Ike Perlmutter, wearing dark glasses, visits President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago in December 2016. Jonathan Ernst (Portal)
Trouble in the Marvel Universe. Internal fighting within Disney ended Wednesday with the downfall of Isaac Perlmutter, a key businessman in transition who turned a comic book company into one of Hollywood’s most valuable brands. Perlmutter, known in the industry as Ike, has been fired as part of the entertainment giant’s decision to cut 7,000 jobs in the coming weeks. The Marvel Entertainment division, led by Ike, has been left almost managerless following the layoff of other senior positions today and will be acquired by Disney, the company reported in a statement.
Marvel’s success is based on getting the best out of its universe. Perlmutter’s departure appears to be motivated by reckoning. The executive, one of Disney’s largest shareholders, has a long and difficult relationship with Bob Iger, who became CEO again in November to help the company weather the crisis. Both personally negotiated Marvel’s arrival at Mickey Mouse’s home, in an operation that was completed in 2009 for $4,000 million. Perlmutter himself, who was responsible for reviving Marvel on the brink of bankruptcy, took in 1,500 million with this transaction.
The relationship between the two had deteriorated over the years. In 2015, Iger removed him from the Marvel Studios leadership, a position that remained in the hands of Kevin Feige, the creative mind responsible for the audiovisual web of characters and stories. Feige was the instigator of this fall, having begged Iger for more freedom after proving that the world he projected based on Stan Lee’s designs had become the goose that laid the golden eggs at the box office . With the maneuver Perlmutter remained without decision-making authority in film and television productions. “He wasn’t happy. And I think the anger has continued ever since,” Iger said in an interview with CNBC in February.
Perlmutter did not give in, but continued to express his opinion on the projects. The businessman, known in the industry as stingy, has criticized the multi-million dollar investments Disney has made to produce films like Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness. Ike supported an old friend and collaborator, Nelson Peltz, in a campaign calling for a change of course and austerity in spending. The goal was to get Peltz a seat on the board of directors. Perlmutter has called various Disney executives at least six times since last summer to support the move. Those efforts ended Iger’s plan to cut spending by $5.5 billion. Much of the savings will be in content.
Journalist Ben Fritz describes Perlmutter’s keen eye for business in his book The Big Picture. The businessman of Israeli origin is a veteran of the Six Day War. He came to the United States in 1967 at the age of 24 with $250 in his pocket. He made his fortune by buying companies that were on the brink of bankruptcy and transforming them thanks to draconian austerity policies. He did it with supermarket chains and toy makers like Coleco, who made Cabbage Patch dolls.
One of the companies that saved Perlmutter was Toy Biz, a company that signed a deal to manufacture Marvel toys in the 1990s. The comic book publisher was on the brink of bankruptcy in the middle of the decade with more than $700 million in debt. Perlmutter, allied with powerful investors Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman, backed by banks and mutual funds, saved it from closure with the idea of putting it to the service of film studios. The first test was Spider-dMan, a character whose rights were sold to Sony for just $10 million per film plus 5% of box office earnings. The Marvel Universe laid its foundation.
Perlmutter became the de facto boss of the studios, where he immediately shaped his austere style. With the exception of Robert Downey Jr., the early stars of the Marvel Universe were paid small salaries by Hollywood standards. Chris Hemsworth earned $150,000 for the first Thor film and Chris Evans earned $1 million for the role of Captain America in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. The main cast were offered a bonus based on box office performance. This Wednesday, Ike Perlmutter is retiring from Disney along with vice president Rob Steffens and adviser John Turitzin, who have also been fired. Dan Buckley remains the sole president of Marvel Entertainment and will oversee comic book publishing. He will report to Kevin Feige, head of the powerful Hollywood studio. This made it clear who won the pulse.
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