Steve Jobs Called CEO Bob Iger To Tell Him IRON MAN 2 Sucked
We’ve got another amusing little tidbit of information to share with you from Disney CEO Bob Iger‘s recently released book, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.
We’ve already shared stories about how Disney almost bought Marvel prior to 2009 but thought it would tarnish the brand. Then there was the story of how George Lucas was disappointed with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Iger also admitted that they were overzealous with Star Wars content.
Now we’ve got an amusing story of how Apple founder Steve Jobs called up Bob Iger just to tell him that Marvel’s Iron Man 2 sucked! The Disney CEO shared:
“When Iron Man 2 came out, Steve [Jobs] took his son to see it and called me the next day. ‘I took Reed to see Iron Man 2 last night,’ he said. ‘It sucked.'”
At the time that this phone call took place, Jobs was a board member at Disney and their largest shareholder, so it makes sense that he would call him to give him his honest opinion. Regardless of his opinion, the movie ended up making a ton of money, so in the end, Disney and Marvel weren’t complaining.
While talking to Vanity Fair about his book, Iger shared details about Steve Jobs’ involvement in the Marvel deal, saying:
“In 2009, after our very successful acquisition of Pixar, we were interested in acquiring Marvel, so I met with Steve and walked him through the business. He claimed to have never read a comic book in his life (‘I hate them more than I hate video games,’ he told me), so I brought an encyclopedia of Marvel characters with me to explain the universe to him and show him what we would be buying. He spent about 10 seconds looking at it, then pushed it aside and said, ‘Is this one important to you? Do you really want it? Is it another Pixar?'”
And the rest is history. Iron Man 2 was released not long after Disney bought Marvel Studios, and Disney had no involvement with it. That movie was all Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige and it was released by Paramount Pictures.
So, when Jobs called Iger up to bash the movie, it was his way of telling Iger that he didn’t have faith in Disney’s decision to buy Marvel Studios. But, in the end, everything worked out just fine and Disney has made billions upon billions of dollars. It’s been their most successful acquisition. Jobs just didn’t like comic books.
Source: ScreenRant