Should you care about the big business side of things in Hollywood, Disney has named Rich Ross, President of Disney Channels Worldwide as the new Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios replacing the recently departed Dick Cook. Disney President and CEO Robert A. Iger made the announcement via a press release.
Ross will oversee worldwide production, distribution and marketing for the company’s range of live-action and feature animated film labels, including Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Disney/Pixar. In his new role, which he assumes immediately, he will also head Disney’s theatrical and music groups.
Ross’s name quickly became a potential candidate along with likes of Pixar topper John Lasseter and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks partner Stacey Snider. Then at one point there was even talk of a separate head for each studio such as one for Disney another for Touchstone and so on. Obviously we now know how all that turned out.
The accomplishments for Ross as listed in the press release make reference to his thirteen years at Disney and a subsequent outstanding performance of the Disney Channels with such breakout series as Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place and Sonny With A Chance. Then there’s also Disney Channel’s record with original movies with the likes of High School Musical 2, Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie and Camp Rock. Disney Channel can claim cable’s top two movies of all time and three of the top five.
So it looks like the man that made Raven-Symone, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus into household names will now be running things at the Mouse House.
I don’t know what role, if any, Ross played in the recent cuts at Miramax, which cut its staff from 70+ to only 20 with plans to cut their release slate from 6 to 8 films per year to only three, but I really don’t know what I think of this news. How about you?
