Why Disney Won't Buy Spider-Man Back From Sony - Inside the Magic

Comments for Why Disney Won’t Buy Spider-Man Back From Sony

Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in "Spider-Man: Far From Home" (2019)

Credit: Marvel

38 Comments

  1. Julian Hairston

    Not sure what the author is talking about. Spider-Man 3 made a whole lot of money at the box office.

  2. Hornacek

    Yeah, SM3 was the most profitable of the Raimi movies, and made more than either of the Webb films.

    Hard to take anything else they say seriously if the get something like that wrong.

  3. Mike

    So, what it boils down to is a measuring contest? Money can be argued all day, but smart execs can see the ROI and find an amicable deal. Zip up, grow up, and don’t mess up a deal that may hurt you in the long run.

  4. Mike

    So, what it boils down to is a measuring contest? Money can be argued all day, but smart execs can see the ROI and find an amicable deal. Zip up, grow up, and don’t mess up a deal that may hurt you in the long run.

  5. Tres

    Actually, I no longer care about Peters story. Miles Morales has better powers and an actually more relevant and interesting story than Peter’s. Sony can keep PP.

    1. Andre

      Miles falls under the same deal. They own more than just “Spiderman” or “peter parker.”

    2. Óscar Jiménez Garrido

      The autor of this article seems unable to understand the difference between ‘ownership’ and ‘lease’. Sony doesn’t OWN certain multimedia usage rights related to the Spider-Man characters and stories, they simply HOLD them. Not the same at all. It would only take something as simple as an apparently irrelevant creative slip on a released piece of media that somehow incurred in an infringement on one of the myriad of conditions set and signed during the latest revision of the leasing contract for the multimedia rights to revert back to Marvel/Disney.

      I swear sometimes I surprise myself considering the possibility that the sole reason behind the hundreds, or even thousands, of articles of this kind getting published on all kinds of media on a constant basis is to try to instill in the collective mind the aforementioned notion of Sony actually OWNING the Spider-Man franchise in all fronts and for all effects and purposes – and it seems to be working somehow, as every time this issue comes up in some geeky conversation, online or elsewhere, there seems to be a majority of individuals who are staunchly and adamantly convinced that that’s indeed the case. Just a small reminder of how easily – and often – the media subverts and shapes the presentation of facts in such a way that it also manages to subvert and shape the general public’s perception on certain facts, like a socially engineered Mandela effect of sorts.

      1. Backcountry164

        Probably because for most normal people and in context most of the time the difference is purely semantic. And be honest, the only time anyone is ” staunchly adamant” is after you’ve shown up to argue what, again, normal people would consider to be irrelevant…

    3. Malu Omeonga Jr

      I concur! The storyline is raw and genuine. It doesn’t fabricate anything. It cuts right to the meat and bones

    4. Chris Wood

      Explain to me how Miles Morales is a better character?

      1. Tony

        He’s not. He’s just a second rate rehash of an existing character. Which is about as uninteresting as a character gets.

  6. Chardle

    This article is more than a little misinformed.

    Spider-Man 3 made the most in theaters, and wasn’t beaten until Far From Home 13 years later. We only didn’t get Spider-Man 4, because the film fell apart in the early pre-production stages. Sony wasn’t getting Amazing made quickly enough, so they gave Marvel the merch and TV rights back as a stay of execution on keeping film rights.

    Marvel hasn’t had control of Spider-Man’s film rights since the late 1970s to 1980s. There was such a cluster of rights juggling, and a court ultimately ruled it was Columbia/Sony that had claim to them.

    Marvel’s always had creative control over his MCU appearances, that came out soon after the 2015 deal was made.

    Also, the circumstances of the deal falling apart, and getting mended between Sony and Disney is more complicated than I feel like typing out at the moment, AND Holland said it’s been extended beyond the current two film deal.

    Finally, Disney/Marvel getting the film rights back would not violate antitrust laws, since that only covers corporate acquisitions. Spider-Man on film is not a company, just a license.

    If Sony just stopped making Spider-Man movies, those rights would default back to Marvel anyway.

    1. Andre

      100% accurate

    2. Mark C Barbin

      Disney should not venture into the movie arena, unless it only involves their own characters.

      *Mickey concurs…*

  7. Philip Martin

    The Maguire and Garfield movies made bank at the box office, the only one the critics panned was The Amazing Spider-man 2 (2014). And it got rebooted because it didnt make as much as the first one, it made roughly the same amount tho, the first trilogy was making more and more with each movie, but didnt make as much as they wanted the third time around along with backlash due to their interference. Work was started on a 4th one, they had the cast and script, but cancelled in favor of a reboot. They had to make a film every 2 1/2 years ir have proof about it, not necessarily release it, they has to renew the rights after the Maguire trilogy in order to keep them. And after Spider-man: Far From Home (2019) it was Sony who screwed up the deal, not Disney, by not renewing after the expiration, because they saw how much it made, and said hey, we did this, we dont need Marvel Studios, when in fact it was because of Marvel Studios that it was so successful, coming off of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) and great storytelling from a tied in universe that lead to the billion dollar hall. Then Disney came into the rescue to get it back and negotiated the 50/50 fund and earn, but Sony refused, and so Disney settled with 25/75 fund and earn because Sony is selfish. And its not that Disney has no interest in getting Spide-man rights back in full. Sony willing to part with the remaining rights forn $10 billion which is more than what they purchased the entirety of the Spider-man rights for, but they gave up tv and merchandise, and all other rights back to Marvel and Disney already. It was also way more than what Disney had payed for Marvel already and Marvel and Star Wars combined, Disney wasnt gonna do that for one character. And monopoly laws wouldn’t prevent the purchase at all, as Sony has significantly lost their size and value over the years and is going out of buisness and will need to be saved, they are soley relying on Spider-man to stay afloat and nothing else, but they are offering for a much too high price than what they are worth. Disney has interest, but is waiting. Do your research bud

    1. AJH

      “Relying on Spider-Man” is where you went wrong, the PlayStation division is most definitely what’s keeping them “afloat”.

    2. daniel-wu

      That’s.. so wrong. Sony’s game services and electronics products actually made more money than Sony Pictures.

  8. Pat

    Ridiculous article sugar coating the real story. Everybody involved back when Marvel was having a garage sale with Character rights was partying all night and snorting at places like studio 54.

  9. Todd

    California’s Main Antitrust Law
    It generally mirrors federal antitrust law under the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Cartwright Act prohibits any agreements among competitors to restrain trade, fix prices or production, or reduce competition.
    1:not restraining trade
    2:not fixed trading
    3: argue it reduces competition but that’s not their goal.
    3min research killed this argument

  10. Dip Schlitz

    This article didn’t age well at all.

    1. Nick

      That’s what happens with inaccuracies, the longer they’re out there, the more people see them and the more obvious they become.

    2. Lenny

      I agree. Plus, the rumors about Disney planning to buy Sony Pictures are not debunked.

  11. JC

    Miles comics have been given chance after chance and don’t sell. Any other character would have been shelved by now.

  12. Jesse

    More like Sony is not trying to sell the rights to Spiderman.

  13. Mark

    Biggest load of crap article lol, Disney would totally buy the rights back and tried to a few years ago…..Sony will not sell them and that’s why Disney basically loans Spider-Man

    1. Lenny

      I agree. Plus, the rumors where Disney is planning to buy Sony Pictures are not debunked.

  14. Snewbs

    Not a very well researched article. Marvel may have had all thier IPs on a list for optioning. But thats not what happened. Marvels last chapter 11 bankrupcy was 1996. Then we had the merger with with toybiz. The optioning of the spideyverse, the x men universe and the fantasic four universe ARE marvels trinity. Just as supes, bats & Diana are DCs.
    SpideyVERSE was optioned on a rolling 5 year option. If sony produced and brought to market a spideyVERSE film every 5 years or under, the option to keep making the spideyVERSE films stayed with sony. If sony did not make one within 5 years they would lose the option and all rights reverted back to Marvel.
    This is WHY Sony produced the VENOM films, as Sony STILL had to release a spideyverse film every 5 years.
    The real reason Disney’s in no hurry to buy the rights to the universe back!
    After 15 years of superhero movies the audience is ready to move on to other genres. By the time Sony get a spider man film out again the whole superhero movie thing will be done. Little profit left at the end of the line. The MCU breathed life back into marvels cinamatic IPs that gave sony a lifeline on the option. They really had no idea where to go with the IP.

    1. Houston Don

      Those who espouse the belief that audiences are done with superhero movies have been jumping on that bandwagon for years now, forgetting that box office numbers shoot down their arguments every single year. Half the top ten domestic movies were in the genre this year and show consistently high numbers streaming, in movie sales/rentals, and related merchandising. Many of the most anticipated movies of 2022 are also in the genre so the popularity of it is not in question to most.

    2. Lenny

      Well, I agree that this article is wrong. Plus, the rumors where Disney is planning to buy Sony Pictures aren’t debunked.

  15. Crispen

    On top of not aging well, the article reads like it was written by people doing more drugs than 70s era Marvel writers. Sentence structure all over the place, the most awkward possible phrases. My god it’s painful.

    1. Lenny

      I agree.

  16. Backcountry164

    What a stupid premise. Obviously Disney would buy back the only MCU character that is currently relevant in a heartbeat if they had the chance. The ball is 100% in Sony’s court.

    1. AJH

      “only MCU character that is currently relevant”
      Hulk: am I a joke to you?

      Haha, this MCU Hulk is definitely a Nerfed joke but I doubt he would be this under powered if Disney owned the movie rights.

    2. Lenny

      I agree. Plus, the rumors where Disney is planning to buy Sony Pictures aren’t debunked.

  17. Jason Orton

    Ok..off the wall question…Disney can’t buy Sony…BUT..just to throw a wrench in it. Could whoever the hell now owns Warner Brothers buy Sony?

    1. Sven

      Hahahahaha, that would be genius 😂

    2. Lenny

      Well, the rumors where Disney is planning to buy Sony Pictures aren’t debunked. The guy who wrote this is joking. He has no proof.

  18. Lenny

    That’s ridiculous. Disney can buy Sony Pictures. It’s still possible. Plus, the rumors where Disney is planning to buy Sony Pictures are not debunked. I have a feeling it could happen soon.

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