Spider-Man is in pre-production on the “Spider-man: Far From Home” sequel. On Saturday morning both studios announced that an agreement had been made to keep Spider-Man in the MCU. Photo by Muhd Asyraaf on Unsplash
Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures have reached an agreement to keep Tom Holland’s Spider-Man character as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This ends the disputes that have gone on for the past few months.
The original deal to include Spider-Man in the MCU was made between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures in 2015. The deal benefited Sony Pictures, who owns the film rights for Spider-Man, after the disappointing box office return of 2014’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” The deal also benefited Marvel Studios by allowing them to use Spider-Man, one of the most famous superheroes in the world, in the MCU.
The deal made in 2015 had Marvel producing Spider-Man films and keeping the merchandise money while Sony kept all of the box office revenue, except for 5% of the opening day, which went to Marvel Studios.
This deal led to Spider-Man’s appearance in “Captain America: Civil War” and two solo films “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in 2017 and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in 2019. Both Spider-Man movies produced by Marvel became among the highest-grossing Spider-Man movies at the box office, grossing $880 million and $1.1 billion, respectively.
The deal came to an end on Aug. 20 when it was announced that the two studios failed to come to an agreement on a new contract. Disney wanted to split the box office money 50/50 but Sony wanted to keep the original agreement.
Sony may have had the confidence to not renew the deal due to the financial success of the two Spider-Man related films they released in 2018 without the involvement of Marvel Studios: The spin-off “Venom” and the animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
Although the deal fell through, many speculated that another agreement would come in the future as the partnership had been lucrative for both studios.
On Saturday morning both studios announced that an agreement had been made to keep Spider-Man in the MCU. Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige shared his enthusiasm about the deal in a press release.
“I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” Feige said.
Some of the stars of the Spider-Man movies showed their enthusiasm on social media. Tom Holland posted a clip of “The Wolf of Wall Street” where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character yells “I’m not leaving.” Zendaya also joined in the celebration by posting a GIF of a dancing Spider-Man.
The new deal has Marvel Studios putting up 25% of the budget for the next Spider-Man movie in exchange for 25% of the box office gross. The deal also states that Spider-Man will appear in one other MCU movie, possibly the next Avengers film.
As of now, Spider-Man is pre-production on the “Spider-Man: Far From Home” sequel, which will likely get started next year. Given how much money is involved for both studios, this won’t be the last time disputes arise.
Edison Escobar is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at edison.escobar@uconn.edu.
