Disney CEO Bob Iger said the abysmal box office figures for “The Marvels” were a result of COVID.
The Walt Disney Company spent $274.8 million to make “The Marvels,” but then received a $55 million subsidy from the government of the United Kingdom, according to Forbes.
However, “The Marvels” has been an absolute box office bust.
Variety reported on Sunday that “The Marvels” is “officially the lowest-grossing installment in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Since its release date on Nov. 10, “The Marvels” has made an extremely disappointing $80 million in North America and $197 million globally.
Disney appeared to wave the white flag in its statement released on Sunday, “With ‘The Marvels’ box office now winding down, we will stop weekend reporting of international/global grosses on this title.”
Bob Iger gave his reasons why he believed that “The Marvels” was a disaster at the box office during an appearance at The New York Times Dealbook Summit last week.
“‘The Marvels’ was shot during COVID,” Iger began. “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.”
Iger also blamed streaming services for Disney movies flopping at the box office.
“The experience of accessing [the films] and watching them in the home is better than it ever was,” he said. “And [it’s] a bargain when you think about it. Streaming Disney+ you can get for $7 a month. That’s a lot cheaper than taking your whole family to a film. So, I think the bar is now raised in terms of quality about what gets people out of their homes, into movie theaters.”
Iger also addressed a major gripe that comic book fans have – making sequels just for the sake of making a safe sequel.
“I don’t want to apologize for making sequels,” Iger prefaced. “Some of them have done extraordinarily well, and they’ve been good films, too.”
The Disney CEO specified, “I think there has to be a reason to make them. You have to have a good story. And often the story doesn’t hold up to — is not as strong as the original story. That can be a problem.”
Iger continued, “We’re making a number of them now right, as a matter of fact. But we will only greenlight a sequel if we believe the story that the creators want to tell is worth telling.”
“Quality needs attention to deliver quality; it doesn’t happen by accident,” Iger confessed. “Quantity, in our case, diluted quality, and Marvel has suffered greatly from that.”
However, the Walt Disney Company admitted last month that wokeness and culture wars have had significnt impacts across the board on the multinational entertainment and media conglomerate.
As Blaze News previously reported, Disney warned investors that the company’s wokeness presents risks to its “reputation and brands” in its annual financial report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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