By Rich Ross has officially resigned as Walt Disney Studios chairman following a particularly unfortunate couple of years heading up Disney’s live-action film division. If you’ve been following his career at all since his 2009 hiring out of the Disney Channel, this can’t come as much of a surprise. He’s not greenlit too many films, and those he has have either underperformed or have run into numerous budget troubles. Just look at all the budgeting snafus with The Lone Ranger. The straw that broke the camels back was no doubt the $200 million loss Disney saw with John Carter. While I’d say that was more a failure on the part of Disney’s marketing team, which, when they were actually trying to sell the movie to American audiences, failed miserably.
It definitely seems like Ross was a better fit at the Disney Channel, which saw very good ratings and spawned several stars under his tenure. Hopefully whoever does replace Ross will have a firmer grasp at the wheel and a passion for making more interesting movies than Prom.
[Via THR]