The famously-frugal executive Ike Perlmutter is shown the door at Disney, as part of its cost-cutting drive.
You’ve likely heard that 7000 jobs are being cut at Disney as the company girds itself to make $5.5bn worth of savings. It also emerged this week that like Meta, Disney have also massively cut the operating costs of its future-facing metaverse division, effectively conceding that the whole enterprise was a ridiculous waste of money, something we could have told them a couple of years ago. Disney has killed its metaverse division entirely, laying off 50 or so staff.
As well as downgrading its spend on futuristic ideas, the company has also released a famous face from its past, with news emerging today that Ike Perlmutter is now surplus to requirements at Disney. It’s rather ironic given that Perlmutter, legendary in Hollywood for his frugality, is being let go because of, well, cost-cutting. At the same time though, this has been coming for a while.
Perlmutter’s power over the Marvel brand was vastly diminished in 2015 when he effectively lost a power struggle with his then-subordinate, Kevin Feige over a few key issues including the budget for Captain America: Civil War and the creative direction of the MCU. From that point, Perlmutter lost his influence over film production and has played a vastly diminished role ever since (although he remains a significant shareholder in the company so could still prove to be a thorn in Bob Iger’s side at some point down the line).
Perlmutter’s cost-cutting was legendary in Hollywood, with that being the reason the US army inexplicably travelled through dangerous territory with a mere three Humvees in the beginning of 2008’s Iron Man. Of course, the news comes hot on the heels of the firing of Victoria Alonso, a major part of the MCU’s success since the days of Iron Man. Changes continue to come at Disney and we’ll keep you abreast as we hear more.
Screen Daily
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