Synergy

As I write, Iron Man 3, starring a man whose career and life were in shambles not too many years ago, is gobbling up local currencies around the globe.

But gross receipts and profit margins will soon be getting even better.

... These are the movies Disney has in the pipeline for 2015: high-powered sequels directed by dudes with geeky street cred (J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon) in "Star Wars: Episode VII" and "The Avengers 2"; Pixar's animated follow-up "Finding Dory"; Johnny Depp's seafaring adventure "Pirates of the Caribbean V" (which still doesn't have a director, although there's a good chance Gore Verbinski will return following his work on the studio's "Lone Ranger"); "wildly ambitious" original Pixar movie "Inside Out," and new Marvel property "Ant-Man," which, like "Star Wars: Episode VII" and "The Avengers 2" will be helmed by a fan favorite (in this case, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" director Edgar Wright).

2015 represents a year when every facet of the Disney company is operating at once – all of the companies and properties that the studio has gobbled up over the years (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm) are present and accounted for, humming with synergistic efficiency. It's no coincidence that Bob Iger, the Disney chief executive responsible for all of these pricy acquisitions, intends to step down in 2015, supposedly to run for political office in New York State on the Democratic ticket. Basically, it's the studio executive equivalent of dropping the microphone and walking off the stage.

The first part I buy. The second part, not so much.

I guess it's possible that Robert Iger lusts to hold public office, yearns to stand at factory gates at six in the morning, stamping his feet against the cold and shaking hands with men and women trudging in for the early shift.

But I wonder.

On the other hand, exiting one of our fine, entertainment conglomerates when subsidiaries are firing on all cylinders and the money is gushing in, that I get. Who wants to be thrown out by angry stockholders?