Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania.
Disney
Even after the fourth Thor movie and the third standalone Ant-Man movie Disney CEO Bob Iger wants something new from Marvel.
“Sequels have normally worked well for us,” Iger said at Thursday’s Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. “Do you would like a third and a fourth, for instance? Or perhaps it is time to turn to other characters?”
His comments come just after the disappointing box-office performance of Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania. As of Sunday, the film, which has been in theaters for 3 weeks, has grossed just $420 million worldwide.
Domestically, the film reached $187 million in total box office sales upon release with a gap weekend of $104 million. While this exceeds Ant-Man’s first domestic box office total in 2015, it’s a sharp drop from pre-pandemic averages. Especially considering the movie stars one other Marvel Cinematic Universe great villain, Kang.
“There’s nothing inherent to the Marvel brand,” said Iger. “I feel we just have to take a look at the characters and stories we’re bringing out, and also you have a look at Marvel’s trajectory over the following five years, you are going to see a lot of new stuff. We’ll return to the Avengers series, but with a completely different set of Avengers.”
Iger’s remarks come as he orchestrates a massive restructuring of the corporate, with a view to cutting costs by $5.5 billion – $3 billion of which comes from content.
Disney has been releasing new MCU content at a somewhat frantic pace over the previous couple of years. The corporate used the Disney+ streaming service as a vehicle to introduce new characters – Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk – and to dig deeper into older characters (Loki, Falcon, Winter Soldier) between theatrical releases.
Because the MCU has grown, some have rallied behind the franchise, excited in regards to the new entrants and content. Others found the required viewing of additional series a nuisance and wonder if Disney should decelerate its release pace.
The corporate also focused on the dizzying pace of content distribution a lot of pressure on groups of visual effects whose task is to remodel the motion sequences on the green screen into a feast for the eyes. The studio’s increased production exacerbated the production issues these third parties were facing within the wake of the shutdowns attributable to the pandemic. The result has been criticism regarding disappointing superpower effects or messy CGI backgrounds that appear confusing.
Marvel began to distribute its releases. After “Quantumania” in February, the studio will release “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” in May, while “The Marvels”, previously scheduled for July, has been postponed to November.
As well as, the time between Disney+ Marvel series has increased. A new Marvel series hasn’t debuted because the final episodes of “She-Hulk” premiered in early October. Secret Invasion and Loki season 2 are next on the list, but Disney has yet to announce release dates for either.
“There are such a lot of more stories to inform,” Iger said on Thursday.