Today, Disney CEO Bob Iger was at the Morgan Stanley conference, where he made some statements on the future of Disney films and superhero fatigue—claiming that he and the Walt Disney Company are doing “a lot” to try and fix the issues Disney is facing at the box office. Meanwhile, activist investor groups are pushing for board seats after Disney has continued to lose money.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bob Iger said that Disney has “killed a few projects already.”
Later on, he even admitted that some of the canceled projects are from Marvel.
“You have to kill things you no longer believe in, and that’s not easy in this business because either you’ve gotten started, you have some sunk costs, or it’s a relationship with either your employees or with the creative community. It’s not an easy thing, but you got to make those tough calls. We’ve actually made those tough calls. We’ve not been that public about it, but we’ve killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough.”
“We reduced the output of Marvel, both the number of films they make, and the number of TV shows, and that really becomes critical, but I feel good about the team. I feel good about the IP we’re making.”
He also said that they strive for excellence, and their track record speaks for itself. But recently, the track record has been terrible at the box office. Even recent films like “Peter Pan and Wendy” and “Pinocchio” have not performed on Disney+.
“Not only do you look at the films you’re making, you look at every part of that process, who the directors are, who’s being cast, reading scripts. I personally watch films three to five times with the team and just create a culture of excellence and respect which is really important with the creative community. And again, the track record speaks for itself.”
This leads us to the topic of Superhero fatigue, which Iger claims isn’t the issue. He skirts it by calling it “audience fatigue.”
“A lot of people think it’s audience fatigue, it’s not audience fatigue. They want great films. And if you build it great, they will come, and there are countless examples of that. Some are ours, and some are others. Oppenheimer is a perfect example of that. Just a fantastic film. Focus is really important.”
While he is correct that if a film is great, “they will come,” the issue for Disney is the lack of “great” films. So, in a way, Iger just admitted that Disney’s films have not been great or they would have performed.
Two of the three Marvel films cost the studio money. “Elemental” eventually made money but it had to sit in theaters for the whole summer to do so. None of their films performed extremely well in the last year. So when Iger says “some are ours,” he must mean from 2022 and earlier. As of late, Disney is NOT bringing it, which is why investor groups are trying to get seats on their board.
He is right about one thing. People are tired of crappy films. Maybe Disney needs to stop doing that.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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