The Fallout from Sony’s Spider-Man Deal

by Nicholas Lemieux

August 20th wasn’t the best night for me. I was up quite late on my iPad when I got a message from one of my friends with a link to an article. The text he sent was just two words:  “we’re boned”. These were my thoughts exactly when I clicked the link and was greeted with the unfortunate news that trended all night on Twitter and overshadowed the announcement of a fourth Matrixmovie : Spider-Man was set to immediately leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Sony and Disney had failed to agree to another deal.

For some backstory, Sony and Disney had made a deal four years ago to incorporate Spider-Man, whom Sony had the exclusive film rights to, into the MCU. This meant, among other things, we finally got the reality of seeing Spider-Man interact with fellow iconic superheroes such as Iron Man and Captain America on the big screen. The deal initially seemed to benefit both companies: Disney would have their branch of Marvel Studios produce the films in-house and would also get the opportunity include Spider-Man in their other crossover films. Sony on the other hand would receive a majority of the gross each solo Spider-Man film would make, all without even lifting a finger in actually making it as well.

Up till now, the deal seemed to be going quite well; audiences quickly grew attached to Tom Holland’s portrayal of the web-slinging hero and it was not uncommon for many to praise him as the best depiction of the character so far, despite Holland being the third actor overall to play the character in the movies. The new movies themselves also did very well financially. Spidey’s role in Infinity War and Endgame meant he got to be in two of the five highest-grossing films of all time and his own solo films also performed exceptionally well. The most recent one, Spider-Man: Far From Home, released just a month before this news broke out, went on to become not only the first Spider-Man film to gross $1 billion but the overall highest-grossing Sony Pictures’ film too.  These films were well-loved and extremely profitable; so why is it that, for now at least, the deal’s off the table?

Apparently, the disagreements started when Disney made a proposal to up the revenue they would receive from each film: from 5% to a full-blown 50%. Sony then proceeded to reject the offer and refused to counter it, insisting Disney continue to receive 5% per their previous agreement. The deal soon enough broke down, became public,  and since then people have divided into two camps in favour of both studios: Those on Sony’s side point out the drastic leap from 5% to 50% when a much lower offer could’ve been made at say maybe 20%. It’s also worth noting Disney is still finding tremendous success in its other movies, with five of its movies this year alone having already crossed $1 billion. On the other hand, those on Disney’s side highlight the unfairness of the deal in Disney having to do all the hard work in producing the films and barely getting any profit outside of the 5% and the opportunity to include Spider-Man in the other Marvel films. Thus, it could be argued Disney is more than just in its demands for a higher pay.

Regardless, the fallout since has been a major blow for fans, myself included. Far From Home ended with a great set-up for a third Spider-Man film it would be a great pity if it were Spidey’s final appearance in the MCU, given the cliffhanger and how much untapped potential there is still left. It’s worth noting how, in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel seemed dead set in putting Spider-Man forward as the new face of the MCU in Iron Man’s footsteps. But as disappointing as this news is, the MCU still has a great ton of other superhero properties to use from, including the recently purchased Fantastic Four and X-Men from Fox, and the shows announced for the upcoming Disney+ service. It’s just a shame that they were so close to fully completing the Marvel family...

As for Sony, this is their third time handling Spidey all by themselves and hopefully they’ll have learnt their lesson by now. Their previous attempts to make a Spider-Man franchise have failed miserably after their meddling completely scuppered both the original Sam Raimi trilogy and the short-lived Marc Webb duology. If they have to reboot Spider-Man for the fourth time this century, it’s clear many fans will no longer continue to trust them. Tom Holland is contracted for a third movie, although if it does get made it won’t contain any references to the other MCU superheroes. Instead, after the financial success of Tom Hardy’s Venom last year as well as the critical acclaim and awards won by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it’s likely Sony will capitalise on the opportunity to have Tom Holland’s Spider-Man cross over with these properties instead.

There is still some hope that Disney and Sony can reach an understanding. Previous controversies similar to this, such as the firing of James Gunn, looked as though they had no solution in sight and yet he was eventually rehired after Disney witnessed the immense fan support firsthand. It would be an extremely wasted opportunity to take Spidey out of the MCU at this stage but I still think there must be an easy solution in sight. Ultimately, I suppose we should just be thankful enough that we even got this opportunity to have Spidey finally interact with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America on the big screen. Besides, whatever Spider-Man film we get next surely can’t be as bad as dancing emo Spidey from Spider-Man 3?...Right?