Sean Bailey, who recently exited Disney after 15 years as the motion picture group’s president of branded live-action production, is launching a new production company. His venture, B5 Studios, is backed by RedBird Capital Partners and is described as a "multi-format studio positioned at the intersection of premier creativity and technology," with a goal to create content across film, television and "emerging formats." “B5 is poised to take advantage of a major market opportunity, giving great artists a new set of...
Disney
Sean
Bailey
President, Motion Picture Production
After the Hollywood strikes pushed much of Disney’s 2024 film slate to 2025, “Mufasa: The Lion King,” a prequel to the 2019 live-action rendition of the animated classic, is one of just two core Disney projects left in a year where 20th Century movies will pick up the slack. Disney made “Mufasa” underwhelmed at the box office in its December debut. In 2023, the live-action “The Little Mermaid” remake wasn’t a box-office failure, making nearly $300 million domestically, but it failed to double that haul globally, finishing at around $570 million on production and marketing budgets that exceeded $200 million, narrowing its profit margin. “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” were billion-dollar hits in 2019, a sign that Disney’s devotion to remaking core IP is wearing thin like most of its other top-level film brands.
