In the last three years, especially in conjunction with the advent of the pandemic, there has been a large production of television series that have attempted in some way to condition the universe of some sagas on content more oriented towards on demand services and always less to films designed for the cinema. This phenomenon has manifested itself more with the Marvel cinecomics, but we also find the same case for other sagas of great notoriety, such as that of "Star Wars".

Although some products have benefited their respective brands for the good quality degree and the right amount of entertainment - think of the first seasons of "The Mandalorian" or the more recent "Andor" -, more often than not we have witnessed very lackluster that paradoxically weakened the narrative assumptions of their respective brands.

In this regard, the current Disney CEO Bob Iger wanted to express some considerations, specifically complaining about the excess supply by Marvel titles in particular as regards the television series available on the Disney + service, considered by the company head a disappointment for the fans and responsible for «having diluted the attention and concentration of the public».

Speaking at the Sun Valley Conference and responding directly to CNBC's David Faber , Iger allegedly admitted that he had ruined audience expectations with streaming products that, on balance, would be the result of an uncontrolled development process rather than truly inspired choices . The result can be perceived precisely in the overall drop in global receipts, as happened for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" which would not even have reached the total of 500 million dollars.

«Recently – he said – we have suffered some flops. We wish some of our newer productions had better performance. It's not a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think the overzealousness in substantially growing our content for streaming has ended up creating too abundant an offer for the audience, diluting their attention and concentration.

And with respect to the Marvel case in particular, he declared: «Marvel is an excellent example of this. They had never been in the television business on a significant level. Not only did they ramp up their film output, but they ended up making a slew of TV shows and, frankly, depleted attention."

Iger would also have expressed himself on the disappointing box office results of the latest Disney-Pixar title "Elementals", underlining how inconvenient the decision to release as many as three titles by the studio on Disney + during the pandemic: «There have been three Pixar releases of row that went directly to streaming, mainly due to the health emergency. And I think they may have created an expectation in the audience that they will eventually stream anyway, probably after a short time, so there's no urgency to go see them in theatres. And then I think there were also some creative mistakes».

But Iger has long been talked about in recent days also for his controversial statements regarding the strike of actors and screenwriters that is raging in the United States without respite. Calling it a "very disturbing" situation, according to Iger the protest will have a very serious impact on the whole industry: "Such a level of expectation among WGA and SAG members is not realistic" and although it respects the rights and wishes of the he argues that they "need to make more sense about the business environment and what this business can offer." In short, positions that are not exactly conciliatory and which would even suggest an escalation of the disputes in the next period.

Giovanni G. Scanu

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