Bob Iger Believes Disney Has Already Improved Its Film And TV Programming Despite A String Of Debacles Culminating In 'The Marvels' Losing Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars

Bradley Cooper and Bob Iger attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood CA on Thursday, April 27, 2023.

The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger portrayed an air of confidence that he has turned around the creative efforts of the company when it comes to its film and television production despite recent offerings indicating audiences are rejecting what they are creating.

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: (L-R) The Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and Chris Pratt attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 World Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on April 27, 2023. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)

During The Walt Disney Company’s Q1 FY 24 Earnings Results Webcast was asked by one investor, “It seems like the operations are really starting to hum again. But I think the lifeblood of the company is always going to be the studio output; it drives so much culture. I think that’s an area that you said you’ve been spending a lot of time on. Do you think the content is also turning a corner like we see in the operations? And if so when do you think we might see some of the results of that for renewed focus on studio output?”

Iger responded, “I feel great about where we are with the studio. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that in the last year the studio had some real success. Not to suggest that we didn’t have some films that were not successful that we were really disappointed in. but we also had some great success too in the Guardians sequel and Avatar in the end of calendar ’22, but part of fiscal ’23.”

READ: Elon Musk Declares Walt Disney Is “Turning In His Grave Faster Than A Drill Bit” With Bob Iger’s Handling Of The Company

He then admitted, “One of the things that I’ve been saying before is that volume can sometimes be detrimental to quality and in our zeal to greatly increase volume partially tied to wanting to chase more global subs for our streaming platform some of our studios lost a little focus.”

“So the first step that we’ve taken is we’ve reduced volume. We’ve reduced output particularly at Marvel,” Iger shared. “When you address these issues in movies, you do three things. You get aggressive at making sure the films you’re making can be even better, sometimes you kill projects you don’t believe in, and, of course, you put new things in the pipeline that you do believe in that you have much more confidence in. And we’re doing all of that.”

Iger then stated, “I’ve also observed over the years that managing creativity is best done with great partnerships. And I have established great partnerships with the people at our company that really mange our creativity: Alan Bergman at the studio, Dana Walden on the television side, Jimmy Pitaro at ESPN. And the partnership that Alan and I have is a strong one and we believe the time that I am now devoting to this, and the attention that the two of us are giving this business not only will bear fruit, but it’s already starting too.”

“We’re very bullish about the films coming out,” he declared. “We mentioned Inside Out 2, and we talked about Deadpool, and The Planet of the Apes film. We feel good about that. And, obviously, at the end of the calendar year we’ve got Mufasa, prequel to Lion King. We’re very excited about the addition of Moana, which was the number one streamed movie across all streamers in the U.S. in ’23 and has had over a billion hours of consumption in Disney+ and that’s now going to be released in November.”

A scene from Moana 2 (2024), Walt Disney Animation Studios

“And then I mentioned what we’re doing after that, I’d say we’re leaning a little bit more into sequels and franchises, some that we feel great about Toy Story is a for instance, obviously Star Wars, Avatar we’ve talked about. Marvel is starting to focus on its strongest franchises going forward, but I’ll leave it at that.”

“I think given the environment and what it takes to get people out of their homes to see a film, doing that, leaning on franchises that are familiar is actually a smart thing. So, we’ve got work to do still. We’re not resting on our laurels or sitting on our hands. We’re working hard at it, but I feel quite good about the trajectory,” he concluded.

READ: Disney CEO Bob Iger Addresses Plethora Of “Woke” Characters The Company Is Pumping Out, Company’s Actions Indicate He’s Lying

It’s not hard to think that Iger’s is simply just blowing smoke given Disney’s recent track record at the box office and on television has been abysmal.

According to The-Numbers, Walt Disney Studios only garnered 16.17% of the U.S. market share down over 2% from 2022 despite releasing three more film. The highest grossing film in the domestic market was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which only brought in $358.9 million. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 grossed $457.6 million back in 2017. The first film grossed $333.7 million in 2014.

Avatar: The Way of Water also underperformed the original Avatar in the United States. The film only grossed $684 million at the domestic box office while the original film grossed $785.2 million back in 2009.

So even the wins Iger touts with Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar saw massive declines compared to their predecessors.

One need look no further than The Marvels to see how audiences have rejected recent Marvel Studios offerings. The film didn’t even gross $200 million worldwide despite having a production budget of at least $274 million, which is likely much higher given reshoots that took place last year.

Another major debacle was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It only grossed $381.5 million worldwide. It has an estimated $300 million production budget. That means the film lost money for The Walt Disney Company.

On the Disney animation front, Wish only grossed $239.6 million worldwide despite having a production budget of $200 million. Again, it lost the company money.

Pixar’s Elemental only grossed $486.6 million, and likely lost money as well due to the film’s production budget being estimated to be $200 million. A film with a $200 million production budget usually needs to gross at least $500 million to break even to cover its marketing budget as well as the split theaters take.

While Iger can claim he’s already seeing improvement from the films and TV series that are about to be released there is no evidence of this improvement.

So, at this point it’s all bluster from Bob Iger and honestly, makes him look like one of the individuals praising the emperor without any clothes.