The Marvel Hierarchy Is Getting Taken Out One By One!

And here I thought only DC executives were in the crosshairs. Disney has quietly been making some massive changes at Marvel as two long-time executives, one on the movie front and the other on the comics end, have been fired in the last month.

Could there really be a more obvious sign that Marvel and Disney are in serious trouble than the firing of two long-time, influential executives? I don’t think so.

So, for those who don’t know, which is probably a lot of people given how low-profile these firings have been, Disney have fired Marvel Entertainment (the comic book, merchandise, etc. side of Marvel) chairmen Ike Perlmutter and Marvel Studios (the movie/T.V. side of Marvel) executive Victoria Alonso, two of the most influential figures at Marvel, in the same month.

Yes, you heard that right, Disney fired two top executives at Marvel in the same month, even though both of these people were in poplar opposite camps of the brand. Strange, right?

Well, both Alonso and Perlmutter agree, obviously.

According to Alonso’s attorney, the executive, who was massively influential in the visual effects departments of most of the Phase 4 movies, was not fired due to her work on the Oscar-nominated documentary Argentina, 1985, which Disney says was the reason as it was a breach of her Marvel contract, or the increasing complaints and uproar over Marvel VFX artists being overworked and the quality of Marvel movies declining, but rather it’s because she was outspoken about political issues (ex: Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill) and criticized Disney for not speaking out about it more.

Moreover, Perlmutter, who helped saved Marvel from bankruptcy in 1996, sold the company to Disney in 2009, and served as the CEO and chairman of Marvel Entertainment from 2009-2023, says he was fired for complaining about the extraordinary cost of Marvel films as it created a massive rift with Marvel President Kevin Fiege and Disney CEO Bob Iger, putting him in the crosshairs of Disney’s $5.5B layoff restructuring.

Now, with Perlmutter and Alonso being on the compete opposite ends of the American political spectrum (Perlmutter was rumored to have supported Florida’s governor over Disney in the pairs’ ongoing legal battles), I fully believe these two firings were solely down to economic reasons as Disney CEO Bob Iger only survived a proxy battle poised by influential investor Nelson Peltz because of the $5.5B layoff strategy he’s since implemented at the House of Mouse.

Nevertheless, I will say with all of the restructuring, firings, layoffs, and general turmoil surrounding Disney and Marvel, it’s hard not to believe a lot of Disney’s issues have come from the poor performance of the MCU Phase 4. Whether you like or dislike Ike Perlmutter, he’s is factually correct when he points out how grossly expensive Marvel movies have become.

In Marvels last 5 theatrical releases, Spider-Man: Now Way Home had at least a budget and marketing spend of $400M+, Doctor Strange 2 had a budget and marketing spend of app. $375M, Thor 4 had a budget and marketing spend of app. $350M, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has a rumored budget and marketing spend of nearly $500M, and Ant-Man 3 had nearly a $350M budget and marketing spend.

That’s around $2B spent ($1.975B to be more exact) on just five Marvel movies!

Sure, all of these movies collectively earned $5.115B from the box office, but that number doesn’t tell the full story. First off, Spider-Man: No Way Home individually earned $1.916B of that huge pie (38%), while Doctor Strange 2 earned $955.8M on its own right (19%). Oh, and Sony, which still owns a part of Spider-Man, took away $600M from that $1.916B revenue.

So, if you do the math, the two earliest and widely accessible entries (Spider Man: Now Way Home-December 17th, 2021; Doctor Strange 2-May 6th, 2022) of Phase 4 (Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang-Chi all came out during the height of the pandemic) earned 57% of the entire box office revenues from that $5.115B box office behemoth! That’s not good!

And, even more worrying for Disney, I was extremely generous with my estimations of the true budget and marketing spend as the general rule of thumb is a movie needs to make 2-2.5X its production budget to make a profit as exact marketing spend is not included in the overall budget.

Thus, if you actually do that 2.5X calculation, Spider-Man needed to earn at least $1B for a profit, Doctor Strange 2 needed at least $937.5M for a profit, Thor 4 needed at least $875M for a profit, Black Panther 2 needed at least $1.25B for a profit, and Ant-Man 3 needed at least $875M to break even.

Can you guess how many movies of these movies achieved their box office needs? That’s right, just Spider-Man and Doctor Strange 2. And Doctor Strange earned a meager profit of just $18.3M by these calculations.

Black Panther 2 (box office: $859.1M), Ant-Man 3 ($473M), and Thor 4 ($760.9M) all fell well short of their enormous box office needs to break even, let alone make a small profit for Disney.

So, it’s easy to see why the Marvel hierarchy has been getting taken out by Bob Iger as not only has the cost of Marvel movies greatly exceeded the actual return said movies gain these days, but the general interest in superheroes will continue to fade the longer the Marvel writers, directors, producers, etc. view these characters with contempt.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Disney/Marvel Studios) (Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame – Official Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Disney/Marvel Studios) (Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame – Official Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (Disney/Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures Entertainment) (SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – Official Trailer (HD) – YouTube)