With poor box office numbers so far for Pixar‘s “Elemental” and James Mangold‘s “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” Disney sees itself in the middle of its worst theatrical slump in a long time. And it arguably started back in March with “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania,” which made less than $500 million worldwide and suffered the steepest second-week drop at the domestic box office of any Marvel film. So how will Disney right the ship? Variety reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger has a few ideas, namely cutting costs and a course correction away from the glut of MCU content.
READ MORE: Disney Delays Marvel Films, ‘Avatar’ Sequels & New ‘Star Wars’ Films Due To WGA Strike
In a talk with CNBC‘s Daniel Faber at the Sun Valley Conference, Iger said Disney’s long-term plan comes down to “spending less on what we make, and making less” through Marvel and Disney’s other content pillars. This is part of a cost-savings plan that aims to save Disney $5.5 billion in expenses, leading to 7000 layoffs within the company in recent months. Poor showings at the box-office for Disney have made that process even more urgent. “There have been some disappointments,” said Iger. “We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better. It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.”
“Marvel’s a great example of that,” Iger continued. “They had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention. That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.” Iger’s comments follow up those he made in March after “Quantumania” flopped at the box office, which preached for “newness” within the Marvel brand instead of more sequels for familiar characters. “Sequels typically worked well for us,” Iger said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in March. “Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters?”
Since March, Marvel has adjusted its release calendar a couple of times, pushing back previously announced films and TV shows for Phase 6 back to 2027. Despite the switch-ups, Igers stressed that he thinks “there’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand.” “I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining,” he continued, “and you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole different set of Avengers.” As of Disney’s current schedule, “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” will hit theaters on May 1, 2026, and May 7, 2027, respectively.
So how will Iger’s “spend less, make less” plan affect other Disney properties, like Pixar and the “Star Wars” franchise at Lucasfilm? Well, in terms of Pixar, CCO Pete Docter told Variety last month that the animation studio relesing three films on Disney+ during the COVID-19 pandemic was “a mixed blessing.” While “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” reached subscribers of the streamer, it also “trained audiences that these films will be available for you on Disney+,” said Docter. “And it’s more expensive for a family of four to go to a theater when they know they can wait and it’ll come out on the platform.” It’s worth nothing that Pixar’s two theatrical releases since then, “Lightyear” and “Elemental,” were big flops for the studio.
As for “Star Wars”? This spring, Lucasfilm announced three brand-new “Star Wars” films will hit theaters in May 2026, December 2026, and December 2027. But will Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Jame Mangold, and Dave Filoni‘s films stay on that release schedule? After all, Kathleen Kennedy has adjusted the theatrical calendar for “Star Wars” films before, as she did after 2019’s “The Rise Of Skywalker.” With Iger’s new position affecting all of Disney’s brands, Lucasfilm may also adjust this new release schedule. And considering Kennedy hasn’t announced which of the three new “Star Wars” films will hit theaters first, things could easily move around before May 2026.
It’s also worth noting that Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios look to put into practice a similar practice to Iger’s for the new DCU. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, DC Studios co-head Peter Safran stresses that he and James Gunn‘s model for the rebooted franchise steer away from lots of crossover between its projects like Marvel has done in recent years. “The good news is, if you’ve seen nothing that we’ve done before, you can watch “Superman Legacy,” you can watch “Creature Commandos,” you can watch “Peacemaker” season two, and you can watch “Blue Beetle.” All of that,” said Safran. “We are trying to minimize audience confusion and maximize their enjoyment.” In other words, the DCU will emphasize standalone stories and not crossover events, at least for the time being.
Will that be enough to compete with Marvel Studios, or will the moviegoing public be tired of the superhero movie genre by the time “Superman: Legacy” arrives in theaters in 2025? Whatever the case, it’s very clear that lots of changes are afoot in Hollywood right now: not just with superhero movies, but with how studios and their brands will conduct business and create content for the next several years.
