'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Producer Speaks Out On Oscars Cutting Off Their Thank You To Stan Lee And Steve Ditko
Last night, Sony's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy [...]
Last night, Sony's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards. With three directors, a pair of producers, and several other crew members on stage to celebrate the victory, fans were quick to notice nobody thanked Stan Lee or Steve Ditko, the creators behind Spider-Man and a huge part of the web-slinger's mythos.
Fans can rest easy knowing Spider-Verse co-director Bob Persichetti was planning on thanking the late creators, except the production team behind the ceremony cut the microphone feed in an attempt to move events along. Spider-Verse producer Chris Miller confirmed as much earlier this afternoon on Twitter.
What @bob_persichetti was going to say on stage before the mic was cut off:
— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) February 25, 2019
“And finally thank you Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for inspiring all of this and believing we all have the capacity to be heroes.”#SpiderVerse
"And finally," Persichetti was saying as he was cut off. "Thank you Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for inspiring all of this and believing we all have the capacity to be heroes."
Into The Spider-Verse had big-time competition at the biggest awards show of the year in Pixar's Incredibles 2 — the highest-grossing animated film to ever hit theaters — and the critically-acclaimed Isle of Dogs from Wes Anderson. Other nominees included Mirai and Disney's Ralph Breaks The Internet.
Spider-Verse held steady at the box office, earning $359 million worldwide ($184 million domestic) against a reported $90 million budget. Incredibles 2 ($608m domestic) and Ralph Breaks The Internet ($199m) both bested Spider-Verse commercially. Though it wasn't an Oscar nominee, Dr. Seuss' The Grinch finished second among animated movies (between Incredibles and Ralph) at last year's box office, raking in $270m.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is available digitally beginning February 26th and on home media release starting March 19th.
Where would you rank Into The Spider-Verse among the rest of the Spider-Man films released? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!
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