Disney boss Bob Iger held a Disney shareholders meeting this week following a disappointing year at the box office for the House of Mouse last year with films like The Marvels and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny flopping.
It seems the new strategy for the studio is to focus on well-established franchises that produce billion-dollar movies.
On Marvel’s struggles post-Avengers Endgame, the CEO said: “I’d say we’re leaning a little bit more into sequels and franchises. I think given the environment and given what it takes to get people out of their homes to see a film … leaning on franchises that are familiar is actually a smart thing.
“In our zeal to greatly increase volume partially tied to this wanting to chase more global subs for our streaming platform, some of our studios lost a little focus. So the first step that we’ve taken is that we’ve reduced volume, we reduced output, particularly in Marvel.”
This explains why Deadpool 3 is the only MCU movie to release this year on July 26 with the following others having already been pushed back to next year: Captain America: Brave New World (February 14, 2025), Fantastic 4 (May 2, 2025), Thunderbolts (July 25, 2025), Blade (November 7, 2025).
Iger also teased that Marvel Studios will focus on its stronger franchises going forward, adding “I’ll leave it at that”. Perhaps that means the return of Iron Man and Captain America sooner rather than later?
Meanwhile, other big announcements included an exclusive edition of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert movie for release on Disney+ on March 15, and Moana 2 set to hit cinemas on November 27 this year.
The CGI-animated movie is being put together from content that was originally going to be a Disney+ sequel series and is separate from the upcoming live-action remake of the original Moana.
Additionally, on the animation front, Disney has announced release dates for sequels to billion-dollar box office hits.
Zootropolis 2 is set to hit cinemas on November 26, 2025 and both Toy Story 5 and Frozen 3 will arrive in 2026.
Other notable release dates (some of which were previously announced) include the following: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (May 10, 2024), Inside Out 2 (June 14, 2024), Alien: Romulus (August 16, 2024), Mufasa: The Lion King (December 20, 2024), The Mandalorian and Grogu (TBC 2026).
