Disney CEO Bob Iger has admitted that their “More More More” strategy when it comes to Marvel Studios content has backfired, and they are going to start reeling it all back a little. While speaking on a Disney investor call (via Variety), we’ve learned that Iger, who returned to run the Walt Disney Company two years ago, recently cited Thunderbolts* (a.k.a. New Avengers) as an example of Marvel Studios new “quality over quantity” approach. The film opened on the lower end of Marvel tentpoles, but has an excellent critic and audience score. Here’s what Iger said about their new approach to Marvel going forward:
We all know that in our zeal to flood our streaming platform with more content, that we turned to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and had them produce a lot more. We’ve also learned over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality. And frankly, we’ve all admitted to ourselves that we lost a little focus by making too much. By consolidating a bit and having Marvel focus much more on their films, we believe that will result in better quality. I think the first and best example is Thunderbolts*. I feel very good about that.
Previous Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s approach was to make new streaming content for Disney+ the top priority, so 2021-2023 had 10 MCU series in addition to 9 films. Not to mention a couple of special presentations. Compare this with Phase 3, which had “just” 11 films, spread out across 3 years. Everything was far more manageable for fans before they added Disney+ into the mix. And between so many projects that Marvel’s Kevin Feige had to oversee, the quality definitely suffered. The era of Marvel Studios only making absolute bangers was over.
All of this is relative of course. Of all the post-Endgame movies Marvel Studios has released, only The Marvels was an outright flop. Even disappointments like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Captain America: Brave New World opened big at the box office, before quickly fading away. Even those two will ultimately turn a profit. We still live in a world where the MCU’s flops are bigger than most other studios’ hits. But a slowdown is definitely what’s needed. We may never see the heights of Phase 3 again, but perhaps we can come close. At least until the X-Men finally get here.
Content shared from nerdist.com.