Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed Thursday—just as the SAG-AFTRA strike kicked off—that the company will decrease the output of Marvel and Star Wars content in the wake of diminishing box office returns.
In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber, Iger explained the decision is meant to address a “diluted focus and attention” among audiences and decision makers for the two franchises, but also, maybe more importantly, cut costs. “You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less,” the 72-year-old said.
The move comes at a time when Marvel properties are not performing at the box office as well as they did during the Infinity Saga, an 11-year stretch from 2008 to 2019 where the studio released 23 titles culminating in the $2.799 billion success known as Avengers: Endgame, followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home.
In 2023, Marvel has released Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which earned $214 million domestically and $476 million worldwide. That’s a respectable sum when compared to the $216 million domestic and $406 million globally pulled in by 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. That’s where the encouraging signs end. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Thor: Love and Thunder were unable to match the box office success of their respective predecessors.
The current problem with Marvel is a mix of oversaturation and superhero fatigue. Disney met the assumed demand for Marvel content by flooding the market. In 2021 alone, Disney released four MCU films (Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home) and five series on the Disney+ streaming service (WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…? and Hawkeye).
“In our zeal to basically grow our content significantly and serve our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people, in terms of their time and their focus, way beyond where they had been,” Iger told CNBC. “Marvel is a great example of that. It had not been in the television business at any significant level, and not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of TV series. Frankly, it diluted focus and attention.”
Avengers actor Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson) justifiably called out Iger on the whole “not been in the television business at any significant level” front, having led seven seasons of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show. He simply tweeted, “Bro…”
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/josemartinez3/disney-plans-to-stop-making-so-many-marvel-and-star-wars-1
