When it comes to box office returns, 2023 just really hasn’t been Disney’s year.
©Disney
Although we saw a LOT of big Disney movies released this year, from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to The Marvels to Wish and more, the box office returns for those movies have come in under expectations. But why? Well, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger, part of the problem may be focusing on quantity over quality.
Bob Iger recently sat down at The New York Times’ annual DealBook summit for an interview, and according to CNN, he made comments about what he feels the company has done wrong recently with its film releases. This year saw the release of two Marvel movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, both of which underperformed at the box office.
Iger said, “Quality needs attention to deliver quality, it doesn’t happen by accident. And quantity, in our case, diluted quality — and Marvel has suffered greatly from that.” He added, “I would say right now my number one priority is to help the studio turn around creatively.” (Iger seems to have a lot of number one priorities lately.)
©Marvel
But he also acknowledged that sequels could be part of the problem. He commented that Disney had “made too many” sequels that neither audiences nor critics loved.
“There has to be a good reason to make them,” Iger said. “Often, the story is not as strong as the original story, that can be a problem, but it just has to have a reason, you have to have a reason to make it beyond commerce. There has to be an artistic reason to make it, and we’ve made too many.”
However, this comes after sequels have been announced for both Toy Story and Frozen, two franchises that Iger seems to think have more potential.
©Disney
Interestingly enough, Disney didn’t release any sequels in 2023 other than three Marvel movies. One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, actually had a solid performance at the box office and was one of Bob Iger’s tent pole references in his recent Earnings Call. According to Box Office Mojo, that film scored over $845 billion, making it the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2023.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 at AMC
Disney’s animated film Elemental initially didn’t meet its weekend premiere goal. However, that movie rallied and eventually took in over $495 billion worldwide. Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid brought in a total of over $569 billion.
Elemental Photo Op in Hollywood Studios
When it comes to The Marvels, Iger did previously say that he felt the lack of supervision on the set (which was filmed during COVID) was a reason the movie didn’t do well. However, that doesn’t take into account that the movie premiered during a major entertainment strike where its leads were unable to promote it.
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It’s not too many sequels, it’s lack of quality in FX, awful stories & idiot executives trying to put their individual views into movies. The marvels bombed because no one cares about the characters. A character needs to face adversity & come thru in the end, that makes the viewer root for the hero. If you make a movie where the hero doesn’t face adversity but then they complain about some slight, they come off as whiny. Iron man, Thor & captain America faced adversity. Captain marvel didn’t. It’s like the writers & directors are afraid to make a female character appear weak. Fans love black widow & Yelena but nobody likes she-hulk or captain marvel.
It IS “too many sequels,” too many redundant superhero movies, too many “music-and-character” dupes in 21st Century Disney product, to LITTLE originality in much of anything.
Now, “Elemental” is a success financially, artistically and public-appreciation wise, because it is clever and NEW. And “The Marvels” and “Wish” flopped because they are both “just another….”
Did we just spot Walt’s head in his hands in that new park over in Epcot? Bet we did.
I’ve been a supporter of Iger as the company has done amazing things during his leadership. However, who was in charge when most of the sequels have received the green light…Bob Iger. Chapek wasn’t in charge long so not that many movies got the go-ahead during his time. The biggest flaw they make is they don’t listen to consumers. They could have avoided many of the poor performing movies if they just would have talked to consumers more in advance. As for Marvel, they’ve created a confusing mess there with movies that require maps and prior research by viewers just to understand how they all connect. That’s not entertainment.
Indiana Jones was a non-Marvel sequel they released this year, which did about as well as Ant-Man & The Marvels.
And I can’t think of a time when more executive supervision on a set made a movie better, so that is a pretty lame excuse for a sequel folks didn’t seem to ask for starring characters most people don’t know. Not to mention quite a few movies were released during the strike that did just fine. I think folks are wildly overestimating how much draw seeing an actor talk to Jimmy Kimmel has on the box office.
I think sequels can be a good thing, if they’re new and interesting stories featuring characters you already know and love and are excited to see again. But I also think studios in general (not just Disney, Pixar and Marvel) sometimes don’t know when to say when. If there comes a point when you don’t have a new story to tell, it’s time to put those characters to bed. You can always bring them back later if inspiration strikes. Making sequels in order to capitalize on the commercial success of the original may make good business sense on paper, but the reality almost always falls short. You’re storytellers, you shouldn’t make a movie unless you have a story to tell.
I agree that there are too many sequels and nothing “new”. I do have a hard time keeping up with all the Marvel characters and by now have lost interest in seeing any more movies with them in it. Time to move on . . . Disney needs new and interesting story lines instead of regurgitating characters into live action movies. We know the “old” stories and appreciate the “old” characters, we don’t need the controversies surrounding who the actors are and their ethnicities. As a huge Disney supporter, I am disappointed that lately there is little more than sequels and do-overs to enjoy. I agree with Tracy – “You’re storytellers, you shouldn’t make a movie unless you have a story to tell”. And make it a NEW story. There are still plenty of Fairy Tales that can be “tweaked” into a good movie ala Frozen.
No, like, that’s generations of viewers.
The sequels problems are that they went for diversity, which is fine for animation, but more difficult for movies worth hundreds of millions and actors that literally want to destroy Disney as well as other hostile poison pill workers. They use their employment to destroy Disney with diversity as a complaint.
Disney’s done a good job, but it’s hostile to the company workers did their best to ruin it.
If they’d stuck to the animation on the sequels it would have gone much better and lowered billions in losses.