Disney CEO Bob Iger cited the pandemic — more than two years after the height of COVID-19 — as responsible for the box office woes of the female-led "Marvels" movie.
Iger claimed at The New York Times' DealBook Summit this week that the movie was "shot during COVID," leading to a "lack of supervision" caused by absent executives.
He also attributed the box office woes to the oversaturation of Disney-related intellectual properties dominating the film industry for over a decade.
"And I'm not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved. I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn't do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed," Iger said. "That's an unbelievably high standard, and I think we have to get more realistic."
Those factors, he maintained, were partially responsible for the movie with a budget of around $300 million making $78 million domestically and $188 million worldwide three weeks into its release.
However, Breitbart noted on Friday that the movie began filming in late July 2021, well after the pandemic started to ebb.
The outlet also pointed to other successful movies filmed closer to the pandemic that have been successes for Disney, specifically "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
Still, "The Marvels" is not alone in being a failure for Disney. Other comic book movies, including the sequels to "Thor" and "Ant-Man," as well as the latest in the "Indiana Jones" franchise, have also suffered.
"I don't want to apologize for making sequels," Iger told the summit. "Some of them have done extraordinarily well, and they've been good films, too. I think there has to be a reason to make them. You have to have a good story."
Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.
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