Bob Iger stated on Wednesday that, a year after taking over as Disney’s CEO once more, rejuvenating the studio is his top priority. This comes after a run of box office busts, such as “The Marvels” and “Wish.”
Iger acknowledged a number of factors that contributed to Disney’s recent decline in popularity, pointing out that the company trained viewers to expect its movies to be available on streaming services during Covid lockdowns.
“It’s the best experience I’ve ever had accessing [the movies] and watching them at home,” he said to Andrew Ross Sorkin during The New York Times Deal Book Summit. And when you give it some thought, [it’s] a steal. Disney+ streaming is available for $7 per month.
That is far less expensive than seeing a movie with your entire family. Thus, I believe that the standard for what draws people to movie theaters from their homes has increased.
Ever since Disney debuted its streaming service in late 2019, the company has struggled with quality. Iger claimed that the company “diluted” the quality of its content by increasing output to support Disney+, especially with regard to its Marvel Cinematic Universe features. He claimed that the restrictions imposed by the pandemic made it challenging for executives to supervise the company’s augmented output of movies and television shows.
“The Marvels” was filmed in the midst of COVID,” he clarified.
“There wasn’t as much oversight on the set, so to speak, where we have executives who really keep an eye on everything that’s done on a daily basis.”
Early in 2020, Iger handed over the reins as CEO to Bob Chapek, but he continued in his role as executive chairman to supervise creative output until the end of 2021. A year ago, the board dismissed Chapek and Iger took over as CEO.
Iger also defended Disney’s theatrical output, arguing that, having dominated the film industry for ten years prior to Covid, the company was a victim of its own success.
Furthermore, I doubt another studio will ever reach some of the numbers we did. We were getting a bit impatient, he said, if a movie didn’t earn a billion dollars at the box office worldwide. “That’s an absurdly high bar, and I believe we need to start being more grounded.”
Disney produced seven of the nine films in 2019 that brought in over $1 billion at the box office worldwide. Since then, though, it has had trouble connecting with viewers.
With the exception of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which was acquired as part of Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox, no Disney film has made $1 billion since the 2019 release of the final Star Wars film.
From then on, 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3” and 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($955 million), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” ($859 million), and “Thor: Love and Thunder” ($760 million) have all come close to breaking even at the global box office.
However, a number of high-profile franchise movies have failed. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in 2023 brought in $378 million worldwide, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantomania” brought in $476 million, the lowest amount ever for a Marvel movie, and Pixar’s “Lightyear” in 2022 brought in less than $250 million.
Iger also restated previous remarks he has made regarding the necessity for Disney to be more picky about which Marvel superheroes receive follow-up movies and when to introduce new tales.
Iger stated, “I don’t want to apologize for making sequels,” referring to all of Disney’s properties in general. “A few of them have performed remarkably well and are also excellent films. I believe that you need to have a compelling narrative and a reason for making them.
Furthermore, the story is frequently weaker than the original and doesn’t hold up. That might present an issue.
Iger stated that a sequel to a successful movie needs to have a purpose “beyond commerce,” pointing out that Disney has “made too many” in recent years.
He clarified, “It doesn’t mean we won’t be making them going forward.” In fact, we’re currently correcting a lot of them. However, we won’t approve a sequel unless we think the authors’ intended narrative is worthwhile.
Disney intends to release “Deadpool 3,” “Inside Out 2,” and “Mufasa: The Lion King” in the upcoming year.
