Former Disney CEO Says Pixar Is the Best Acquisition He Made

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the proudest acquisition he made while in charge of the company was Pixar Animation Studios. Iger was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2020. During that time, he was instrumental in purchasing several high-profile brands, including Lucasfilm (and the Star Wars IP), Marvel, and 20th Century Fox. Pixar, the studio behind hugely popular franchises such as Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc., has since proven to be a powerhouse in the film industry, especially in animation. A Pixar movie has won 10 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature in the 20 years since the category was introduced.

Alongside its critical accolades, Pixar grew into a reliable, commercially successful studio since the release of Toy Story in 1995. Pixar’s generated over $14.7 billion in box office sales, with the vast majority of this revenue following its induction to the House of Mouse in 2005 for $7.4 billion. As the fourth highest-grossing animated film series in box office history, the Toy Story franchise acted as the catalyst for much of the studios’ victories. The franchise will continue into 2022 with the release of Lightyear, the spin-off prequel that tells the story of the origins of Buzz Lightyear (the character, not the toy).

In an interview with CNBC, Bob Iger, who stepped down as Disney CEO in February 2020, revealed that the acquisition of Pixar allowed the company to expand into other territories, as it proved original storytelling could be achieved on grand scales without a loss of legacy. Although celebrated as a brilliant buy-out today, analysts were skeptical when the multibillion-dollar deal was announced. Many said that Disney had paid too much for the animation studio. The full comment can be read below:

“I’m proud of a lot of the decisions that were made… Certainly, the acquisitions — I’d say of all of them — Pixar, because it was the first. And it put us on the path to achieving what I wanted to achieve, which is scale when it comes to storytelling. That was probably the best… What I wanted to do more than anything is, I wanted to send a signal to everybody at Disney that it was a new day, that we were more open-minded about expansion, in particular about partnerships…”

With Disney+ now one of the biggest contenders in the streaming market, a new avenue of growth has opened up for Pixar and other Disney-owned franchises. The Simpsons already parodied Star Wars and Marvel in Maggie Simpson In The Force Awakens From Its Nap and The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, respectively, which would likely have only been possible thanks to Disney’s recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox. More recently, Marvel’s What If…? director Bryan Andrews expressed an interest in collaborating with Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios if the project was right, a further indication of the possibilities afforded to a company that owns large swathes of the entertainment industry.

Despite Pixar’s most-recognizable successes, some have argued that the studio has struggled in recent years with the relative failings of some of its original titles. A prime example of this was 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, whose storytelling was regarded as subpar to Pixar’s industry-leading standards and 2020’s Onward. However, this was more a victim of the coronavirus pandemic affecting theatrical releases. Regardless of recent hiccups, the billions spent under Bob Iger’s tenure as Disney CEO will unlikely ever be viewed as regrettable. Disney-Pixar‘s 15-year track record for innovative, inspirational content continues as one of the cinematic calendar’s brightest highlights.

Source: CNBC

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