When it comes to its relationship with Walt Disney Co., McDonald's Corp. is hardly lovin' it.
The world's largest fast-food chain wants to revamp its super-sized movie, home video and theme park promotion deal with Disney. Discontent with the pact is bubbling up to headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., from powerful franchisees, who own most of the 30,000-plus McDonald's restaurants worldwide.
One of the beefs is that Burbank-based Disney isn't churning out animated blockbusters as it once did. Hit movies for kids drive successful fast-food promotions, enticing children to drag their parents into restaurants for the toys and other items that so often accompany cheeseburgers and fries.
When the Disney-McDonald's marketing deal was sealed in 1996, Disney was coming off a string of winners like "The Lion King" and "Aladdin." Since then, it has been hits and misses for McDonald's franchisees, who must purchase movie-related Happy Meal toys and pay for local advertising.
Although "Lilo & Stitch" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" were successful, franchisees also were saddled with promoting the outright duds "Treasure Planet" and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." Another gripe: Much of McDonald's promotional schedule each year is spoken for by Disney, with half of the Happy Meals tied to Disney themes.
"The biggest complaint I hear is that the alliance doesn't give them any flexibility. They get locked into whatever Disney decides to lock them into," said Dick Adams, a consultant to 500 McDonald's franchisees. He noted that they must promote not only major new releases but rereleases of classic films as well as such direct-to-video films as this year's "The Lion King 1 1/2."
Said one franchisee, who asked not to be identified: "It's a better deal for Disney than it is for McDonald's. We'd like to get the cream of the crop. There's been some good stuff out there that's gone to our competitors."
Burger King franchisees, for example, currently have the pleasure of helping to plug DreamWorks SKG's "Shrek 2."
McDonald's spokesman Walt Riker said the company expected to continue its "productive relationship" with Disney. "It would be inappropriate to speculate on what might unfold," he added, "but nobody should jump to conclusions."
