Bob Iger Pushes Back on Marvel Fatigue, but Says Disney Quietly Canceled Movies
Iger, speaking at a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in San Francisco on Tuesday, was pressed about what he is doing to turn the film business around.
"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," Iger said. "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."
Iger added that he has been "spending a lot of time with the creators, watching these films, giving detailed notes in these films, engaging in a respectful process that results in improvement."
And he pushed back on the idea of superhero or franchise fatigue, saying that it was "not an accident" that Marvel's first 33 films generated just under $30 billion at the box office.
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," Iger said. "Focus is really important. We reduced the output of Marvel, both 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. I talked about a lot of the projects. We look years ahead, really. And it's iterative.
"Not only do you look at the films you're making, you 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," he added. "And again, the track record speaks for itself."
On a related note, Iger also touted Disney's 2024 film slate, calling the upcoming
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes "one of the better films in the franchise," the upcoming
Inside Out and
Moana sequels, and also the big Marvel release of the year,
Deadpool & Wolverine, which Iger predicted "will be one of the more successful Marvel movies we've had in a long time."