Bob Iger made $31.6 million as Disney's CEO in 2023
Disney CEO Bob Iger raked in $31.6 million in compensation last year – a multi-million-dollar boost from his income the year before.
Iger's 2023 pay package included a base salary of $865,385, stock awards totaling $16.1 million, $10 million in stock option awards, $2.1 million in performance-based compensation and $2.48 million in other compensation, according to The Walt Disney Company's annual proxy statement, which was filed Tuesday.
Iger received a hefty pay bump in 2023, his first full year back at the helm of Disney after coming out of retirement. In 2022, Iger brought in $15 million in total compensation, according to the filing.
Iger served as Disney's CEO from 2005 to 2020, but he reemerged from retirement in November 2022 to replace his hand-picked successor, Bob Chapek, less than three years after Chapek took over the role of Disney CEO.
Although Chapek left the entertainment company in 2022, he still made $9.9 million in total pay from Disney last year, according to the filing.
Despite Iger's multi-million-dollar paycheck, Disney has faced growing challenges in the past year, including a string of box office flops, declining linear TV viewership and an uneven transition into a streaming future. Under Iger, streaming losses on Disney+ continued. Iger's solution to stem the losses - more ads on the service, higher subscription fees and less content - did little stop the red ink. In fact losses at the service soared, sending shares plunging further.
In November, Disney said it would slash its expenses by another $2 billion, adding to the $5.5 billion reduction it had previously announced as it looks to rebuilt its business in a rapidly changing media environment.
On the company's fourth quarter earnings call in November, Iger touted the "progress" Disney had made to improve its business, but said there was still work to do.