Following Disney’s recent decision to remove more than 60 titles, including Stargirl from Disney+, Hulu, and Hotstar on May 26, the director of the movie has responded.
Beginning May 26, titles, which are being removed from Disney’s streaming services globally, include Disney+ Willow, Big Shot, Turner & Hooch, The Mighty Ducks, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Just Beyond, Diary of a Future President, and The World According To Jeff Goldblum and Hulu sY: The Last Man, Dollface, The Hot Zone, Maggie, Pistoland Little Demon.
Upon learning about the Disney+ removal, Julia Hart, the director of both Stargirl and Hollywood Stargirl, expressed her response on social media regarding her film’s removal from Disney+:
Devastated that the movie I poured my & soul into is leaving disneyplus. Watch while you can! Proud of the work my amazing colleagues & I did. I was 8 weeks post-partum when we started. The process was worth the sacrifice even if the result was not. Focus on process. Always.
I went around telling anyone who would listen that we should applaud studios for creating space for mid-budget humanistic stories on streaming. I don’t like to take that back. This industry is broken. It s going to be basically impossible for movies like this to get made.
Also cause clearly some folks don t know the creatives with whom I work directly at the studio have nothing to do with this decision & are as heartbroken as I am to see their work disappear.
Just found out HOLLYWOOD STARGIRL is leaving too. I made this movie to show young people a road map to telling their own stories. The truth is hardly any of us stand a chance anymore. I’m heartbroken.
And again, this is why artists must focus on process. I had the time of my life, made lifelong friends & provided for my family. I don t regret a thing.
I bet a lot of people don t realize how much crew & actors rely on employers being able to view their previous work in order to secure future employment.
The move, which comes with a content impairment charge of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion, was announced during the recent Disney earnings call on May 10.
An impairment charge refers to the accounting method used when an asset’s current market value has fallen below its original cost or book value, indicating that it has lost some of its initial worth.
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Christine McCarthy, CFO, stated:
We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation,
By removing certain titles, Disney stands to save money, as they will no longer be obligated to pay ongoing residual payments and licensing fees. In addition, Disney may also consider removing some content to establish licensing agreements with other companies such as Netflix, HBO, etc., thereby generating extra revenue.
Disney’s decision to remove content parallels a preceding action by Warner Bros. Discovery, headed by David Zaslav, which also pulled a selection of titles from HBO Max. This list included shows like Westworld, The Nevers, Generation, FBoy Island, Legendary, The Time Traveler s Wife, The Gordita Chronicles, Raised by Wolves, and more.
This move was part of an attempt to cease financing library titles that were not meeting performance standards. The company subsequently granted Roku and Tubi the rights to many of these same shows through a number of licensing agreements, thereby further monetizing programming that had previously failed to achieve expected success.
Leo Borlock (Graham Verchere) is an average student at Mica High School. He gets decent grades, is a member of the school s marching band, and has always been content flying under the radar.
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But all that changes when he meets Stargirl Caraway (Grace VanderWaal), a confident and colorful new student with a penchant for the ukulele, who stands out in a crowd. She is kind, finds magic in the mundane, and touches the lives of others with the simplest of gestures.
Her eccentricities and infectious personality charm Leo and the student body, and she quickly goes from being ignored and ridiculed to accepted and praised, then back again, sending Leo on a rollercoaster ride of emotions.