The Bob Iger Company

By Eduardo A. Viera

To understand Bob Iger’s Disney, you must first understand his philosophy to being acquired: “I was a living, breathing example of how someone could not only survive an acquisition but thrive.” This, of course, is quite the understatement. Bob Iger used to be the president of ABC Television before it got acquired by Disney, until he eventually rose through the ranks and became the CEO of The Walt Disney Company. As such, his tenure as chief executive can be summarized with one word: acquisitions.

In 2006, less than six months after being given the role, Iger announced that Disney would buy Pixar for a then-incredulous amount of $7.6 billion. Although it seemed high at the time, the deal has proven to ingenious: since being acquired, Pixar has generated more than $7 billion in the box office, and Cars (2006) alone has sold over $10 billion worth of merchandise. Also, by making Edwin Catmull (founder of Pixar) the president of both Pixar and Walt Disney’s Animation Studios, Iger successfully rejuvenated Disney’s animation branch, as it went from making flops such as Treasure Island (2002) to cultural and commercial hits such as Frozen (2013) and Zootopia (2016).

  So, Bob Iger struck gold with Pixar - but it wasn’t enough. Because his vision for Disney is to have franchises that transcends mediums and time (think The Lion King and its broadway musical), Pixar became only the beginning. Next, Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billions in 2012… right before The Avengers came out. This became an even bigger success story than Pixar - the MCU is an $11 billion box office juggernaut that had made a measly $1 billion before Disney bought them. Today, it has become a well-oiled machine that releases at least two movies a year.

Finally, Bob Iger’s grand finale: LucasFilm. After being poached by Iger for years, Lucas finally gave in and sold his precious baby for $4 billion to Disney in 2013. It is important to note that this doesn’t only mean Disney gets the rights to making new Star Wars movies (which is already quite a lot). LucasFilm also created Indiana Jones, so this deal gave Disney two multi-billion franchises. Of course, this acquisition has only started to bear its fruits, but its off to a good start by already making more than $3 billion at the box office.

Thus, by acquiring Pixar, Marvel and LucasFilm, The Walt Disney Company now has multiple guaranteed hits in the box office every year. And when you include their newest homegrown franchise, the “Live Action Fairy Tales”, Disney has four powerful franchises that show no signs of stopping. Only problem is, it might just be too much. All of these franchises (except for LucasFilm) are churning out more than one movie per year, which has led Disney to cut the waiting time between each release. Therefore, dominating the box office has had the consequence of self-cannibalism. The question: Can Disney Keep Growing?

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