Disney CEO Bob Iger came back to Disney a year ago despite facing what he calls a “myriad of challenges.” In this year of his comeback, Disney has struggled to reclaim its former position across the globe. Under his supervision, Disney put out one high-budget movie after the other that all failed massively at the box office. Not to mention the barrage of controversy Disney has seen regarding its casting choice and in other aspects over the last year, it has been quite a difficult year for Bob Iger.

Bob Iger Addresses Disney Employees at Town Hall
Bob Iger Addresses Disney Employees at Town Hall (Image via. Variety)

Recently, Bob Iger called for a town hall meeting with high-profile key executives such as Alan Bergman (film), Josh D’Amaro (parks), Jimmy Pitaro (ESPN), and Dana Walden (TV) among many others. He wanted to strategize on Disney’s future direction and how they could build rather than fix things. One comment that caught the fans’ attention was that Bob Iger wanted to focus on quality rather than quantity, which led to him being massively trolled and criticized on social media.

 

Bob Iger criticized over future promises of “quality over quantity” in Disney amidst box office disasters

 

Recently, Deadline reported that in an internal all-hands-on-deck town hall meeting, Iger sat down with top executives of Disney to figure out where to go from their current situation. He pointed out how he thinks that putting out too much content has done Disney more harm than good, as the quality got compromised:

“In assessing some of our performance, recently, one of the reasons I believe it’s fallen off a bit is that we were making too much. I think when it comes to creativity, quality is critical, of course, and quantity in many ways can destroy quality. Storytelling, obviously, is the core of what we do as a company.”  

Also Read: Disney+ Cancels Neil Patrick Harris’ Acclaimed Reboot Doogie Kamealoha as Streaming Giant Incurs Heavy Losses After String of MCU Failures

Bob Iger
Bob Iger (Image via. The Hollywood Reporter)

This is not the first time Iger has promised “quality over quantity” to the fans. In a 2020 interview with Deadline, Bob Iger also promised “quality over volume” when it came to Disney. To quote the article: 

“When I stepped down,” he said, his purview became “content creation across all segments and territories with a focus on leveraging our brands.” Disney’s emphasis will always be on quality, which “always holds its value across the board.” The only difference between the company’s shorter form TV content and theatrical content he said, is “length.”

 

Recently, the X account Culture Crave posted the recent comment along with the comment from the past in a subtweet, and fans started criticizing Bob Iger for shallow and false promises.

Also Read: Disney Scrapped Major Valkyrie Dialogue From The Marvels That Confirmed Massive Fan Theory

Disney has clearly not learned from its mistakes in the years between 2020 and 2023, which might be leading to a slow decomposition. Over the last few years, Disney’s schedule has been packed with live-action, MCU movies, and Star Wars. It is great that they want to give the audience as much content as possible; however, it has truly led to a strain on the quality, which did not escape the eye of either the critics or the audience. In fact, many are now seeing Disney trying to remake its old originals as a nostalgia cash-grab opportunity for the big media company and criticizing Bob Iger even more heavily. 

What other issues did Bob Iger’s town hall address?

Despite being in such a crisis, one Disney attendee maintains that there are still “grounds to be optimistic” when it comes to Disney. According to Bob Iger, he knew there would be challenges waiting for him if he came back, but he never second-guessed his decision.

“I knew that there were myriad challenges that I would face coming back. I won’t say that it was easy, but I’ve never second guessed the decision to come back, and being back still feels great.”

Bob Iger
Bob Iger (Image via. Variety)

He continued to say that: 


“I talk about optimism being an extraordinarily important trait of a leader, because no one wants to follow a pessimist. But I also believe that hopeless optimism doesn’t do anybody any good. I have, I think, real reason—and we have real reason as Disney—to be optimists, and it starts with the fact that we’re Disney. And Disney, as you know, is a brand unto itself, but it’s also an umbrella company that houses many assets and many great brands. So, reason to be optimistic No. 1 is that.”

Also Read: Chris Pine Becomes the Real Star of Disney’s ‘Wish’ as Fans Heap Praises on His Rare Singing Skills

Bob Iger
Bob Iger (Image via. BBC)

While many praised Bob Iger for his showmanship and optimism, many were upset about there not being a Q&A section as they felt their questions about the future of Disney were not being valued and there was a lack of clarity. 

Bob Iger also wanted to ensure a good relationship with Wall Street and reassure investors about Disney’s future. Given the news of recent layoffs, it was also probably done to assure the employees as well. 

Disney has many promising movies along the way, including Frozen III, Deadpool 3, Captain America: Brave New World, Elio, and many more.

Explore from around the WEB