Disney CEO Bob Iger blames the pandemic effect as part of the reason for the dismal box office results on The Marvels.
12.11.2023 - 20:21 / nypost.com
Reviews weren’t strong (62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and neither was audience reaction. “The Marvels” is only the third MCU release to receive a “B” CinemaScore from moviegoers, following “Eternals” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania.”“The Marvels,” which added $63.3 million in overseas ticket sales, may go down as a turning point in the MCU. Over the years, the franchise has collected $33 billion globally — a point Disney noted in reporting its grosses Sunday.But with movie screens and streaming platforms increasingly crowded with superhero films and series, some analysts have detected a new fatigue setting in for audiences.
Disney chief executive Bob Iger himself has spoken about possible oversaturation for Marvel.“Over the last three and a half years, the growth of the genre has stopped,” Gross wrote in a newsletter Sunday.Either way, something is shifting for superheroes. The box-office crown this year appears assured to go to “Barbie,” the year’s biggest smash with more than $1.4 billion worldwide for Warner Bros.Marvel has still produced recent hits. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.
3” launched this summer with $118 million before ultimately raking in $845.6 million worldwide. Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” earned $690.5 million globally and, after rave reviews, is widely expected to be an Oscar contender.The actors strike also didn’t do “The Marvels” any favors. The cast of the film weren’t permitted to promote the film until the strike was called off late Wednesday evening when SAG-AFTRA and the studios reached agreement.
Disney CEO Bob Iger blames the pandemic effect as part of the reason for the dismal box office results on The Marvels.
Disney CEO Bob Iger is sharing his thoughts on the box-office performance of The Marvels.
partly blamed the debacle on a lack of “supervision.” ″‘The Marvels’ was shot during COVID,” Iger, 72, said. “There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day.” Variety previously reported that the director of “The Marvels,” Nia DaCosta, began another project during postproduction.“If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go,” a source told the trade.“The Marvels,” the 33rd film in the MCU, had the lowest opening weekend at the box office ever for the franchise, grossing just $47 million domestically.
Disney CEO Bob Iger had plenty to say about the MCU‘s current issues at The New York Times‘ annual BookDeal summit yesterday. But CNN reports that Iger also had a multilayered explanation for why “The Marvels” did so poorly in theaters earlier this month, taking in just $47 million domestically its opening weekend.
Zack Sharf Digital News Director Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit (via CNBC) following “The Marvels” flopping at the box office that there was a lack of supervision on the set of the film as a result of the COVID pandemic. The combination of pandemic set restrictions and Disney’s increased output due to the launch of streamer Disney+ made it increasingly difficult for studio executives to oversee the onslaught of new productions.
One of 2023’s biggest stories in the entertainment industry is Disney CEO Bob Iger‘s call to retrofit the swollen release calendar of various IPs, namely the MCU and the “Star Wars” universe. Iger’s reasons? The sheer glut of releases in theaters and on streaming dilutes focus and attention from moviegoers and lowers the overall quality of what Disney creates.
The Walt Disney Co. has added former Group CEO of Sky Jeremy Darroch and Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman to its board of directors and said Francis A. deSouza plans to surrender his seat at the end of his term.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney‘s board named Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and former Sky chief Jeremy Darroch as new directors Wednesday. Additionally, Disney has announced that board member Francis A. deSouza, former president and CEO of Illumina, will not stand for reelection at the company’s upcoming annual meeting, “as he pursues new opportunities in the technology sector that will require his full attention.” The news comes one day after Disney held a company-wide town hall featuring CEO Bob Iger and his top lieutenants discussing the state of the business.
Shifting away from sentiments he expressed in an interview last summer that Disney‘s linear TV networks “may not be core” to the company, Disney CEO Bob Iger said they are “not for sale.”
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger focused on instilling employees with renewed optimism about the Mouse House’s “blessed” and “fortunate” state during a virtual company-wide town hall Tuesday, rather than making any proclamations about the company’s future. The event, moderated by ABC News’ David Muir, was held just over a week after the one-year anniversary of Iger’s return to the helm at Disney (Iger hosted a similar town hall exactly a year ago to the day, upon resuming his post last November) following the surprise ousting of Bob Chapek, and on the heels of Disney reporting its most recent quarterly and full-fiscal-year earnings and taking a stumble at the Thanksgiving holiday box office with new animated film “Wish.” When asked by Muir if coming back to the position of CEO has been more challenging than he had anticipated, Iger, who originally ran Disney for 15 years from 2005-2020, said yes. “I knew that there were myriad challenges that I would face coming back,” Iger said.
Jeff Shell, whose tenure running NBCUniversal came to an abrupt end last spring, is in advanced talks to join private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners.
We’re getting some new details about the upcoming Frozen movies!
Disney Pixar’s awaited Toy Story 5 could very well see the return of Tim Allen and Tom Hanks.Speaking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Allen – who voices Buzz Lightyear in the beloved Toy Story franchise – revealed to the talkshow host that Disney has reached out to both him and Tom Hanks for a fifth Toy Story film. Tom Hanks famously voices the role of Woody.When asked by Fallon if a fifth Toy Story film was in the works, Allen replied: “Bob Iger, head of Disney, said it was on and actually said it was going to happen.
Zack Sharf Digital News Director Disney CEO Bob Iger announced in February that a new “Toy Story” movie was in development along with new installments in the “Frozen” and “Zootopia” franchises. No further details were provided at the time, but it appears the new “Toy Story” movie will not be another tangentially-related spinoff like “Lightyear” but a return to the core story centered on Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
The Marvels has dismissed concerns about the film’s disappointing box office performance, saying it is only a concern for studio bosses.Iman Vellani, who reprises her role of Kamala Khan in the film, having previously played her in the miniseries Ms. Marvel, was asked about the relatively poor performance of the film in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment.“I don’t want to focus on something that’s not even in my control,” she said.
said in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment. “That’s for Bob Iger.”The Disney-produced film, which was made on a hefty $200 million budget, currently holds a 62% on RottenTomatoes, making it the third-lowest-scoring MCU film after “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Eternals.”In a zero-star review, The Post called the movie starring Brie Larson, Vellani and Teyonah Parris “interminable,” and said it was “a sad study of the downfall of America’s favorite screen franchise.”And ABC News’ Peter Travers echoed those sentiments, writing, “The MCU, once the spawner of glories, is stuck in a rut.
Iman Vellani is sharing how she feels about how The Marvels has performed at the box office over its first week in theaters.
The consensus is clear: Hollywood feels it must pursue what Bob Iger tactfully (or ominously) calls “some fixes.”
After poor theatrical showings throughout 2023, and Marvel Studios and the MCU teetering for the first time after “The Marvels,” many look to Disney in anticipation of what the studio will do to right the ship. And maybe the first glimpse of an antidote is here.
After 118 days of the actors guild being out on strike, SAG-AFTRA and the studios have reached a tentative deal on a new contract that could see Hollywood up and running again within weeks.