Directive to cut costs and production comes as Disney releases “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (yesterday it premiered in our country and in other territories, in the US it will be seen starting today) and the third season of “The Mandalorian” is to be seen on Disney+ starting March 1. Marvel became the largest source of products for Disney, but according to Iger’s orders, it would be the soonest to be cut. “There are going to be a lot of adjustments at Marvel and across the company,” THR posted without naming the source, though he clarified that it was from someone within the company. “Numbers matter now, and costs are going to be more rigorously monitored.”
A similar policy had been adopted in August last year by Warner Bros. after its merger with Discovery, although much more extreme: not only new superhero projects were restricted, but also a movie like “Batwoman” (“Batgirl”), which had been shot entirely and had entered the pre-production phase, it was canceled and all recordings destroyed. The new Warner Bros. Discovery preferred to lose the 90 million dollars invested in “Batwoman” rather than risk investing in launching, publicity and other fixed expenses that all releases entail. The same kind of economy applied to its HBO Max platform.
Iger’s announcements fell like a bucket of cold water, because not even Marvel imagined something similar. At the San Diego Comic-Con held last July, the head of Marvel, Kevin Feige, announced five new productions from the label for Disney+ in 2023. Of all of them, so far, only the second season of “Loki” and ” Secret Invasion”, directed by Samuel L. Jackson, would survive the cuts. There is even danger of postponement, or cancellation, a spinoff of the successful “Wakanda Forever. As of 2021, Marvel had released 18 projects between theaters and streaming: four movies and five TV shows.
Feige assumed the new directives in an interview published this week by Entertainment Weekly: “The production pace of the Disney+ series will change,” he said, adding that there will be fewer series and that they will be more spaced out. “Star Wars”, on the other hand, after missing from theaters since 2019, could return before any other Marvel project. Disney is expected to reveal its plans for a new movie at Star Wars Celebration in London in April.
Industry observers called these cuts a “massive correction” from just a few years ago, when the entertainment industry was hell-bent on giving consumers endless amounts to watch — and carelessly spending while doing so.
Last year was also tough for animation at Disney. Pixar’s “Lightyear” did not perform as expected, and “A Strange World” was a complete fiasco: it had a budget of $135 million and grossed only half that money in the United States. Iger announced three new sequels from billion-dollar brands: “Toy Story,” “Frozen” and “Zootopia.” In all this panorama, the coronavirus pandemic certainly influences, when the public, especially families, were encouraged to stay at home and consume only streaming. Disney+’s pushback comes amid an industry-wide shift that is rethinking the best way to make streaming profitable.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
