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Competition or Not, Bob Iger Applauds ‘The Super Mario Bros.’

bob iger super mario bros
Credit: Disney (left); Universal (right)

May 10 saw the Walt Disney Company host its earnings call for the second quarter of the financial year. The Mouse House shared its numbers for the previous quarter, giving insight into what the company has been doing for the last three months. The call featured some bombshells, namely, Disney CEO Bob Iger calling out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his actions against Disney and Walt Disney World Resort, labeling them a “matter of retaliation.” The call also gave the Disney community insight into how Disney’s streaming service, Disney Plus (Disney+), was doing and announced a surprising change to how Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN would operate.

Bob Iger in his office

Bob Iger in his office / Credit: Hollywood Reporter

Disney Movies & Streaming

While Disney has definitely made its money and still had some of the best movies of the last few years to credit to its name, one would be remiss not to acknowledge that was largely due to the number of properties it owns. The company is an entertainment giant. Between Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Pixar, and of course, its very own Walt Disney Studios, it always has productions that fill its coffers and prop it up even when others are not doing well. Think how successful Avatar: The Way of Water was despite how badly movies like Lightyear did.

Disney has taken note of this and has announced changes in the way it will be operating when it comes to creative control and production of content. Moreover, with all these changes and with the recent success of a competitor’s movie, Disney CEO Bob Iger is optimistic about the future.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie / Credit: Universal Pictures

The Super Mario Bros. Movie / Credit: Universal Pictures

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 

Based on the immensely popular video game, The Super Mario Bros. Movie from Universal Pictures has done exceedingly well in theaters. As described on IMDb, the movie follows “The story of The Super Mario Bros. on their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom.”

The movie is not the first attempt to make a movie off the franchise. The late 80s saw a live-action movie based on the video game that did miserably. However, Nintendo gave Universal Pictures the rights to make an animated movie which was released on April 5 of this year and has completely countered its predecessor’s performance, earning over a billion dollars at the box office.

The movie has done so well that even Disney CEO Bob Iger took notice of it during the earnings call on May 10, 2023.

cinderella castle at magic kingdom park, walt disney world resort

Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom Park, Walt Disney World Resort / Credit: Disney

Mr. Iger commented, “Allow me to digress for a moment to congratulate Universal for the tremendous success of Super Mario Brothers.” He continued, “It certainly proves people love to be entertained in theatres around the world and it gives us reason to be optimistic about the movie business.”

Perhaps this is a sign of better things to come, and brighter days ahead, from and for Disney. At the very least, it proves that Disney is paying attention to what is working in the market and its competitor’s successes; and the company is gracious enough to celebrate them as well.

About Priyanka Kumar

Priyanka is a writer, artist, avid reader, and travel enthusiast based in Chicago. In her free time, she is probably walking by the lake, catching up on the latest releases on TV, or spending inordinate amounts of time rewatching Moana, Encanto, and her Disney Channel life-long favorites Zack and Cody wreak havoc on the Tipton.

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