Disney shifts consumer products from Experiences to Studios
Disney is moving its $63 billion consumer products arm under its studios
Disney is shifting its Consumer Products division out of Disney Experiences and into Disney Entertainment Studios starting in October. It’s the unit behind $63 billion in licensed merch sales, and the second reorg to hit it in six months.
Disney is reshuffling the division that turns its movies into everything you can buy with a character on it.
Starting in October 2026, Disney Consumer Products moves out from under Disney Experiences, the parks-and-cruises side, and into Disney Entertainment Studios, the movie-and-TV side. That’s per a joint memo from Experiences chairman Thomas Mazloum and Studios chairman Alan Bergman.
For most fans this changes nothing you’d notice at a store shelf. It’s an org chart move, not a product one.
But the money attached to it is not small.
What Disney Consumer Products actually does
This is the division behind the licensing. Every Elsa doll, every Baby Yoda mug, every rack of Spider-Man shirts, every Loungefly backpack.
It runs across more than 100 product categories in over 180 countries. And last year it moved $63 billion in retail sales of licensed products, which is the number that makes this reorg worth a headline instead of a shrug.
License Global just ranked Disney the No. 1 licensor on earth for 2026. So Disney is taking the biggest merchandise operation in the business and bolting it onto the studios that make the movies the merchandise comes from.
Why Disney is moving merch under its movie studios
The logic Disney gives is closeness. Put the people who sell the toys next to the people who make the films, from the start.
The stated goal is “stronger alignment” between the products business and the creative teams building the content that drives it. In plainer terms: Disney wants the merchandise planned while a movie’s still being made, not tacked on after it’s done.
The idea being that a shirt or a toy lands better when it’s built into the story from day one instead of reverse-engineered from a finished film. Whether that actually produces better toys or just tighter meetings is the kind of thing you can’t see from an org chart.
No leadership changes, but this is the second reorg in six months
Here’s what the memo leaves out. This isn’t the first time Disney has moved this division’s furniture around this year.
No leadership changes were announced with this one. But back in February, Disney reorganized the same unit’s leadership, promoting Lisa Baldzicki to president of Disney Consumer Products while Tasia Filippatos shifted to president of Disney Parks International.
That February shuffle came as new CEO Josh D’Amaro was assembling his team after taking over from Bob Iger. So this October move is the second structural change to hit consumer products in roughly six months, both under the same new boss.
It also doesn’t land in a vacuum. This summer alone, D’Amaro’s Disney cut hundreds of jobs across Pixar, ESPN, and National Geographic, and agreed to sell its A&E cable stake to Hearst.
What the Disney reorganization means going forward
For now, the practical fan-facing answer is: not much, yet.
The toys keep coming. The licensing deals keep running. Disney says it’ll share more as the transition rolls out through the rest of 2026, so the real effects, if any, show up later.
The throughline worth watching is the shape of it. A new CEO spent his first year moving pieces around the board, and one of the biggest pieces he just picked up sells $63 billion worth of stuff a year. Where he sets it down tells you something about where he thinks the money’s going to come from.
D’Amaro is betting it comes from the movies. That’s why the merch is moving in with them.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
License Global (August 4, 2026), the reorganization memo from Mazloum and Bergman, the October timing, the $63 billion and 100-category figures, the No. 1 licensor ranking, and the February Baldzicki/Filippatos leadership change