If you’re a Marvel fan like me, then you’ve probably heard about the recent drama between Sony and Disney regarding Spider-Man. If you haven’t heard about what is happening, here’s a summary. Sony has owned the film rights to Spider-Man since 1998. In 2015, they made a deal with Disney, agreeing to lend the character of Spider-Man to Marvel Studios, a company owned by Disney, and to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As we have seen over the last few years, Tom Holland’s Spider Man has played a large role in many Marvel movies. Recently, Sony and Disney have revisited their deal, and gone through negotiations about future steps for the Spider-Man character. On August 20th, 2019, Sony announced that Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, won’t be playing a role in the production of the next Spider-Man film. This means that Spider-Man is currently not a part of the MCU anymore. This news left fans feeling both angry and heartbroken, since Marvel’s latest movie, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” had set up Spider-Man to be the new face of the franchise. Upon hearing about this, I didn’t understand what happened between the two major companies, and wanted to know the reason behind the decisions being made.
Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man and gets to keep them as long as they make a new Spider-Man movie every five to six years. They started with “Spider-Man” in 2002, starring Tobey Maguire. After its success, they proceeded to release “Spider-Man 2”, and then “Spider-Man 3” in 2007. The third movie didn’t do quite as well as hoped, costing $260 million to make, with profits dipping significantly from the first two movies.
Five years later, Sony decided to reboot the series, and released “The Amazing Spider-Man” starring Andrew Garfield. This movie made over $700 million worldwide. With its success,”The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was made. Unfortunately, it did not live up to Sony’s expectations, with the very high production costs and lessened excitement from fans.
Because of their failed attempts, Sony struck a deal with Disney in
- Marvel would be able to use Spider-Man in their cinematic universe, while Sony kept distribution rights and creative control. Sony producer, Amy Pascal, who played a big role in the creation of the Spider-Man movies since 2002, produced "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home" with Kevin Feige. This deal had been upheld by both sides, until Sony decided to revisit the idea of making their own Spider-Man films.
Recently, Sony has been doing well with their own ‘Universe of Marvel Characters’. “Venom” made over $800 million worldwide after being released in 2018, and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” made over $1 billion this summer. These successes have been “just the rebound Sony needed.” Spider-Man is Sony’s greatest property, and they are highly motivated to keep it in their control.. This is why they had such an interest in taking back the character. Another reason why the deal was being revisited was because Disney wanted a 50/50 stake in future "Spider-Man" movies. Sony wanted to keep the deal as is: where Marvel receives up to 5% of first-dollar gross and all merchandising revenue.
As of right now, no new deal has been made. This indicates that unless something changes, Marvel Studios will not be involved in the making of new Spider-Man movies, and no MCU characters will be referenced. Sony hopes that Director John Watts and star Tom Holland will return for two more Spider-Man films. Even though this feels like a big loss for fans, we should remember that there are still more movies being made, and even though Marvel seems to be out of Spider-Man's life right now, Sony is hopeful that a deal could still be made in the future.
*Note: This article was written before the agreement between Sony and Disney to keep Spiderman in the MCU was reached.