Too Many TV Shows ‘Diluted Focus’ at Marvel and Played Role in Box Office ‘Disappointments,’ Says Bob Iger
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The eight live-action TV series that have rolled out on Disney+ since January 2021 “diluted focus” at Marvel and in turn played a role in waning theatrical performance, says Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The one-two punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame helped bring the MCU Phase 3 to a close with worldwide box office grosses of $2.1 billion and $2.8 billion respectively, landing them at No. 6 and No. 2 on the all-time box office ranking.
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But since then, only two Marvel movies — the Sony co-pros 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.1 billion) and 2021’s pandemic-era Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.9 billion) — have reached the billion-dollar mark. And only No Way Home, at No. 7, cracked the Top 20 grossers of all time; Far From Home is at No. 30.
The only non-Spider-Man Marvel film to even flirt with a billion dollars thus far is 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which grossed $956 million, while the lowest draw since Endgame was courtesy of 2021’s Black Widow (with $380 million, hampered in part by a simultaneous Disney+ Premier Access release).
And more recently, this winter’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania didn’t even gross $500 million. (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, released on May 5, is currently at $841 million.)
“There have been some disappointments. We would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better,” Iger said at this week’s annual Sun Valley Conference, a gathering of A-list execs from media and tech (per Variety). “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 in making his point. “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” at Marvel Studios. “That is, I think, more of the cause than anything.”
Note: A previous version of this story mistook Iger’s comment as saying consumer interest, not the focus of Marvel creatives, had been “diluted.”
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