Disney CEO Hits Out at the Disastrous Performance of The Marvels
Bob Iger has no lost love for “The Marvels.”
The Disney CEO spoke Thursday at the New York Times DealBook Summit, where he explained the disastrous performance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest film.
Iger, who returned to the top job at Disney in November 2022, partly blamed the debacle on a lack of “supervision.”
″‘The Marvels’ was shot during COVID,” Iger, 72, said. “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.”
Variety previously reported that the director of “The Marvels,” Nia DaCosta, began another project during postproduction.
“If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go,” a source told the trade.
“The Marvels,” the 33rd film in the MCU, had the lowest opening weekend at the box office ever for the franchise, grossing just $47 million domestically. Having only taken in $187 million worldwide so far, it’s likely to end its theatrical run as a flop.
Star Iman Vellani, who plays Ms. Marvel, previously said the film’s issues at the box office were Iger’s problem.
“I don’t want to focus on something that’s not even in my control, because what’s the point?” Vellani, 21, told Yahoo Entertainment. “That’s for Bob Iger.”
The Post called “The Marvels” “a sad study of the downfall of America’s favorite screen franchise,” and the movie currently holds a 61% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Iger also looked back on the boffo success of Disney — which also includes Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios — like it was a thing of the past.
“I’m not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved,” the exec said. “I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn’t do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed. That’s an unbelievably high standard and I think we have to get more realistic.”
Disney just endured another embarrassing failure with its animated feature “Wish,” starring Ariana DeBose, which has only grossed $51 million so far despite opening during the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday week.
