Disney CEO Bob Iger Says The Mandalorian Helped Lead Disney+ Content Consumption "Across the Board"

The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger reports an estimated 65 percent of Disney+ subscribers who watched The Mandalorian also watched "at least ten or more" other offerings on the streaming service. During a fourth quarter earnings call earlier this week, Iger reported the Disney+ topped 28 million subscribers since launching in November with the premiere episode of the first live-action Star Wars series. The Jon Favreau-created series centered on an armored bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) tasked with protecting a highly-valued asset — The Child, better known as Baby Yoda — was among the biggest draws for subscribers, who are also consuming the service's other original offerings and library content.

"We were actually heartened by the fact that after the original episodes of The Mandalorian were all made available, we really didn't see significant churn [rate] from that," Iger told CNBC, adding Disney continued to see subscriber growth from the end of its year, Dec. 28, through Feb. 3. "One of the things that we've noted that's quite interesting is about 65% of the people that actually watch Mandalorian watched at least ten or more other things on the service. And so what we're seeing in terms of consumption, is consumption really across the board."

That includes Disney's 2019 blockbusters recently added to the service, including its live-action Aladdin and Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame, both streaming exclusively on Disney+.

"For films, not only films from our library, but recently released films — including Aladdin, and Lion King of course, Toy Story [4] just came on, Avengers: Endgame — we're also seeing a lot of interest in other original programs that we've created, movies and series," Iger said. "Great interest in Disney Channel shows, and then broad interest in just a lot of other things. Pixar shorts, and older Disney shorts, and clearly those brands — Disney and Pixar and Marvel and Star Wars and National Geographic — are resonating, which as we've said at the beginning, gives us the ability to focus more on quality, high-quality branded content for the service and less on volume."

Iger admitted on the earnings call Disney+ will never have as much original content as Netflix and will instead focus on quality over quantity.

"We will continue to add [programming], we've got a lot coming up — we've just had a spot in the Super Bowl for three new original Marvel series, Mandalorian will come back in October, we have more Star Wars series in development, there are a lot of original movies — so that will continue," he said. "And there will be growth in investment in original content. But this will never be what I'll call a pure volume play. It will be about high-quality, branded content."

Disney's $5 million Big Game ad revealed the first footage from upcoming Marvel Studios series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, again partnering Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) after the events of Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, centered on the fantastical, sitcom-inspired domestic life envisioned by the reality-altering Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Loki, following the time-traveling misadventures of the titular god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston).

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Season 2 of The Mandalorian release later this year on Disney+.