Iger said he also does not think that streaming will be the “death” of movie theaters, “but I think it is a severe injury that maybe does not heal.”
“It does not mean it is fatal” to movie theaters.
“It might be fatal to some. I think even with COVID and people spending more time in [at home], I think it is pretty well understood and known that people have an innate ability – or need, rather – to go out and socialize and be out of the home,” Iger said.
“I think people will still want to go to movies,” he said. “However, they will be much more discerning about what movies they want to see out of the home.”
Iger disputed the notion that large tech companies are increasingly controlling Hollywood. However, he said one of his last pieces of advice to Disney’s board of directors and top management was to avoid letting data collection drive creative decisions.
“What I mean by that is determining what stories should be told,” he said,
Data collection can he useful in managing businesses, finding customers or improving marketing, he said, but “no matter how fast data is crunched, no matter how much technology enables input of massive amounts of information, I don’t think you get the right answers” about creative decisions.
