Apparently, the honeymoon is over as Disney CEO Bob Iger has gone on record regarding the future of its multi-billion dollar investments. Now as multiple media outlets report that the CEO is essentially throwing Marvel and Star Wars under the bus the greater truth is that Iger is acknowledging losses across the board, including Pixar, and multiple business models. In the short interview with CNBC he does point out that Disney’s zeal with Marvel spurred many projects that essentially strained and overtaxed its personnel and their focus.
Per CNBC:
“Marvel is a great example of that. It had not been in the television business at any significant level, and not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of TV series,” said Iger. “Frankly, it diluted focus and attention.”
Iger goes on to say that Disney has been producing content for over a century now and that there have always been peaks and valleys. He adds that while not all Marvel projects have performed as hoped, it still has, so far, done well in 2023 (no doubt referring to GOTG3 which has managed just over $841 million globally, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse which is at just under $650 million). When it comes to the other galactic-sized elephant in the room, Star Wars, he elaborates (for both) that costs have to be examined.
“You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less,” Iger said Thursday.”
Pixar and licensing
When it comes to its other once-golden-child of animated features he states that Pixar has experienced multiple challenges in recent years. From direct to streaming during the COVID-19 lockdown to staffing changes from top to bottom, he said that Pixar has had a lot to deal with. While on the topic of direct-to-streaming, he attributed lower box office sales to a decrease in theatrical attendance as moviegoers became accustomed to just waiting until projects hit streaming. Lastly in the interview when asked about the possibility of Disney going back to a model of licensing its products to other services (aka rival Netflix) that “It’s a possibility. I won’t rule out,” but that was a prior model when Disney had not yet entered the streaming service market. Ultimately, Disney CEO Bob Iger expresses full confidence that the company will turn things around to become profitable with its various projects.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →I'm ok with that.
About 5 years too late
Going the Nvidia way, creating demand due to scarcity, maybe taking some more time to do things right will result in a better product, though I'm not holding my breath.
They are pulling back to make it has the proper amount of woke. Hehe
Get me a good supernatural mystery story with characters like Constantie, Zartanna, and The Canary (I think) all in them and I would be interested. I'm excited to think that we may get more Constantine content from Keanu.
Find a way to get some actors in it that actually KNOW the story and content and can act. (While I like Vin Diesel and think he's probably a great producer.... his acting chops... man He's hard pressed at times.). I'll be in it to win it.
I think Iger knows he's got a bit of a dumpster fire in progress right now. From Marvel and Star Wars to the new Indiana Jones, The Little Mermaid live action, Pixar, and that movie that went directly to D+ only to get yanked a month later, there are plenty of examples that the brakes have to be hit and they need to rethink how they're doing things.
Well as long as its Constatina with a male sidekick that complaints about emotional work constantly you might just get it.
Though I'm enjoying Secret Invasion I have to agree that they need to pump the brakes a little with the movie stuff and just make things better overall. I'm really hoping that Armor Wars is good as I really enjoyed the comic book story.
I think they'll just double down on replacing the audience instead of the content.
I've thought about that as well. The question is whether or not the new audience will provide enough revenue. At the moment, I've got my doubts.
I doubt they even exist. "Modern" writers and studios just assume that until recently only straight white people have watched movies, everyone else was excluded. And they think if they replace white heroes with POC and include as much "gayness" as possible then there is a giant untapped audience who will start throwing money at them. But just because they (the modern studios) have a culture of racism, doesn't mean average movie going people are racists.
They are deconstructing existing stories and iconic characters, and don't understand why they are not getting the views. And on the rare occasion when through some fluke people who actually understand and like the IP end up in charge of a show for a period, the well is so poisoned that those still don't get views.
If I were Disney I'd take a step back, shut down all ongoing marvel, star wars, and other floundering projects. Wait 6-12 months during which they hire people who are fans of the IP first and foremost. And don't hire based on diversity, ideology, and inclusion. Make a giant ad campaign that you are turning a new leaf: "Forget every crap show we put out in the past 5 years, those are now decanonized, and we are doing it right this time." And then hope and pray that the original built in paying audience is not too alienated yet to win back.
Your average audience member isn't going to know what 'decanonized' means.
Also you presume that the writers/creators of the original IP created them in the way they did because that's how they felt the characters should be, not because that's how they felt the characters should be. Not saying you're wrong I'm right. Just putting it out there that there is room for modification and not every story has to be yours.
Overall I tend to agree, I want to see stories that fit with the characters I've known. BUT... I want to leave space for variants of these characters as well, however that works out. Girl, POC, Gay, Straight, Trans, and other spectrums of what makes us up as a people do need to be represented. Just having a super hero in a wheel chair does not equal inclusion.
Every child deserves the inspiration of imagination of heroes like them. I would even go on to postulate that having heroes that represent MORE than what we commonly have in the past (strong white guy, super hot, or super hot girl of some sort for strong white guy.).
Oh don't get me wrong! I want the SUPER hot girls back in outfits that leave little to the imagination. But I'm open to having MORE than that as well in movies.
Give me a spanning fight scene with a 'multiverse' barrier passing back and forth, Or the camera has sweeping vista changes with subtext for which multiverse we are seeing. Where there is a epic battle happening 'across the multiverse' at the same time... where we get to see Captain America, spider(man) and so on locked in a battle to save the multiverse where the camera pans through various multiverses and we get to see iterations that are representative of various races and peoples while maintaining the core as well.
Actually that would be awesome and a pretty good way to have diversity and inclusion without destruction or throwing out classic heroes that we all know and love.
Once you've made that then based on popularity and interest you could have further movies showing an bad (guy) hopping multiverses that each other the 'spider(men)' or I don't know... Iron(men) has to address. Hell even Captain Marvel you could rotate through various genders/races as you tell the story of the investigation/fight/whatever.
Would it get a little silly repeating that sort of story line... sure but you would have solo actor/actress versions as well.
All they need to do is get writers and other principle creative staff that actually respect the source material instead of wanting to murder it. That is the difference between phases 1-3 and phase 4+. Coincidentally, after Disney kicked out their Marvel Comics advisors from the writing room around 2017 is when the quality started going downhill.
The people with deep pockets, who buy merchandise know.
What are you saying? You wrote the same thing twice. I'm not saying every story should appeal to me, I never liked the MCU even when it was supposedly good. No, the stories should be owned by the fans. The original fans who raised it up and loved it deserve respect. And treating legacy characters as trash, trying to replace them or worse is disrespecting the fans. This is why disney fails, this is why rings of power fails.
There is no problem with representation, but representation in of itself is meaningless. Good writing makes characters inspirational, not matching skin color. There should be no different variants of any one character, it makes it look like a cheap copy, an impostor, who wants to steal the original's virtues. I for one dread the idea of having a white blade, don't you? I think it would be patently awful. Then why do we assume that a black superman, or a latino snow white is any better? They just don't fit at all.
That's assuming that they are inherently bigoted and can't be inspired by a character unless that character has the exact same appearance as them. Children are not bigoted unless their parents or tutors teach them to be, and quite frankly the current political climate does a very good job of instilling bigotry and prejudice. But the solution is not playing into that bigotry in movies, au contraire movies should outright reject the bigotry of small differences.
I don't think anyone actually wants ugly characters apart from those who are not consuming the media. It is entirely politically motivated.
I think multiverses and cinematic universes need to die. It is ridiculous that you are required to have seen a dozen different movies and another dozen mediocre or worse tv series just to understand half of the references in these multiverse movies.
My bad I mean they had to write what those on high gave as guidelines not just from the cuff.
Mayyyybe comic books and comic book movies aren't for you and never were intended to be for you. Multiverse's have been a part of cannon Comic book tropes for.... a very very long time. It gave the freedom for writers to write a story that they wanted to that wasn't exactly reliant or referential to the past established for characters by other writers.