Sean Bailey, Walt Disney’s President of Motion Pictures, who spearheaded Disney’s live-action hits from 2010 to today, is exiting the company effective immediately.
According to Deadline, Searchlight Pictures co-President David Greenbaum is taking over. Greenbaum’s new title will be President, Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios. He’ll report to Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman.
Bailey is best credited to Disney for success with the latter type of live-action Disney films, which began with the commercial success of Alice in Wonderland (2010), and continued with Maleficent, Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016), Pete’s Dragon (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), The Lion King (2019), and The Little Mermaid (2023). Bailey has overseen the release of five films that have surpassed $1 billion in global box office: Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, as well as The Lion King, which earned nearly $1.7 billion worldwide.
Bailey is noted for transforming Disney’s live-action film slate with female-led tentpoles featuring empowered, contemporary heroines and expanding representation in these roles. Notable examples include Halle Bailey as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell in Peter Pan & Wendy, Storm Reid in A Wrinkle in Time, and Rachel Zegler as Snow White in the studio’s 2024 live-action reimagining of the Disney classic. Throughout his tenure, he has also championed female directors for major projects, including Ava DuVernay, Mira Nair, and Julia Hart.
