Speaking earlier today, Bob Iger made it clear that Disney plan to slow down production on Star Wars and Marvel TV series and movies as part of its cost containment initiative. With disappointing box office returns for recent Pixar (Elemental), Lucasfilm (Dial of Destiny), Disney live action (The Little Mermaid) and Marvel Studios (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and Iger returning to course-correct recent dips in profitability, this should come as no surprise.
“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,” Iger said Thursday.
Earlier this year, Disney rolled out a broad reorganization of the business that included $5.5 billion in cutting close, of which $3 billion would be slashed from content excluding sports.
On the Lucasfilm front, there hasn’t been a Star Wars film in theaters since 2019, and the company has focused primarily on series, such as Emmy nominees “Andor” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” for Disney+. Lucasfilm’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the fifth film in that franchise, has underwhelmed at the box office despite a plum release date around the Fourth of July.
The company bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for about $4 billion, and recouped its investment in just six years after a lucrative new trilogy of films, along with standalone films such as “Rogue One.”
The Disney Plus model also seems to be under great scrutiny, with certain programs being removed from the streamer and the possibility that some shows will be sent back out into the wider world to be licensed out to other networks and channels.
“It’s a possibility. I won’t rule it out,” Iger said. He added that licensing had been part of a collection of models that formed the traditional TV business, and holding back content for their own platform in the early days of streaming was the right move.
