Disney CEO Bob Iger Says 'Marvel Has Suffered Greatly' as “The Marvels ”Disappoints at Box Office

The film's $47 million opening gross paled in comparison to the 32 other films Marvel Studios has released within its interconnected universe

Bob Iger is speaking out about the company's recent content boom.

After The Marvels debuted earlier this month to a disappointing box-office haul, the Walt Disney Company CEO discussed "quality" versus "quantity" as he spoke at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday in New York City.

"Quality needs attention to deliver quality; it doesn't happen by accident," said Iger, 72, per Business Insider. "Quantity, in our case, diluted quality, and Marvel has suffered greatly from that."

But he specifically said he doesn't "want to apologize for making sequels," according to the outlet, as "some of them have done extraordinarily well and they've been good films, too."

Of The Marvels, Iger cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential issue during the film's production, explaining, "There wasn't as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives really looking over what's being done day after day after day."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

Related: Bob Iger Has 'No Interest in Running Another Company' After 15-Year Tenure as Disney CEO

A sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel, which opened to $153 million back in 2019, The Marvels made the most of any film released over its opening weekend, but its $47 million grossed paled in comparison to the 32 other films Marvel Studios has released within its interconnected universe since 2008's Iron Man.

In comparison, both of Marvel Studios' other 2023 film releases, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, grossed over $100 million during their opening weekends. The third Guardians is the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year in the U.S., with the third Ant-Man film currently standing at eighth, per Box Office Mojo.

The Marvels features Brie Larson's Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel teaming up with Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) after the latter two's respective debuts in the Disney+ series WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, following up on the character after he starred in this summer's miniseries Secret Invasion, and Zawe Ashton as villain Dar-Benn.

Vellani, 21, was recently asked by Yahoo! Entertainment to react to how much The Marvels has made since its release on Nov. 10. "I don't want to focus on something that's not even in my control," she replied, "because what's the point?"

"That's for Bob Iger," added Vellani, noting that the financial success of the movie "has nothing to do with" her: "I'm happy with the finished product, and the people that I care about enjoyed the film."

Related: 'Frozen 3' and 'Toy Story 5' Sequels in the Works, Disney Reveals

"It's genuinely a good time watching this movie, and that's all we can ask for with these films," the actress said. "It has superheroes, it take place in space, it's not that deep and it's about teamwork and sisterhood. It's a fun movie, and I'm just so happy that I can share it with people."

Meanwhile, Iger revealed on Nov. 16 that there will be a fourth Frozen film in a video shared on Good Morning America, nine months after he announced an upcoming third Frozen movie.

In a speech from Hong Kong Disneyland as the park opened its new "World of Frozen" area, Iger teased to Michael Strahan, "I'll give you a little surprise there Michael: Frozen 3 is in the works and there might be a Frozen 4 in the works, too."

Details are being kept under wraps for now, though, as the executive noted, "I don't have much to say about those films right now."

"But Jenn Lee, who created Frozen — the original Frozen and Frozen 2 — is hard at work with her team at Disney Animation on not one but actually two stories," Iger added.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.