Spider-Man Deal: Financial Details, ‘Amazing Spider-Man 3,’ ‘Venom,’ More
By eelyajekiM
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 at 10:38 pm
This deal just keeps getting better all the time. Disney has deep pockets, you’d think that Sony would ask the rival studio to pony up some cash to regain the rights to Spider-Man. Well, if you’re already thinking of a number in the billions, you might want to take it down all the way to zero.
Hours after it was announced that Disney would be “sharing” Spider-Man with Sony, details about the deal are being revealed. First up came info regarding when Spidey might make his Marvel debut, whether Andrew Garfield will still be playing the role of Spider-Man, and if the Sinister Six movie was still on or not.
Now new details have arrived, this time revealing some of the financial details of the deal and the status of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and other spinoffs like Venom. More on all of this after the jump.
Starting with the deal reached between Marvel and Sony, Variety reports that it’s all pretty simple and straight forward: Marvel won’t pay Sony anything to use the character in their cinematic universe, such as The Avengers movies or Captain America: Civil War, and neither Sony nor Marvel will take a cut of the other studios’ projects involving Spider-Man. What Marvel’s movies make, Marvel keeps, and vice versa.
The only way one can make money from the other is if Sony’s movies hit certain financial milestones, but what those milestones are is not known. Basically Sony is letting Marvel use the character in exchange for Marvel lending them their magical touch in developing and creating hit superhero movies.
It sounds pretty crazy at first, but honestly, if this is what it takes for Spider-Man to be a part of the MCU, then I am all for it.
And while it may look like no one is really winning from a monetary standpoint, the deal actually helps both parties. Marvel finally gets to have Spider-Man in their universe, and Sony gets to have a proper Spider-Man film that allows the character to be a part of the MCU and join his fellow Avengers and Marvel heroes, minus X-Men and Fantastic Four of course.
Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige will also be receiving a huge paycut for producing the films. Per Variety, Feige will not be receiving any payment for his contributions to future Spider-Man related movies, despite being a producer.
That is pretty huge, and considering that it’s all about the numbers, it’s quite shocking to see that two major studio heads were willing to sit down and play nice.
So what does all of this mean for The Amazing Spider-Man 3? Well, that movie is officially cancelled, which all but guarantees that Andrew Garfield is out. According to sources, Sony is planning to go back to the character’s roots when Peter Parker was still in high school. This means, naturally, that a younger actor would be required.
As for the spinoff movies, we had previously reported that only the Sinister Six film was in the works, while the status of the Venom and all-female team spinoffs seemed to be cancelled.
Well, now it appears Sony will continue to move forward with not only Sinister Six, but also Venom and the all-female Spider-Man universe project as well.
Feige will also not be involved in the spinoffs in any capacity. The press release did say that Sony would have final creative control over Spider-Man, so just how much influence Feige will have is unclear. At this point, giving him the producer title seems more like a formality, but we will see.
This is fascinating, b/c it shows just how desperate Sony is. Technically, Marvel could’ve waited another year for S6 to bomb (and believe me it still will) and then Sony would’ve relinquished the rights. This probably has everything to do with Amy Pascal and new mgmt coming into Sony, as well as shareholders getting incredibly nervous.
Since Marvel Studios and Disney will probably not have anything to do with the spinoffs, Marvel has most likely won the rights battle. Marvel has Spider-Man back and if profits from the new movie make a ton of money, then Marvel has the opportunity to buy their property back if the spin-offs do poorly. I can guarantee that Disney lawyers put in new language into the sharing contract and are already planning ways to win the full rights back permanently.
Very very cool, indeed! This shows promise for the film industry as a whole. One can only hope that more studios take a page from Marvel and Sony’s book and play nice with each other more often. This is good for the studios and the fans alike. Great news!
Comment by SubPopGeek — February 11, 2015 @ 9:24 pm
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This is fascinating, b/c it shows just how desperate Sony is. Technically, Marvel could’ve waited another year for S6 to bomb (and believe me it still will) and then Sony would’ve relinquished the rights. This probably has everything to do with Amy Pascal and new mgmt coming into Sony, as well as shareholders getting incredibly nervous.
Since Marvel Studios and Disney will probably not have anything to do with the spinoffs, Marvel has most likely won the rights battle. Marvel has Spider-Man back and if profits from the new movie make a ton of money, then Marvel has the opportunity to buy their property back if the spin-offs do poorly. I can guarantee that Disney lawyers put in new language into the sharing contract and are already planning ways to win the full rights back permanently.
Comment by Lor — February 11, 2015 @ 12:14 pm
Very very cool, indeed! This shows promise for the film industry as a whole. One can only hope that more studios take a page from Marvel and Sony’s book and play nice with each other more often. This is good for the studios and the fans alike. Great news!
Comment by SubPopGeek — February 11, 2015 @ 9:24 pm