Disney decides not to fine a school for showing one of its movies at a fundraiser after all.
Well, crikey. Straight from the department of ‘well, that’s not a good look’, Disney has reversed a fine that was sent to an American primary school. Its crime? It’d screened The Lion King as part of a fundraising drive, and found itself the wrong side of a $250 fine from Disney’s licensing company. The fundraiser itself had raised $800.
The school – Emerson Elementary School – took to social media to appeal for help in paying the fine.
By the letter of the law, Disney is right. When you buy a DVD or equivalent, you get a licence rather than own the film. And that license prohibits any kind of public showing. But still, Disney raking in billions of dollars a quarter fining a school trying to raise funds?
Common sense prevailed here, and Disney CEO Bob Iger intervened, and apologised. Here’s his Tweet…
Quite how Disney discovered the school was playing the film in the first place, and quite why it decided to go straight for a fine, is unclear. The school for its part was unaware it breaking any rules. The Lion King is, er, available on disc now.
Variety
—
Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website:
Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.
Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here.
Become a Patron here.
See one of our live shows, details here.
Related Stories
- Warwick Davis calls out Disney for deleting Willow from Disney+
Actor Warwick Davis has shared a behind-the-scenes photo from Willow, which was deleted from Disney+ last year. And he’s not very happy about it either.
Disney+ started deleting its own content in 2023. A lot of great films and TV shows were axed and aren’t available anywhere else, which feels thoroughly unfair for the people involved [...]
- The top 45 must-see films of 2025
Looking ahead to 2025, here are the 45 films of all genres - from horror to comedy to drama and more - we reckon you really shouldn't miss.
Special mentions:
Firstly, the movies you won’t be seeing, but want to namecheck. Our rules were that we didn’t want to include films that had screened, but not made [...]
- The three movies Disney made instead of Wicked
Wicked’s road to the screen has been a long one, but has Disney been reacting to it since the musical first hit Broadway?
NB: This feature contains spoilers for Wicked Part One, Oz The Great And Powerful, and Maleficent.
Long before Wicked became a Broadway smash-hit in 2003, Disney had a history of near misses with the [...]
- The Creator, Barbarian, The Banshees Of Inisherin and Amsterdam are all gone from Disney+
Four major recent releases from Disney have disappeared from the Disney+ streaming service in the UK - one of which is now exclusive elsewhere.
I’m going to have a go at trying to work out how the ins and outs of Hollywood studios go, but still confess it baffles me a bit. Back when Disney acquired [...]
- The Abyss | The BBFC defends (again) its decision not to classify the film
Disney tried to re-release The Abyss in UK cinemas it's effectively been confirmed, but pulled the plan due to a lack of BBFC certificate.
The long wait for James Cameron’s The Abyss to get a 4K remaster and fresh physical media release finally ended around a year ago – but not if you’re in the UK. [...]
