Multiple Spider-Man Spinoffs Reportedly Already in Development

Earlier today, Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal told investors, "We are going to access Marvel's full world of Spider-Man characters, so be on the lookout for new heroes and villains."

That makes sense, given the fact that comic book movies have been two or more of the top five movies in the U.S. for each of the last couple of years and projections are that will keep up at least for another year. Spider-Man, meanwhile, has been one of Sony's most lucrative franchises for over a decade and is one of a pair of comic book adaptations (the other being Men in Black 3) that eclipsed the half-billion mark in 2012; both of those films made more money than any of Sony's 2013 output so far (as of this moment, the studio's top-grossing movie of the year is Grown Ups 2, with less than $250 million globally) and were two of the studio's three best performers last year (the third being Skyfall, which posted a franchise-best $1.1 billion globally, but which was made in cooperation with MGM, who gets a  healthy share of the profits). This afternoon, a second Sony executive spoke up, specifying that not only is the intention to delve deeper into the Spider-Man universe, but that the studio is already actively developing scripts based on characters covered under their Spider-Man license from Marvel. "We do very much have the ambition about creating a bigger universe around Spider-Man. There are a number of scripts in the works," Sony Entertainment chief Michael Lynton revealed. He added that the studio, who have been criticized as lagging behind Marvel and Fox in terms of the quality of their non-Spidey adaptations in the past, is "working closely with Marvel and Disney" on moving forward.