Disney CEO Bob Iger Defends Recent Movie Sequel Slate

Disney CEO Bob Iger issued a defense of a couple of the studios' numerous sequels this year.  The New York Times DealBook conference is going on right now and The Wrap recorded what the executive had to say about the "disappointments" at the box office this year. Basically, Iger stands by the slate because there have been good films along with the ones that didn't earn wild amounts at the box office. Some observers have correctly pointed out that the pandemic seems to have changed audience habits for better or worse. All of that is exacerbated by the fact that there were so many movies to come out this year. Everyone can recall that stretch where a new $200 million project released every week for a month straight. So, maybe that needs to be a part of the strategy moving forward. Here's what the CEO had to say.

"I think I don't want to apologize for making sequels," Iger told the moderator. "Some of them have done extraordinarily well. And they've been good films too. I think there has to be a reason to make it, beyond commerce. You have to have a good story. And we have made too many. That doesn't mean we're not going to continue to make them."

He would add, "I'm not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved. I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn't do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed. That's an unbelievably high standard."

Bob Iger Defends The Last Few Years

This isn't the first time this year that Iger has had to go on the offensive to defend the recent slate. A recent earnings call saw the CEO pointing out some of the wins amid the shifting stands of theatrical distribution. It would be hard to lump Avatar: The Way of Water and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in with some of the other releases this year. However, shortening up the future slate and focusing in on what works seems to be the plan right now.

"Regarding our studio performance, let's put things in perspective a little bit," Iger clarified. "The studio has had a tremendous run over the last decade, perhaps the greatest run that any studio has ever had, with multiple billion dollar hits. And including, by the way, two that were relatively recent. One in particular, Avatar: The Way of Water, and we also had a pretty strong performance with Guardians of the Galaxy [Vol. 3], which has done, I think, approximately under $850 million at [the] global box office." 

"That said, the performance of some of our recent films has definitely been disappointing, and we don't take that lightly," the executive continued. "As you'd expect, we're very focused on improving the quality and the performance of the films that we've got coming up. It's something that I'm working closely with the studio on. I'm personally committed to spending more time and attention on that as well."

Any Other Big Changes On The Way?

If that weren't enough to deal with, there's a Disney+/Hulu app merger brewing. For years now, fans have been speculating that such a union could go down and it looks like the big moment is finally at hand. When Disney decided to buy the other part of Hulu from Universal, the writing was probably on the wall. But, it feels like 2024 is finally goin to be that year.

"Speaking of Hulu, we were pleased to announce last week that we will acquire the remaining stake in Hulu held by Comcast, which will further Disney streaming objective," Iger told investors during Disney's quarterly earnings call. "We remain on track to roll out more unified one app experience domestically, making expensive general entertainment content available to bundle subscribers via Disney+....We expect that Hulu and Disney plus will result in increased engagement, greater advertising opportunities, lower churn and reduced customer acquisition costs, thereby increasing our overall margins. We will launch a beta version for bundle subscribers in December, giving parents time to set up profiles and parental controls that work best for their families ahead of the official launch in early spring 2024."

Do you think there are too many sequels? Let us know in the comments!