Washington - Walt Disney chairman and chief executive officer Bob Iger saw his reported compensation drop 3.4 percent to $44.9 million in 2015, as his cash bonus shrank by $410,000 and the value of a pension declined because of an accounting change.
Iger's bonus fell to $22.3 million in the fiscal year that ended on September 29, according to a proxy filed on Wednesday by the world's biggest entertainment company. The biggest factor, though, was a change in a discount rate applied to his pension. That resulted in an almost 50 percent drop in its reported value, to $1.42 million.
Iger, like many media CEOs, is frequently among the highest-paid executives in the country. His 2015 salary totaled $2.5 million, plus stock and option awards of $17.1 million and the cash bonus. He received 186 percent of his target bonus in 2015, compared with 200 percent in 2014, as criteria such as earnings per share and operating income rose at a slower rate than the prior year, when the company released "Frozen."
That picture, the top-grossing animated film of all time, also resulted in a consumer-products bonanza. In fiscal 2015, Disney released "Cinderella," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Ant-Man."
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens," is part of the current fiscal year so Iger's 2015 pay didn't reflect its performance. The movie set U.S. and global records for the biggest opening weekend of all time. Through Tuesday, it had generated $689.4 million in global ticket sales, in less than one week.
Bloomberg