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Today was the 2024 Q4 earnings call. During the call, Bob Iger boasted about Disney’s massive leaps this quarter and year. Much of this was bolstered by the success of “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The media, like Deadline, are praising Bob Iger and giving him all the credit for the turnaround. But was it him?

Deadline posted, “In executive commentary around the numbers this morning, Iger and CFO Hugh Johnson cited renewed creative strength, “a result of the extensive work we began two years ago to restore creativity to the center of the company.’ Iger rejoined the company as chief executive almost exactly two years ago, replacing his ousted, hand-picked successor Bob Chapek.”

The media credits Iger for these wins, except many of them were not under him; they were under Bob Chapek.

Let’s focus on the two big films that helped the company achieve this huge 39% jump.

Disney’s 2019 acquisition of most 20th Century Fox assets in a deal worth north of $71 billion enriched the Murdoch family but also swelled Disney’s debt and continues to have a mixed response from Wall Street. On a call with analysts today after quarterly earnings, Bob Iger strongly defended the move as critical to completing Disney’s content and distribution heading into the streaming era.

“In late 2017, when we announced initially that we were acquiring assets from 20th Century Fox, we specifically mentioned that we were doing so through the lens of streaming. We saw a world where streaming was going to proliferate, and we knew we needed not only more content with but more distribution,” he said in response to a question about media consolidation.

“And with that came just a tremendous amount of content. When you talk about 60 Emmys, so much of that came from that acquisition. Or when we talk about Avatar,...

Just a year ago, Disney CEO Bob Iger was in the midst of an ongoing apology tour for the studio after string of tepid box office returns. At a conference last November, he acknowledged that things had a taken a downturn and promised, as he had been doing regularly, that Disney will be stressing quality over quantity after The Marvels, the latest Indiana Jones and a handful of other films disappointed.

“I’ve been very public about it saying, and I would say right now, my number one priority is to help the studio turn around creatively,” he said.

Now he has something to crow about.

The company’s fiscal fourth quarter that ended in September was one of the best ever in the studio’s history. Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine became the top films of the year so far, setting box office records.

Two top Congressman want Bob Iger, David Zaslav and Lachlan Murdoch to provide some solid answers about Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Fox’s proposed sports streaming service.

Putting their political feet on the gas, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-ny) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-tx) want a response by the end of the month, and they want the Department of Justice looped in.

(L-r) Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-ny) and Rep Joaquin Castro (D-tx)

“The Joint Venture raises questions about how this new offering would affect access, competition, and choice in the sports streaming market,” wrote Nadler, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Castro, a longtime guardian of antitrust issues in the media, to the trio of CEOs today (read it here). “Without more complete information about the pricing, intent, and organization of this new venture, we are concerned that this consolidation will result in higher prices for consumers...

The recently announced Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming service isn’t exactly going over like gangbusters with much of the industry — and possibly not with the government.

Fubo is the first to sue, though it may not be the last. On February 20, Fubo TV Inc., which bills itself as “the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform,” filed an antitrust lawsuit against the three companies in the new joint venture — and their affiliates. The suit argues that Disney, Fox, and Wbd “have engaged in a years-long campaign to block” Fubo, “resulting in significant harm to both Fubo and consumers.” Those claims date before the surprise February 7 announcement of the trio’s own unnamed (and unpriced) sports-centric service, which the new lawsuit says “steals Fubo’s playbook.”

Hey, if you can’t beat ’em…

The Fubo lawsuit further says the defendants have “leveraged their iron grip on sports content...