With Spider-Man: Far From Home recently grossing over a billion dollars, you’d think Marvel would never let Spidey go. But that’s exactly what’s happening.
After a series of disagreements between Sony high-ups and Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, Sony has decided to go forward with producing Spider-Man films without Marvel’s input.
Disney, the company that owns Marvel Studios, tried speaking with Sony Pictures on new terms about a co-financing stake going forward. Disney asked that future Spider-Man films be a 50/50 co-financing agreement between the two companies. Sony turned this offer down outright and then the companies couldn’t agree on terms to split a name as profitable as Spider-Man.
According to Deadline, sources said that Sony’s Tom Rothman and Tony Vinciquerra gave Disney various offers, all of which were turned down. Sony was not prepared to share its biggest franchise and most profitable films ever. Far From Home stands as Sony Pictures’ best performing film, grossing well over US 1$ billion worldwide.
The current terms between Sony and Disney was that Marvel receives in the range 5% of box office gross. With no new deal struck, Feige has been removed as the producer of the franchise and Sony will go at it alone, like it did back in the early 2000s.
Sony has responded to the news with saying:
“Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise. We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live action Spider-Man film,”
“We hope this might change in the future, but understand that the many new responsibilities that Disney has given him – including all their newly added Marvel properties – do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own. Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue.”
Deadline goes onto say that sources confirm the two upcoming Spidey movies will still have a Tom Holland lead and likely Jon Watts as director.
With Disney buying up Fox recently, Marvel now has control of the X-Men universe and thus the Deadpool name too. Couple this with the new Marvel phase being ushered in and the looming Disney+, Keige does have a lot on his plate. This is what Sony is referring to with the newly added Marvel properties.
Shifting focus away from Spider-Man and towards new names is the positive spin for Marvel, according to Sony. They’ve done well in the past without the MCU, with its solo-produced animated Spider-Man film even bagging an Oscar. (Best Animated Feature Oscar for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.)
With Sony outright saying it hopes for the sour relationship to change, there’s hope out there for those of us begging for more Spider-Man x MCU goodness.
.jpg)
