Disney intends to reduce the number of movies it produces to “focus more on quality,” CEO Bob Iger said during an earnings call this week.
Disney shares had ended May 6 at $116.47. By the end of the day on May 7, shares fell by more than 9.5 percent to $105.38.
Income before income taxes dropped by 69 percent from the same quarter last year. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) was a loss of 1 cent for the second quarter compared to a gain of 69 cents per share in the same quarter last year. The company attributed the decrease in EPS to “goodwill impairments in the quarter.”
“That’s particularly true with Marvel,” he said. “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two to the maximum three.”
Last year, Disney’s two big Marvel films—“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” were box office disappointments.
It is unclear whether the budget numbers include only production. If so, adding in marketing would make the balance sheet even worse.
During the earnings call, Mr. Iger said Disney is “working hard” to identify the path it needs to follow.
“We’ve got a couple of good films in ‘25 and then we’re heading to more Avengers, which we’re extremely excited about,“ he said. ”So overall, I feel great about the slate.
“It’s something, as you know, that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on.”
Mr. Iger said Disney will “balance sequels with originals” rather than heavily relying on one or the other.
“I just think that right now, given the competition in the overall movie marketplace, that actually, there’s a lot of value in the sequels, obviously because they’re known and it takes less in terms of marketing,” he said.
“In terms of Marvel specifically, it implies there, too, we actually have both. ‘Thunderbolts,’ for instance, is coming up in 2025 as an original. And then, of course, we mentioned ‘Deadpool’ this summer, which is a sequel, and I talked about ‘Avengers,’ and ‘Captain America’ is coming out in 2025.”
“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” is scheduled for 2026.
Mr. Iger noted that Disney has several films coming out soon from its subsidiary studios.
“We have a number of highly anticipated theatrical releases arriving over the next few months, including ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,’ which opens this Friday, as well as Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’, Marvel’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ and 20th Century Studios’ ‘Alien: Romulus,’ which are all slated for this summer,” he said.
Dialing Down Woke Messaging
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Iger has said that he wants Disney to focus on quality. In April, he took aim at woke messaging in films, saying he wants to focus primarily on entertainment.In addition, 71 percent wanted Disney to “return to wholesome programming and allow parents to decide when their children are taught about sexuality.”
A similar study from Rasmussen in 2022 found that 45 percent of respondents thought the push for diversity and inclusion was making children’s entertainment worse.
In April, Mr. Iger also won a proxy battle against activist groups aiming to get seats on Disney’s executive board.
Disney’s nominees defeated candidates put forward by Trian Fund Management and Blackwells Capital, thus securing Mr. Iger’s control of the company.
Disney is currently facing multiple lawsuits accusing the company of violating labor laws.
She claimed that her firing violated the California Labor Code. Disney filed a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit.
In the months leading to her firing, Ms. Carano criticized COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns as well as vaccine and mask mandates. She called for cleaning up the election process to “flush out the fake votes.”
The class-action lawsuit accuses Disney of underpaying workers at hotels in Southern California, failing to provide workers with proper meal periods and rest, and not providing accurate wage statements.
