Disney CEO Bob Iger hasn’t left the building yet, and on Monday’s earnings call he said didn’t want to get too “nostalgic” about his two-decade run at the company.
The Disney board is expected to select Iger’s successor by midweek. As he gets ready to depart as the Mouse House’s CEO, Iger noted the turnaround in the Disney theme parks business since he first took the top job in 2005 — with the parks business rivaling the movie and TV in being the leading contributor growth and profits.
“We have a healthy competition now at our company in terms of which of those two businesses is going to essentially prevail as the No. 1 driver of profitability for the company,” Iger said on the earnings call. “But I’m confident that both have that ability, meaning both have the ability to grow nicely into the future, giving all the investments that we’ve made and the trajectory that we’re on.”
For the last three months of 2025, the parks business was the stronger performer. Disney’s theme parks and products biz hit a record $10 billion in revenue (up 6%) in the year-end quarter and operating income rose 6% to $3.3 billion. Revenue in Disney’s entertainment business rose 11% to $11.6 billion but operating profit dropped 35%, to $1.1 billion, on higher content, production and marketing costs.
Iger is reportedly planning to step down before his contract officially expires at the end of 2026. The board is “aligning” around selecting Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, per Bloomberg.
Commenting on the agenda for Disney’s next CEO, Iger said that “trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake.”
“In the world that changes as much as it does… trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake, and I’m certain that my successor will not do that,” he told analysts. “So [the new CEO will] be handed, I think, a good hand in terms of the strength of the company, a number of opportunities to grow and and also the exhortation that in a world that changes, you also have to continue to change and evolve as well.”
Earlier on the call, Iger didn’t exactly sound like he was ready to go yet. “I don’t want to really… get too nostalgic or spend too much time on a possible transition,” he said, before interjecting, “or the probable transition.” The good news, he said, “is that the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago.”
Iger previously retired at the end of 2021, after serving as CEO of Disney for 15 years, and was replaced by then-CEO Bob Chapek. But in November 2022, the board ousted Chapek and brought Iger back as chief exec.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com ’
