Disney CEO Admits Defeat, Announces Major Changes to Content Strategy Moving Forward
Disney CEO Bob Iger is certainly aware that the entertainment giant he is heading is a sinking ship. He recently admitted that the once-beloved organization has gone off the rails. But it still doesn’t seem he really understands why this is happening.
Speaking to CNBC last week, as the company continues to lose billions, Iger announced a change in strategy, especially where it concerns its popular Marvel and Star Wars universes of films and TV series.
Iger said that the Mouse House is going to begin pumping the brakes on these projects and slow them down considerably, CNBC reported on July 13.
There are several reasons for slowing the release of new Marvel and Star Wars projects, Iger said. The pullback is both to refocus on quality and to cut costs.
“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.
Iger pointed specifically to Marvel’s projects as a prime example.
“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,” Iger explained. “Frankly, it diluted focus and attention.”
Iger has also said that the company intends to reassess how many sequels comic book characters deserve and also focus on “newness” for the brand. Until now, the Marvel films built a character, then offered two or even three sequel films for those characters. Iger seems to think the brand should look for new characters and stories instead.
As if to highlight his point, Marvel’s latest sequel, the third Ant-Man movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which kicked off Marvel’s fifth phase of films, experienced the biggest drop off in sales for its second weekend in Marvel superhero film history.
On the other hand, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” did markedly better, so not all Marvel films are disappointing box-office predictions.
Iger also noted that other streaming services have licensed some of their products to other services and he is now considering that for the Marvel and Star Wars line.
Some of Iger’s moves are a desperate bid to save money, of course. Earlier this year, Disney announced that it intended to slash content production budgets by a whopping $3 billion as part of a $5.5 billion budget-cutting plan. This has led to several waves of layoffs of employees, including some top-level executives and personalities at Disney-owned networks such as cable sports network ESPN.
But Disney has far more problems than a few mere questions about “quality” in its Star Wars and Marvel properties. The studio continues to suffer one box-office bomb after another.
As Breitbart New’s John Nolte wrote, “Disney has released three animated box office bombs in a row. Pixar’s Big Gay Lightyear and Trans Elemental are doornail dead. Disney Animation’s Big Gay Strange World likely lost Disney up to $100 million.”
And its animation debacles are far from the only rotten lemons stinking up theaters. Its live-action films are failing by the scores, as well. Disney was expecting big hits with films including its “The Little Mermaid” remake, which died overseas. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which is struggling to earn back even half of its massive $400 million budget. And, as mentioned, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which collapsed after its debut.
One topic Iger desperately avoided, though, was the disease of wokeness that has seeped into nearly every one of these failures, especially the animated fare. As Disney stuffs more and more gay content, anti-male content and anti-American content into its products, fewer and fewer Americans turn up at the theaters to reward Disney with their hard-earned dollars.
Yet, Iger doesn’t want to talk about how his company is going broke after going woke.
Not every studio has had this problem. Universal’s Minions series of films seem to continue doing well when they hit theaters — last year’s “Minions: Rise of Gru” earned over $939 million worldwide — and so did Universal’s recent Super Mario Bros flick, which debuted in April and which has crossed the billion-dollar mark with $1.34 billion worldwide to date.
It seems obvious that parents understand that Disney’s films are not the kind of shows they want to take their families to see. Does Disney understand this yet?
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