Bob Iger has acknowledged Disney's latest box office flops — Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — in a recent earnings call.
During the Q3 earnings call, the Disney CEO (via IGN) said, “The studio has had a tremendous run over the last decade, perhaps the greatest run that any studio has ever had with multiple billion-dollar hits, and including, by the way, two that were relatively recent. One in particular, Avatar: The Way of Water and we also had a pretty strong performance with Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which I think has done approximately $850 million in global box office.”
He continued, “That said, the performance of some of our recent films has definitely been disappointing, and we don't take that lightly. As you'd expect, we're very focused on improving the quality and the performance of the films we've got coming out. That's something that I'm working closely with the studio on. I'm personally committed to spending more time and attention on that as well.”
Bob Iger is right — some of Disney's latest releases have led to disappointing returns at the box office. The first notable one was Pixar's Lightyear last year. Despite being based on an uber popular IP like Toy Story, it only grossed $226 million worldwide. Months later, Disney's new original animated film, Strange World, grossed just $73 million worldwide — losing the studio at least $100 million.
Sure, Disney can always fall back on Avatar 2 (which grossed over $1 billion) and MCU projects like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (which grossed $845 million), but other IPs have not been as successful. Even Indiana Jones — a franchise that has been around for four decades, disappointed the studio. Despite being Harrison Ford's last ride, it has only grossed $369 million. For reference, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, made $790 million in 2008. Most recently, Haunted Mansion flopped and made just $24 million its opening weekend. It hasn't legged out well, as it only stands at a worldwide total of $63 million at the time of this writing.
Disappointing box office returns will result in big moves for Disney. Whether it's cost cutting or another avenue, expect big changes to come to the studio.
Haunted Mansion is in theaters now.
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