Things have been trending this way for a while.
Isaac “Ike” Permutter, 80, famously the head of Marvel Entertainment, has been let go by Disney. The move comes as part of Disney’s cost-cutting campaign, which seeks to eliminate 7,000 positions and save the company $5.5 billion as a means of improving financial results.
Nonetheless, it’s not often you you see an upper-level executive like Perlmutter laid off in in these sorts of circumstances, especially so in the case of publicly known names like his. Especially considering that he’d been with the company since selling Marvel to Disney in 2009 for $4 billion. According to two anonymous Disney executives, Perlmutter was notified by phone that Marvel Entertainment (a small division focused on consumer products) would be folded into other, larger, Disney business units.
This comes at the end of a several month campaign in which Perlmutter attempted to get friend and activist investor, Nelson Peltz, on the Disney board. Reportedly, Perlmutter contacted boardmembers 6 times on the matter between August and November last year. Peltz then entered into a proxy battle to put himself on the board, in which he claimed he would cut costs, revamp their streaming business, and clear up their succession issues.
This all came to an end in February, when Bob Iger unveiled the current cost cuts and restructuring. Peltz then withdrew.
At that point, the writing may have been on the wall for Perlmutter. In addition to Perlmutter, Wednesday saw both Rob Steffens, co-president of Marvel Entertainment, and John Turitzin, chief counsel for the division, laid off as well. Not much of a surprise, considering the division is essentially going to be absorbed into other divisions at the company.
Notably, Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Entertainment, will remain with the company, reporting directly to Kevin Feige. Previously, he reported to both Feige and Perlmutter.
Perlmutter’s influence over the Marvel property’s media projects has diminished over the years. He hasn’t been involved with the movie franchise since 2015, in which he had a disagreement with Feige over the budget of the first Doctor Strange movie. Perlmutter wanted to fire Feige; Iger overruled him. Perlmutter lost control of Marvel’s television projects in 2019. In the end, Perlmutter’s oversight was limited to the likes of comics publising, which earns Disney $40-$60 million a year. He also handled Marvel Game licensing, certain consumer products, and superhero arena shows.
Perlmutter was known for a certain excessive frugality. Notably, he used to pull paperclips out of the garbage at the offices for reuse. In another example, he suggested serving potato chips at a movie premiere to save on catering costs. He also once installed about 20 cameras in the Marvel offices to keep an eye on their activities. Disney ripped out these cameras a few years ago.
He continued in his efforts to have a say in the Marvel movies long past the removal of his oversight. Notably, he questioned the $200 million spent on the development of Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, which coincidentally went on to make $956 million at the box office.
Not helping matters were differing political views between Perlmutter and Iger. Perlmutter supported Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, and plans to support him in the 2024 election as well. Whereas Iger is quite famously Democrat blue, and advocates using Disney movies as vehicles for progressive values.
This is merely the first wave of the cost-cutting measures, Iger is putting in place. A larger number of layoffs will occur in April, with the final wave hitting “before the beginning of summer.”
Source: The New York Times
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