One Marvel Franchise Named Hollywood’s Most Valuable According to Experts (and Avengers Is Snubbed)

Marvel Studios will be putting out two of its biggest blockbuster films in years in 2026, but the one that carries the best hope for the future of the franchise is probably not the one you expect. Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be released in theaters next year; the former will be the biggest crossover event in Marvel movie history, and the latter will be a pivotal fresh start for Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man movie brand, following a massively successful trilogy.

However, according to a new industry report, most analysts are betting on Spider-Man to be the best bet for the Marvel brand’s future, not the Avengers or any major characters that come with them.

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Bloomberg did an entire report titled “Who Hollywood Thinks Will Buy Warner Bros.” It crowd-sourced Hollywood talent, agents, and executives who all discussed and analyzed the current entertainment industry, as related to the massive looming merger between Warner Bros. and a yet-to-be-determined buyer. Part of that report was a speculative question that definitely caught the eye: “You run a studio and can buy any IP in town. Which of these do you buy?” The top answer turned out to be Spider-Man, beating out both Harry Potter and Avatar.

Immediately after that question, there was a poll asking what “Hollywood’s Most Valuable Franchise” currently is. Spider-Man won again, beating out Harry Potter, James Bond, Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros., DC’s Batman, HBO’s Game of Thrones, Avatar, and the Minions animated movies.

Why Is Spider-Man Marvel’s Most Valuable IP?

A lot of Marvel metrics have admittedly been skewed in the last 20 years, thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU films and TV shows made international icons out of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers, while Spider-Man got lost in the shuffle between the lackluster end of Sam Raimi’s film trilogy and the lackluster reboot that was The Amazing Spider-Man franchise.

This was a massive shift in Marvel culture. Before the MCU arrived – before those standalone Marvel movies (X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Ghost Rider, Daredevil) ever became blockbuster staples in the 2000s – Spider-Man was the cash-cow. Marvel arguably made more from merchandising and licensing the Spider-Man character than they ever did from any of the Avengers, individually or collectively. Almost every child has some kind of brand contact with Spider-Man during their upbringing, and over half of them buy into the brand in some form or fashion (content viewing, wearing apparel, buying toys and other merch, attending theme parks, etc.).

The MCU has become a massive branding success for Marvel, without a doubt. However, a quieter part of the post-Avengers: Endgame drop-off has been the subsequent drop-off in Avengers branding and merchandising. Having Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America step aside, or Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther pass away, left big holes in the brand – and replacement characters like Anthony Mackie’s Captain America or Dominque Thorne’s Ironheart didn’t fill that void.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man is a tried-and-true branding success that has ascended beyond Marvel and its usual customer demographics. Tom Holland’s three MCU Spider-Man movies earned nearly $4 billion at the worldwide box office; various Spider-Man animated series have been consistently running on TV since the 1990s; Insomniac Games has a three-win streak with its Marvel’s Spider-Man gaming series, and even Spider-Man comics achieved new mainstream success with the rebooted Ultimate Spider-Man series, which dominated the sales charts this year. That’s not even calculating annual sales for Spider-Man merch and licensing deals. When you step back and consider all that, yeah, Avengers doesn’t even come close.

With more films, games, animated series, and the works already in the development pipeline, Spider-Man’s brand has successfully broken through to a new generation. And with every successful decade that stacks up behind him, Spider-Man looks even more like the undisputed king of Marvel that he is.

Avengers: Doomsday will be in theaters on December 18, 2026. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be in theaters on July 31, 2026.