Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images and Disney
Bob Iger defended Disney's performance in an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday, saying its past successes had set the bar unrealistically high.
In response to questions about the company's box office misses, the CEO said: "I'm not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved."
He added: "We got to the point where if a film didn't do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed. That's an unbelievably high standard and I think we have to get more realistic," he added.
Disney can claim 10 of the 20 highest-grossing films, each of which took $1 billion at the box office, per IMDb.
Recent releases, however, have disappointed. "Wish" made just $19.5 million domestically on its opening weekend, making it one of worst-debuts for a Disney animated feature.
Meanwhile, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" cost nearly $300 million but took just $60.4 million on its opening weekend in the US. However, the film's now made $383 million globally, per Box Office Mojo.
In the interview, Iger attributed Disney's recent struggles to putting quantity before quality. He also laid blame at his chosen successor, Bob Chapek, who he came out of retirement to replace 12 months ago.
"I was disappointed in what I was seeing, both during the transition period when I was still there, and while I was out," said Iger. He added that Disney would only greenlight sequels if there's a story worth telling.
Since his return, Iger's made streamlining operations a key priority. In February, he announced plans to slash 7,000 jobs to save some $5.5 billion.
Disney stock is largely flat for 2023 and is down by a fifth over the past five years. The company's now worth just under $170 billion – almost $40 billion less than Netflix.
