Amid wild speculation that Disney might be acquired by Apple, Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed pressing investor concerns on today's quarterly earnings call.
It's no secret that the company's two main film earners, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, have been trending downward recently in terms of their film's box office earnings and critic reception.
Iger assured investors during the earnings briefing that he'll be personally invested and is spending extra time on improving the quality and box office returns on future releases.
"Regarding our studio performance, let's put things in perspective a little bit. The studio has had a tremendous run over the last decade, perhaps the greatest run that any studio has ever had, with multiple billion-dollar hits. And including, by the way, two that were relatively recent."
"One in particular, Avatar: The Way of Water, and we also had a pretty strong performance with Guardians of the Galaxy [Vol. 3], which has done, I think, approximately under $850 million at [the] global box office."
"That said, the performance of some of our recent films has definitely been disappointing, and we don't take that lightly. As you'd expect, we're very focused on improving the quality and the performance of the films that we've got coming up. It's something that I'm working closely with the studio on. I'm personally committed to spending more time and attention on that as well."
There's definitely a growing concern among the MCU fandom that the cinematic universe peaked with Avengers: Endgame and that it was a mistake to let Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man and Chris Evans' Captain America bid adieu to the franchise. While the film side has remained relatively strong, the company's Disney+ MCU shows are currently in the midst of a downward trend with regard to critic and fan reception.
Likewise, Star Wars fans have been equally as vocal about their disappointment in the new Star Wars trilogy and the handling of legacy characters like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. However, there's current optimism for the Star Wars brand, with films based on the Old Republic and a New Jedi Order (led by Rey) in the pipeline.
As film and television studios around the world prepare to tighten purse strings and come to grips with overspending on streaming start-up costs, Iger is certainly not the only CEO in Hollywood that will closely be scrutinizing its release schedule over the next several years.