As the Disney CEO, Bob Iger saved the company and accomplished a great deal during the years that he held the position. Bob Iger stepped down as Disney’s CEO on February 25, effective immediately. It was no secret that Iger was planning on retiring from the company, but the timing of the decision was unexpected, to say the least. According to Iger, he now wants to focus on the creative side of what the company has in store for the future now that Disney’s biggest projects, such as the Fox-Disney deal and Disney+, are well underway.
In April 2019, it was announced that Iger had plans to step down as CEO when his contract expires in 2021. Instead, Iger has given up the position almost two years earlier than expected, but will remain its executive chairman through the end of 2021. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts chairman Bob Chapek has succeeded Iger as the next CEO, making him the seventh person to hold the position in Disney’s history. In an official statement, Iger explained that he felt now was a good time for the company to transition to a new CEO. To ensure a smooth transition, Chapek will still have to report Iger for the time being.
Chapek has big shoes to fill, considering everything that Iger was able to do for Disney in his 15 years as its CEO. Before Iger, Disney had reached a point where it was becoming irrelevant. Disney produced several movies in the early 1990s that are now considered classics, but the late ’90s and early 2000s took Disney into a bit of a slump where it released quite a few unremarkable films. It didn’t help that their movies weren’t matching what studios like Pixar were putting out at the time. Disney slipped considerably, and it took Bog Iger to put them back on top - and it wasn’t just about the movies, both animated and live-action.
Bob Iger Shepherded Disney’s Acquisitions Of Lucasfilm, Marvel, & Fox
Several of the biggest movies franchises to ever exist are all now under one roof, and it all happened under Bog Iger’s watch. In 2009, Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment and all of its assets with a $4 billion purchase. At the time, Marvel Studios was working on building up to The Avengers. So by reaching an agreement with Paramount Pictures, Disney was also able to distribute that film and Iron Man 3 - both of which went on to gross over $1 billion worldwide. Since then, Marvel got bigger and bigger with Phase 2 and 3, and now, they’ve expanded onto Disney+ with even more movies on the way. They also made a deal with Sony to bring Spider-Man into the MCU, and though the Marvel-Sony partnership temporarily hit a wall when Marvel lost Spider-Man, a new deal was worked out. Iger has since joked about his role in saving Spider-Man.
Shortly after The Avengers hit theaters, Disney made another big move in the field. In October 2012, Disney bought Lucasfilm from George Lucas for $4 billion, which came with full control of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. This resulted in a sequel trilogy from Lucasfilm, beginning with Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 - the film that still holds the record for highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office. But it wasn’t just about that movie; Lucasfilm has expanded into live-action television with The Mandalorian, which became a social phenomenon in 2019.
While acquiring Marvel and Lucasfilm were big purchases, they pale in comparison to what Disney decided to do in 2018. That year, Iger and Disney reached a shocking deal with 21st Century Fox. For a whopping sum of $71.3 billion, Disney beat out Comcast to purchase Fox’s movie and TV assets (namely 20th Century Fox), which included everything from The Simpsons, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Avatar, Alien, Planet of the Apes, and more. After several months of negotiations, the deal was finalized in March 2019. Iger is credited with taking the lead on Disney’s deals involving Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Fox. Due in part to these acquisitions, Disney now owns 27% of the film industry. Furthermore, Disney now owns eight of the top 10 movies on the worldwide box office chart, which is no simple feat.
Iger Saved Walt Disney Animation
When Iger took over Disney, its animation department was in dire straits. It was being beat at the box office by DreamWorks, Fox, and Pixar. Disney had released a string of box office failures, and Disney Animation was in desperate need of saving. That’s when Bog Iger stepped in and paid $7.4 billion to buy Pixar from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2006. At the time, Iger claimed that Disney’s purchase of Pixar would save the company, even though many were skeptical of the move. In the end, he was right. Shortly after the acquisition, Walt Disney Feature Animation was renamed to Walt Disney Animation Studios and was ultimately restructured with new leadership.
It took a few years for the effects to show, but Disney Animation eventually took off again. Pixar has made approximately $14 billion at the box office, and $11 billion of that came after Disney’s acquisition, which came from huge hits like Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4, The Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, and more. Disney Animation’s success since Iger became CEO wasn’t driven solely by Pixar, though. Disney continued producing its own content. 2010’s animated musical Tangled was a clear sign that Disney’s fortunes in terms of its animation department had changed. Part of that were the stories Disney was choosing to tell, but in addition, cutting costs by outsourcing and adapting to the times by moving away from hand-drawn animation to CGI - even though the old-school animation was at the heart and soul of what Disney is - allowed the company to continue to evolve and avoid falling into obscurity.
Disney Parks Expanded Around The World & Saw New Success
Disney Parks & Resorts has also benefited greatly from Bog Iger’s time at the company. In 2008, the subsidiary was entirely overhauled in light of declining attendance at parks, in large part due to the recession - but that was only the beginning. In 2009, Disney began work on a resort in Shanghai, China, which finally opened in 2016. The opening of the Shanghai branch of Disney Parks was a major step forward in Disney’s attempts to expand worldwide. It had 11 million visitors in just one year, which far exceeded Disney’s projections. The Shanghai park is reportedly on its way to being its most profitable theme park. Part of that has to do with the enormous population in the region, but a significant portion of its visitors actually comes from outside Shanghai.
Furthermore, Iger went to considerable effort to save the California and Hong Kong theme parks, which were going downhill when Iger was promoted to CEO. A great deal of money went into fixing them by adding major new attractions. Under Iger, Disney built onto all of its existing theme parks with various attractions associated with the Toy Story and Avatar, among others. Part of the overhaul included a redesign for California Adventure as well as the opening of Cars Land, which remains one of the park’s most crowded areas. But of course, one of Disney Parks’ most-talked about new attractions was the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which Disney hopes will eventually prove to be a huge success. All of this contributed to Disney Parks seeing a reported 150+ million park attendees in 2018, a number that outshines what Disney used to get a decade prior.
Everything Else That Bog Iger Did As Disney’s CEO
Aside from the movie, TV, and park divisions, there’s quite a bit that Bog Iger had done as Disney’s CEO to fundamentally change the company. Sure, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Fox, and Pixar are among Disney’s biggest acquisitions, but those aren’t all of them. Disney, who was already a part-owner of Hulu since 2009, bought Comcast’s stock in the streaming service for $6 billion in 2019 - as part of an agreement to have Comcast bow out of the bidding war for Fox.
Disney and Iger dipped even deeper into the streaming service business with Disney+, which is the exclusive home of original Marvel and Star Wars content. Disney+ has reportedly exceeded 28 million subscribers in just a matter of months. Disney+’s success can be largely attributed to the wide range of content Disney now has access to, thanks to Iger. Because of the acquisitions spearheaded by Iger, Disney+ offers subscribers content from Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Fox. It’s important to note Disney’s interest in streaming isn’t limited to Hulu and Disney+. Disney also owns a streaming service for the highly successful sports TV network ESPN. With ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+, Disney has a strong foothold in the streaming business.
Looking at everything that Disney has done and the unprecedented amount of success it has seen in the years since Iger became the CEO, it’s easy to recognize the transformative effect that he had on the Walt Disney Company. And what’s more, everything is now in a solid place for him to step down and begin transitioning out his leadership role. While he’s no longer the CEO, he’s still overseeing Disney’s creative efforts as the company’s chairman. So when he truly leaves at the end of 2021, it’ll be the end of an era.
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