You know by now that yes, it appears the Spider-Man sharing deal between Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Studios has run its course. Despite a few outlets providing a slimmer of hope, the common consensus seems to show Sony walking away with their live-action rights from the Marvel Cinematic Universe fully. As one might expect, MCU fans are pretty furious…furious enough to get a #BoycottSony movement trending on Twitter worldwide just moments after the news first surfaced.
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The thing is, Sony really isn’t at fault in this scenario — the studio fully owns Spider-Man and his rogue’s gallery of villains and supporting characters alike. At the end of the day, they can really do whatever they want with him — but again, they’re really not at fault for this fractured deal. Let’s jump into a little bit more.
When the deal between the studios was first inked for or so years ago, Marvel didn’t pay Sony a penny for the web-slinging character to appear in Marvel Studios films. Think of it as a loan of sorts. Marvel assumed full creative control of Spider-Man while Sony continued the fully finance the films. On the flip side of it all, because Sony fully-financed the films, the studio also received nearly the entire box office — the lone exception being Marvel’s 5 percent returns. That’s right, Marvel essentially got five percent of the box office revenues from both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home — on top of complete creative control, to an extent — and they didn’t pay anything in.
Now, the issue comes when Walt Disney Studios suddenly wanted a bigger piece of the pie. According to Deadline‘s report on the situation, Bob Iger and his team wanted to split financing with Sony right down the middle in a new 50/50 deal. This would likely mean Disney would assume half the debts of producing the Spider-Man films and in return, get half of the box office receipts. Not just that, but the Disney offer is reported to have included all other Spider-Man live-action movies such as Venom and Morbius.
While Sony does have a less-than-stellar track record critically with The Amazing Spider-Man films and Venom, there’s no denying the studio has been on a hot streak. Despite falling on its face with critics, Venom was on the verge of grossing a billion dollars and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the studio an Oscar.
It all comes down to the dollars and cents and in this scenario, Sony’s not really in the wrong. They own the property and Disney wants a bigger chunk — what’s wrong with saying no to that?
Do you think Sony and Disney will be able to iron out the details? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by joining the conversation on Twitter by hitting me up at @AdamBarnhardt!
Spider-Man: Far From Home is now in theaters.
