuff. A Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox ends up as a blank page.
“It’s very difficult to break through and get an original, hugely commercial win,” said Mr. Bailey. “We’ll keep trying.” He pointed to a project based on “The cemetery book”, about a boy raised by the supernatural inhabitants of a cemetery.
Every studio struggles to come up with original hits. But the extra sparkle that seems to come with every Disney effort adds a certain level of difficulty.
Like Mr. Iger, Mr. Bailey makes no secret of his political leanings. He is close to New Jersey Democrat Senator Cory Booker, a friendship that began in 2000, when Mr. Bailey held a fundraiser for him in Hollywood. (Mr. Bailey has many famous friends. He goes way back with Ben Affleck, helped Dwayne Johnson start a tequila brand, and serves on the board of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.)
But Mr. Bailey makes movies for everyone. That challenge is part of what keeps his job interesting, he said.
“How do you deal with an audience that changes outside our country, within our country?” said Mr. Bailey. “How do you tell stories – stories that matter to everyone – in an increasingly polarized world?”