'John Carter' Defeats a Disney Executive
Rich Ross, once lord-of-the-tweens at Disney Channel with hits like Hannah Montana and High School Musical was, alas, not so successful in his role at Disney Studios; he resigned on Friday after Disney lost epic amounts of money on the film John Carter.
RELATED: What 'John Carter' Did Wrong
His statement makes it sound like he's ready to own up that he and the job were never a great fit:
I’ve always said our success was created and driven by our own people ... But the best people need to be in the right jobs, in roles they are passionate about, doing work that leverages the full range of their abilities. It’s one of the leadership lessons I’ve learned during my career and it’s something I’ve been giving a great deal of thought to as I look to the challenges as opportunities ahead.
By all accounts, Ross was supposed to do well in the chairmanship when he was promoted from his post running the Disney Channel. He oversaw the channel's mega-successful period that blessed us all with tweeny TV like Hannah Montana and TV movies like High School Musical. The New York Times puts forward some smart theories on why he wasn't as successful in the movie biz: chiefly that he hired a bunch of non-movie types. Ah well. Looks like John Carter had a lot more impact behind the scenes than it did in the theater.
