Disney CEO Bob Iger Admits Company 'Lost Some Focus,' But Is It Too Late To Fix?

The Walt Disney Company has taken hit after hit over the past 18 months, and it seems like there might finally be some acknowledgement of what went wrong from its top executive.

Current CEO Bob Iger spoke to investors during an earnings call on Wednesday and admitted that there's been a significant drop in quality from the company's all-important film studio. While celebrating the success of Avatar: The Way of Water, Iger acknowledged that Disney's been on a significant streak of failure recently.

“That said, as I looked at our overall output, meaning the studio, it’s clear that the pandemic created a lot of challenges creatively for everybody, including for us,” Iger said. “In addition, at the time the pandemic hit, we were leaning into a huge increase in how much we were making and I’ve always felt that quantity can be actually a negative when it comes to quality. And I think that’s exactly what happened. We lost some focus.”

"Lost some focus" is one way to put it. Another is that Disney fundamentally altered its primary objective over the past few years. With predictably horrendous results.

ANAHEIM, CA - General views of the Walt Disney 'Partners' statue at Disneyland, which has recently reopened after being closed to the public for more than a year on June 06, 2021. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Disney And Bob Iger Have Problems In All Areas

Box office disasters have come from every angle, and from every one of their studios. Pixar injected a non-binary character into Elemental, which sure enough was a financial flop. They did something similar with Lightyear, which was a monumental failure, despite coming from the wildly successful Toy Story franchise.

Marvel's storytelling focus shifted as well, away from established heroes towards lesser known characters that came from more diverse backgrounds. The Disney animation studio, once the entertainment industry's most prolific and successful, released politically charged children's movies like Strange World, with predictably poor results.

But that's just the start of their "lost focus."

The theme parks, which had previously been immune to most culture war content, proudly announced their intention to remove "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" from the cast member lexicon, moving to a more "inclusive," "friends." They hired males with facial hair to sell dresses to little girls, an inexplicable decision that upset parents.

Not to mention their costly, public, ongoing legal battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over legislation designed to protect children that had nothing to do with Disney's business.

ESPN, once an unimpeachable, untouchable sports media giant, has faced significant downturns as customers move to streaming services, and marketable personalities are few and far between. Mostly due to hiring far left "talent" like Mark Jones, Mina Kimes, Elle Duncan or Malika Andrews. Andrews in particular took time out from actual sports programming to quite literally cry about abortion.

Shockingly, with hiring decisions like that, Insider reported that Iger's been aggressively exploring a sale of ESPN. Who would have guessed?

Can It Be Fixed?

By now, Disney's mistakes are well established. The question then becomes: what can be done about it?

Unfortunately for Iger and for Disney, the answer is quite likely: not too much.

At its core, when the company was at its peak, it was laser-focused on creating the best, most accessible family-friendly content. That content and the characters Disney established then became the basis for theme park rides, hotel theming or other brand-specific events or entertainment options.

That's no longer the company's primary focus. Instead, it handed the reigns over to its most progressive employees. And sure enough, those progressives have moved away from family-friendly movies into cultural activism. Turns out, it was a poor financial idea to alienate at least half the country.

READ: DISNEY’S FINANCIAL DISASTERS ARE EVEN WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED

But once you give progressives control over a company or institution, they don't give it up. The capture of the education system is one example, as is Hollywood's transition from a relatively balanced right-left industry to an overwhelmingly far left one.

Disney is a left wing company now, because its employees are left wing. Something that's unlikely to ever change. Bob Iger and other top executives likely now realize that changing what made its brand successful in the first place was a bad idea. But changing it back seems entirely impossible.

Disney's Financial Struggles Getting Worse

If not for the decades of good will and quality design that made the current theme parks what they are today, Disney's financial picture would look even worse. And even with those benefits, Iger announced he wants to cut another $2 billion in costs to make Disney+ profitable.

But why would anyone pay money to subscribe to a service that contains movies they have no interest in? Haunted Mansion was a financial disaster, The Marvels looks to be yet another financial flop after the Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania bombed earlier in 2023, despite making the lead character's daughter an anti-police social justice activist.

Who wouldn't want to spend $12-15 per month to watch those movies over and over again?

Iger seems to be signaling that he's aware that the focus shift hasn't helped the company's bottom line. But he was the one who started the shift into left wing activism in the first place. And unless he's willing to clean house at the company and restore some political and cultural balance, Disney could settle into a malaise of mediocrity. Hamstrung by poor performing political movies that no one wants, but appease their liberal creative talent.

In other words, it could get worse before it gets better.