Disney CEO Bob Iger’s Pay Increases by 80% to $65.6 Million

The Walt Disney Company disclosed compensation for its top executives in an SEC filing Friday, revealing CEO Bob Iger's annual pay raised 80 percent in the company's latest fiscal year to $65.6 million, as reported by THR.

Iger took over from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner in 2005, helping lead the company towards such major purchases as the 2006 acquisition of Pixar for $7.4 billion, the 2009 purchase of Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for $4 billion and the 2012 purchase of Star Wars creator George Lucas' Lucasfilm in 2012 at $4.06 billion.

Under Iger's lead, Disney will acquire 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion, allowing Marvel Studios — home to the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther franchises, among many others — the use of former Fox-controlled Marvel Comics characters such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four in its Marvel Cinematic Universe once that deal is completed.

Iger's pay bump tops the $36.3 million earned in 2017 and the 43.9 million he earned in 2016. Iger's salary was up to $2.875m from $2.5m a year prior, in addition to a reported $35.5m earned in stock awards — almost four times as much awarded to Iger in 2017.

As of September 29, the end of Disney's fiscal year, the company rose 40 percent and earned $12.6 billion on revenue that rose 8 percent to $59.4 billion.

Disney took 26 percent of the box office market share in 2018, with three of its tentpole releases — Marvel Studios' Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, and Disney-Pixar's Incredibles 2 — emerging as the three highest-grossing domestic earners, taking in $700m, $678m and $608m, respectively.

Worldwide, Disney topped $7 billion, marking just the second time in history a studio reached the landmark. Disney was the first to achieve the feat in 2016, where it took in $7.6 billion on the backs of such hits as Captain America: Civil War, Zootopia and Finding Dory.

Avengers: Infinity War led the charge for the past year at $2 billion in global receipts, followed by Black Panther ($1.3b), Incredibles 2 ($1.2b), ranking second and fourth on the list of biggest hits for 2018, respectively.

The studio took in an additional $622m on Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and the Wasp, making it the 11th highest-grossing film of the year, as well as $406m on Walt Disney Animation Studios' Ralph Breaks the Internet and another $392m from underperformer Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Mary Poppins Returns, released last month, has earned $262m thus far, topping the $197m earned by Christopher Robin and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms' $172m. A Wrinkle in Time proved a misstep for the studio at the start of 2018, earning just $132m worldwide.

Adding to its 2018 global haul are carryovers from a pair of 2017 blockbusters: Pixar's Coco took in $269m of its $807m gross in 2018, while Star Wars: The Last Jedi earned $269m of its $1.3b total in the new year after releasing in December 2017.

The next major project to come under Iger's purview is the late 2019 launch of Disney+, Disney's premiere direct-to-consumer streaming service, which Iger said in 2018 was "the biggest priority of the company during calendar [year] 2019."