Sony Stock Drops After Breaking up With Marvel Studios on Spider-Man

Sony and Disney have officially fallen out over the rights and profits to Spider-Man in the movies. Needless to say, the reactions of outrage from Marvel fans have been explosive; and now, it’s looking like backlash to the announcement could affecting Sony’s bottom line profits.

Analyst have observed a dip in Sony’s stock price immediately following the breaking news that the studio was breaking ties with Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Check out the official figures in the chart below (measured at the time of writing this):

As you can see, Sony’s stock price dipped by upwards of -0.060 for a price of $55.66 per share in the wake of the Spider-Man announcement – the lowest price for the day. It wasn’t a huge loss at all, but could be the first real economic indicator of how unpopular this schism between Sony and Marvel is with fans.

According to reports, the new deal that Disney wanted to strike would have given Disney its stake in the Spider-Man franchise, while also bringing Sony’s universe of Spider-Man movies such as Venom into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sony reportedly turned the offer down without so much as a counteroffer. Sony seems not to want to share its biggest film franchise, and instead preferred to keep the current arrangement intact, which sees Disney receiving an approximate 5% of each Spider-Man movie’s first-dollar gross. Kevin Feige reportedly would have been willing to stay onboard the Spider-Man franchise if the two companies could have come to terms, but their fallout now makes that, at best, unlikely.

Then again this stock drop could be the initial tipping that needs to occur for Sony and Marvel to consider the pros and cons of this decision. Seeing the backlash from fans, plus major fluctuations in earnings, would definitely be enough to at least re-invite the conversation of how Sony and Disney could work together, and provide some road to compromise on the 50/50 split that Disney initially pushed for. If the two companies can’t come to that point themselves, well, Marvel fans have already taken up the petition to make it happen anyway.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021,Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.