Bob Iger says Disney made too many sequels but he won't apologize for making them

Disney CEO Bob Iger (left) and Brie Larson, leading actress of Disney’s recent film release, “The Marvels.” Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images and Disney

• Quantity has diluted quality at Disney, CEO Bob Iger says.
• “The Marvels,” which underperformed at the box office, lacked supervision because of COVID, he said.
• “I don’t want to apologize for making sequels,” he said.

Disney CEO Bob Iger delivered a candid critique of his company during an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday.

“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,” Iger said.

He also pointed to consumers expecting films to be released on streaming and a lack of supervision from executives during the COVID pandemic as culprits for Disney’s declining performance at the box office.

Iger also discussed “The Marvels,” which recently premiered to a $47 million opening weekend — the lowest for any Marvel film. He said part of the problem could be traced back to the pandemic, because “there wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives really looking over what’s being done day after day after day.”

However, he also defended his company’s decision-making.

“I don’t want to apologize for making sequels. Some of them have done extraordinarily well and they’ve been good films, too,” Iger said.

The company’s slate of upcoming films is packed with spinoffs, including “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool 3,” a Lion King prequel focused on Mufasa, and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

Disney and its subsidiary Marvel have faced a string of box office misses recently. The animated film “Wish,” intended to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary, debuted to $19.5 million on its opening weekend, marking a low among the company’s animated features.

In November 2022, Iger emerged from retirement to return to Disney as its CEO, a position he had previously held for 15 years. His return followed the board’s decision not to renew the contract of his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek.

Iger said at the DealBook Summit that his past year has been dedicated to fixing issues at the company, “some that were brought on by decisions that were made by my predecessor, some that are just basically the result of a tremendous amount of disruption in the world and in our business.”