It may come as a surprise to some, as news broke last night that Marvel Studios is no longer a part of Marvel Entertainment.
The move, which includes Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige, integrates the studio with Walt Disney Studios, with Feige reporting to Alan Horn. This means Marvel Studios isn’t under the watchful eye (and some say tight fiscal grip) of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter any longer.
Depending on when and where you read the original story, this move happened very quickly after Fiege voiced his concerns to Disney execs Bob Iger and Alan Horn, regarding his interactions with the Marvel Entertainment CEO. With the movies/Fiege making billions of dollars for Disney, it looks like it was better to shift divisions to keep nearly everyone happy (and the billions rolling in).
Though Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment are still owned by the same parent company, I wonder if this move will leave a bitter taste in someone’s mouth, resulting in mandates coming from on high regarding characters in comics who are also appearing on screen. It would be very hard to do this with the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy riding high, but who would have thought Fantastic Four would come to an end and the X-Men’s prominence being reduced?
I don’t know about you, Dear Reader, but I’m very interested to watch the business side of these divisions going forward, as I think we are going to see more “stuff” hit the fans in the coming months. Certainly Feige made the move to give himself more room to negotiate contacts and films, but with Perlmutter still controlling the comic, television and animation properties, will he still be as willing to make movie deals happen? Perlmutter is currently Disney’s largest single shareholder, which makes him one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, and it is in his best interest to make Disney as much money as possible.
What are your thoughts on this move? Use the comment section below to share your opinion.
1 Comment
Maybe now the Movies division will have the creative freedom to stretch its legs. I mean, there’s a reason I don’t read superhero comics, and I’m not alone in that. Hell, even fans of the genre are complaining about a lot of tropes – especially the business tropes – needing to be replaced and updated. I mean, these things have served its purpose, but as the saying goes, adapt or die.