Bob Iger Blames Marvel’s Mass of Disney+ Content for Recent Box Office Struggles: “Diluted Focus and Attention”

Aesop once said, “it is possible to have too much of a good thing.” Disney‘s CEO Bob Iger seems to share the philosophical sentiment, particularly when it comes to Marvel‘s excess of content on Disney+.

Iger spoke to David Faber from CNBC at today’s Sun Valley Conference, where he discussed “some disappointments” his company has faced with recent box office flops, which he and Disney “would have liked 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,” he told Faber.

Iger continued to mark Marvel as “a great example” of this phenomenon, as the studio “had not been in the TV business at any significant level” before its Disney+ slate hit the platform.

“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,” Iger said bluntly. “That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.”

One of Marvel’s most recent theatrical releases, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, had a $200 million budget, but made only a little more than $106 million its opening weekend. The film has yet to reach $500 million worldwide since its release in theaters on Feb. 17.

Iger also said sending Pixar releases straight to streaming has kept audiences out of theaters, especially after Elemental‘s lukewarm ticket sales.

“There were three Pixar releases in a row that went direct to streaming, in part because of — mostly because of COVID,” Iger said. “And I think that may have created an expectation in the audience that they’re going to eventually be on streaming and probably quickly, and there wasn’t an urgency. And then I think there was some, I think you’d have to agree that there were some creative misses, as well.”

After Quantumania‘s disappointing box office returns, Iger said Marvel needs to shift focus to “new-ness” to keep audiences interested, per Variety.

“Sequels typically worked well for us,” he 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?”

Iger added, “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, 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.”