Bob Iger wants you to marvel more at his Marvel films and series. To make them better, he’s making fewer.
On Tuesday, the Disney CEO said Marvel is going to decrease its volume to “probably about two TV series a year” and 2-3 movies annually.
“We’ve been working hard with the studio to reduce output and focus on quality,” Iger said on Disney’s fiscal second quarter (Q2) earnings call. “That’s particularly true with Marvel.”
“We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four, and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two— a maximum of three,” he continued.
Cool, so what you got? Iger said Marvel has “a couple of good films in [2025], and then we’re heading to more ‘Avengers,’ which we’re extremely excited about.”
He says “overall” he feels “really good” about the upcoming Marvel slate — and beyond.
“We’re gonna balance sequels with originals, particularly in animation,” Iger said. “We had gone through a period where our original films in animation, both Disney and Pixar, were dominating. We’re now swinging back a bit to lean on sequels.”
We’ll say you’ve swung back. There is more “Toy Story” coming, more “Inside Out,” both a live-action and animated “Moana,” and a few more “Frozen” films, to name just a few sequels. “Inside Out 2,” which marks Pixar’s big comeback and has excellent early buzz, comes out in theaters on June 14, 2024.
“I just think that right now, given the competition and the overall movie marketplace, actually there’s a lot of value in the sequels obviously because they’re known and it takes less in terms of marketing,” Iger said.
For Marvel specifically, there is next year’s “Thunderbolts,” an original, as well as sequels for “Deadpool,” “The Avengers,” and “Captain America.”
“It will just be a balance which we think is right,” Iger said.
Sure, but the balance that Iger seems to “think is right” is like 75 percent (or more) in favor of the sequels.
Disney revealed its fiscal Q2 earnings a few hours before the conference call. Financially, the company outperformed Wall Street’s expectations. It also added more Disney+ subscribers than was originally forecast, and turned a surprise profit from its entertainment-streaming business. All told, Disney lost $18 million from its direct-to-consumer business, which means sports pulled the rug out on overall streaming profitability. Iger maintains Disney+ itself will turn a profit in the summer quarter — for now, Hulu appears to be carrying that burden.
