Posted in: Disney, Marvel, Movies, streaming, TV | Tagged: bob iger, disney, marvel, Marvel Studios, mcu
Marvel Studios Was "Diluted" by Push for More Disney+ Content: Iger
Disney CEO Bob Iger admitted that The Mouse's push for more original content for Disney+ "diluted" Marvel Studios' "focus and attention."
Clearly feeling a little chatty this morning (locking in your position as Disney CEO can do that to you), Bob Iger had a lot of ground to cover during his interview with David Faber during the Thursday morning edition of CNBC's Squawk Box from Idaho's Sun Valley Conference. Earlier today, we took a look at Iger's not-so-friendly thoughts about the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strikes. For this go-around, Iget is throwing out a "my bad" when it comes to how The Mouse's quest to have Disney+ overflowing with new & original content had a negative impact on a number of studios – Marvel Studios, in particular.
"There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better. It's reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been," Iger explained during the interview. Iger continued, "Marvel's a great example of that. They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything."
A perfect recent example that's been cited recently was the inability of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to break $500M in the worldwide box office, while buzz that used to accompany a new Marvel Studios series has cooled off greatly. As he announced earlier this year, moving forward will see a move towards (essentially) learning to do more with less. "[There will be a] pullback, not just the focus, but it's also part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less." Iger explained.