Bob Iger Honored With Snow White Service Award After 50 Years at Disney: “Success still hinges on one thing: great storytelling”
Bob Iger was recently awarded with a special Snow White Service award by House of the Mouse for working at Disney for 50 years. The businessman shared the image of the award on his private social media account, thanking everyone he worked with and imparting words of wisdom to his followers.
“success still hinges on one thing: great storytelling,” says Iger, who joined ABC in 1974. Though Bob Iger received the service award, he hasn’t technically been at Disney for 50 years yet. Iger joined the company in 1974 and served in various roles before becoming CEO in 2005, a position he held until 2020.
He stepped down as CEO in 2020 but remained as executive chairman until late 2021 to oversee the transition to Bob Chapek. Iger officially retired in 2021 and was succeeded by Susan Arnold. However, Disney reinstated him in late 2022 to replace Chapek, about whom Iger had reportedly voiced concerns behind the scenes.
One of Iger’s most notable achievements as CEO was his strategy of acquiring high-value entertainment companies to enhance Disney’s portfolio. Under Iger’s leadership, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox have been acquired, and currently, those are their strongest assets, especially since no one at the time could have predicted how big of a phenomenon the MCU would become.
Iger’s award comes amid worrying reports that the company lost an eye-watering amount of money on its streaming service Disney+. There is also the fact that the MCU is less and less profitable as time goes by, with ‘The Marvels’ and ‘Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania’ being box office bombs.
As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories. Basically we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss. It was clear to me that our structure was not working, because we were removing accountability from those that were basically investing the most capital was a mistake.
Bob Iger
Disney found itself on the list of box-office losers when it comes to the 2023 report and it finished the year without having a billion-dollar movie, a rarity for the media company. Under the light of these reports, Iger said that Marvel Studios will be limiting their creative output in the next couple of years, fans can expect 2-3 live-action movies per year and 2 shows.
However, we’re halfway through 2024 and Disney already has a profitable hit on their hands with ‘Inside Out 2’ and a possible R-rated billion-dollar blockbuster with ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’
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