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As chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, Richard Cook oversees the development, production, worldwide distribution and marketing for all live-action and animated films released under the Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures banners. He is also responsible for Disney's worldwide home entertainment operations under Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment International, as well as the Studio's legal and business affairs departments.
Cook began his career in 1970 at Disneyland in Anaheim, where he was a ride operator on the park's steam locomotives and monorail. Within a year, he became a representative in the Disneyland sales department and three years later was promoted to department manager. In 1977, Cook moved to the Disney Studios in Burbank as manager of pay television and non-theatrical releases. In this capacity, he was responsible for Disney's first entry into the burgeoning world of cable television, working on the early stages of what became The Disney Channel.
Cook entered the motion picture business at Disney in 1980 as assistant domestic sales manager for the Buena Vista Distribution Company. He quickly moved up through the ranks, becoming vice president and general sales manager, then senior vice president of domestic distribution. In 1988, he was promoted to president of Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. He supervised the release of numerous hit films, including "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," "Three Men and a Baby" (the first Disney film to break the $100 million mark), "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Pretty Woman," "Father of the Bride" and "Sister Act." Cook's tenure in distribution also placed him on the front lines of Disney's animation renaissance and the revitalization of the animation genre as a whole, releasing animated blockbusters including "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Lion King" and "Pocahontas." To date, "The Lion King" is the Studio's highest grossing film ever and remains the highest grossing animated film in history.
In 1994, Cook assumed the additional responsibility of film marketing when he was promoted to president of Buena Vista Pictures Distribution and Marketing. In this position, he oversaw the marketing and distribution strategies for hit films such as "The Santa Clause," "Crimson Tide," "Toy Story," "The Rock," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Two years later, Cook was promoted to chairman of The Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Group, and then assumed his current role as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios in 2002.
Under Cook's leadership, the Studio has produced numerous critical and box-office successes; among them are "101 Dalmatians," "George of the Jungle," "Mulan," "Armageddon," "A Bug's Life," "The Sixth Sense," "Tarzan," "Toy Story 2," "Remember the Titans," "Pearl Harbor," "The Princess Diaries," "Monster's, Inc.," "The Rookie," and most recently, "Lilo & Stitch," "Signs," "Sweet Home Alabama," "The Santa Clause 2," and "Bringing Down the House."
Under his leadership, the Studio has been the leading domestic distributor for seven of the last nine years with box office receipts in excess of one billion dollars each year. Since 1990, the Studio has released 34 films that have grossed more than $100 million each domestically. Since the inception of Buena Vista International in 1993, the Studio has been the leader in international market share seven times and has surpassed the billion-dollar mark at the international box office for eight consecutive years - the only distribution company to have achieved this milestone. |
