Earlier today, CEO of the Walt Disney Company Bob Iger was named the “Most Powerful Person in Entertainment” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
What’s Happening:
- Marking the fourth year in a row, Bob Iger has been named The Hollywood Reporter’s “Most Powerful Person in Entertainment.”
- Iger oversees the industry’s largest and most influential entertainment business and an unrivaled collection of IP and brands with a market cap of around $234 billion. The acquisition of 21st Century Fox and $71.3 worth of assets helped Disney expand in 2019, using existing libraries and new original content to help launch the highly-anticipated Disney+ streaming service on November 12th.
- Last month, Iger also became a bestselling author with his new book, “The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.”
- Under his leadership, the film studio has five of the year's top 10 films and has brought in $8 billion in box office revenue, a new record, with Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker still to come.
- Iger is also guiding the company through some challenges of the last year, including layoffs that resulted from the integration of Fox assets, and lower-than-predicted attendance at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at the domestic Disney Parks
- Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, was named the number five “Most Powerful Person in Entertainment” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
- Feige began 2019 at the Oscars with the first superhero movie (Black Panther) to be nominated for best picture.
- Feige was also involved in a studio fight for a sequel to one of his 2019 films, Spider-Man: Far From Home, with Marvel completing the Sony trilogy.
- The $1.1 billion launch of Marvel's first female-headlining movie, Captain Marvel, was a prelude to Avengers: Endgame, which with a box office of $2.8 billion overtook Avatar to become the biggest movie of all time.
- Fiege is currently working on Marvel properties acquired via the 20th Century Fox acquisition as well as a Star Wars project, and is reportedly soon becoming the Chief Creative Officer of Marvel.