Disney CEO Bob Iger Received A Compensation Of $65.6 Million In 2018 — About An 81 Percent Raise
A couple of years ago, Robert (Bob) Iger chose to stay on as the CEO of The Walt Disney Company until a successor could be chosen. This past year, Iger chose to stay on until Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox was complete and totally in place. Those decisions may have been some of the best things that he could have done, as numbers have now been released for 2018 and Iger ended up with a compensation of $65.6 million.
For those counting, that is close to an 81 percent raise over the compensation he earned in 2017 when he chalked up $36.3 million. These numbers all come from the documents that The Walt Disney Company filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of 2018.
The compensation that Iger earned was actually calculated off of Disney’s fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2018. There were a couple of things that ended up contributing to his huge jump in compensation for that year, and $71 billion spent to acquire 21st Century Fox is only a part of it all.
Iger’s new contract signed with The Walt Disney Company back in March of 2018 will keep him in the position of CEO until 2021 is over. Some have thought that the new contract would push his eventual yearly compensation over $100 million, and it’s getting closer to that.
While the acquisition of much of Fox’s assets is huge, Disney had plenty to be proud of before that even happened.
As reported by Deadline, Walt Disney Studios earned more than $7 billion at the box office in the 2018 calendar year. It is the second time in the history of the company that they’ve done that with the first time coming in 2016 with more than $7.6 billion worldwide.
Over the last few years, Disney has brought in huge amounts of box office revenue thanks to Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and their own studios’ films. Adding the properties and characters from Fox is only going to make that number go even higher in the years to come.
The Inquisitr previously reported that Disney actually owns eight of the top 10 spots on Fandango’s list of the most anticipated movies of 2019.
Bob Iger’s compensation package in 2018 included a base salary of $2.8 million, which was up $300,000 from 2017. He also acquired stock awards of more than $35 million, which was a $27 million increase from the previous year.
One thing to realize is that Bob Iger’s stock package has a clause in place which states he can only earn his full stock-based bonus if Disney ends up doing extremely well. If Disney outperforms 65 percent of all companies on the S&P 500 index, Iger could receive a stock bonus of close to $135 million.
Bob Iger staying on as CEO of The Walt Disney Company for a few more years is something that surprised a number of people, but only at first. Eventually, Disney started looking at Fox and there needed to be someone in charge to monitor the whole situation, and that is what he’s doing. As Disney continues to grow at the box office and in theme parks and in merchandise around the world, Iger’s compensation and salary will only continue to do the same.
