Word: disneyism
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...launchpads go, a half-hour comedy is pretty economical. By the end of the first season of Hannah Montana, Cyrus was a star. Assuming the company spent about $600,000 for each of the 26 episodes, it cost Disney about $15.6 million to set her up. Three seasons, more than 8 million CDs, $225 million worth of movie tickets, two concert tours, a best-selling memoir and 15 million Hannah Montana books later, says Disney, she's worth billions of dollars to the company. Of course, the channel reduced its risk considerably by casting the girl it wanted to develop...
...Disney Channel is taking extraordinary steps to make its modern Mouseketeers' stay at the Mouse House as long - and mutually enriching - as possible. Most recently, this includes instituting a Talent 101 seminar. Young actors whose shows have been filmed but not yet aired are required to attend Talent 101 with a parent. It includes instruction from security experts, media-relations consultants and psychologists. Mendler is one of its first graduates. "We learned how to answer questions from the media and how your family has to be your support," she says. "I was surprised at the amount of security some people...
...every young actor wants to be a cog in the Disney machine. It pays considerably less than the networks do and typically expects to monopolize an actor's time and talent for at least four TV seasons - 14 to 18 years old seems to be the sweet spot. Still, the line of hopefuls shows no sign of dwindling. "Disney's an amazing cross-promoter. You will become a teen star," says Levy. "Then you'll have to work twice as hard to prove you are more." (Read "The Jonas Brothers Movie Review: Kids vs. Critic...
...fact, Disney's successful moves, along with similar ones by Nickelodeon, which is in the teen-star business too, have created something of a boomlet in the child-talent business. Big agencies such as CAA and William Morris Endeavor now have dedicated youth departments. "What used to happen is that we would find the talent, and there would be a feeding frenzy," says Marsh. "Now that we've shown these are potentially viable clients for them in the long term, talent agencies have become more aggressive in finding their talent before we do." And locating them, he says...
Executives at Disney must know that its streak of luck with fresh faces can't last. For a start, there are not many genuine teen stars out there. Second, even tween girls - Disney Channel's main consumers - can generate ardor for only so many other humans. The company has recently made moves to find story lines and characters elsewhere, paying $4 billion to buy Marvel Entertainment merely to get access to some of its lesser superheroes. (The big ones, like Spider-Man, are already spoken for.) Comic-book characters can't give concerts or go to a meet-and-greet...