Over the past few years, Disney has found itself in a magical world of trouble after deciding to enter a cultural war with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and fully commit to diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of its core programming at the expense of its loyal customers, traditional American families. Bob Iger and the board are under pressure, according to recent reports, particularly because of their pricey Marvel and Star Wars material.
Disney’s financial results suffered in 2023 and 2024 as a result of a number of poor film releases, the most notable of which was “The Marvels,” which debuted as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s worst-performing box office picture. Within Pixar, they also had failures; their most recent film, “Elemental,” did not do well at the box office.
All of Disney+’s series have seen declining ratings. “Ahsoka,” a live-action parody of the children’s show “Rebels,” was a commercial failure for the Star Wars franchise. It was a complete failure, receiving the lowest ratings on the streaming service since Season 1 of “The Mandalorian.” Marvel’s “Echo,” which is officially the least watched MCU program since Ms. Marvel made her debut, did not do much better.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, issued a warning in March about impending changes. He added, “In this company, you have to destroy things you no longer believe in. It is not easy because you have some sunk costs, you have to start over, or it is a relationship with your staff or the creative community.”
Additionally, he said, “We have lowered output, especially at Marvel. In movies, there are three things you do when you resolve or remedy these problems. You become combative in your pursuit of making the movies you’re producing even better. You may occasionally abandon projects that you do not support. Naturally, you also put new initiatives in motion that you firmly believe in and are considerably more confident in, and we are handling all of that.”
The Hollywood Reporter has verified that layoffs have taken place at Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment subsequent to those declarations. Marvel let go of fifteen employees, suggesting that Disney is experimenting with personnel reductions at these high-end enterprises, akin to what David Zaslav accomplished with Warner Bros. the previous year.
Disney is also concerned about a recent Forbes exposé on the Star Wars franchise, which revealed the company lost over $2.8 billion when it bought the rights from Lucasfilm in 2012. Star Wars has not worked out for the mouse after more than ten years of content creation, despite the fact that it appeared they would easily recoup the $4 billion purchase price due to high production costs, a run of bad box office and Disney+ releases, and other factors.
Fans and families are tired of hearing lectures about diversity and feeling pressured to watch children’s and teen programming that supports LGBTQ issues. Disney has consistently reminded fans of Marvel and Star Wars that they are not welcome if they disagree with the direction that their favorite properties are taking, and this is beginning to cause damage in the culture war.
At last, the fans are paying attention and refusing to purchase movie tickets or memberships to Disney’s streaming services. It will be fascinating to see if Bob Iger reverses direction and scales down the woke programming in light of this most recent round of cuts, or if Disney will keep making further losses.
Author: Scott Dowdy
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