Disney can't just buy back Spider-Man, nor purchase Sony outright due to monopoly laws. Unlike gaining the rights to the X-Men and Deadpool when The Walt Disney Company acquired 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios), Disney wouldn't buy Sony to have Spider-Man under their umbrella.
There are several problems with the idea of Disney buying Sony: Sony's net worth is currently about $37.45 billion. That's a lot of money for Disney to raise after it has just coughed up $71.3 billion to merge with Fox.
Eager to get Spider-Man on the silver screen, Marvel sold the rights to Sony in 1998. The deal between Marvel Entertainment Group and Sony meant that the studio could produce as many Spider-Man films as they wanted. Sony got the film and merchandise rights, while Marvel kept the comics rights.
Disney and Sony Pictures have signed a multi-year “content licensing agreement” that will bring new Sony theatrical releases, starting with its 2022 films, to Disney-owned platforms.
As the battle for the legal ownership of Spider-Man continues, Marvel and Sony could both lose the rights to the iconic webslinger as early as 2023. The battle for Spider-Man's legal ownership continues, with both Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures potentially losing the rights to the iconic superhero as early as 2023.
However, Cannon Films went bankrupt and the character changed hands several times. Litigation over ownership kept the wall-crawler off the screen and in court for years. It wasn't until 1999 when Marvel finally reclaimed the film rights, which it then sold to Sony Pictures for a reported $7 million.
Why did Marvel sell to Disney? In 2009, The New York Times reported that Marvel had trouble financing some of its major movies and meeting a requirement to raise a third of its budget by selling off overseas distribution rights.
The Spider-Man franchise and all its related content are owned by Sony, while Disney practically owns everything else Marvel. That means all the Maguire, Garfield, and even Holland films, which are directly connected to Disney's MCU, are actually owned by Sony.
Originally Answered: Why Marvel sold Spiderman to Sony? In the 90s Marvel went through bankruptcy. They needed money and they sold off the movie rights to a lot of titles. Sony got Spidey and related characters.
After a stretch of speculation, Comcast on Thursday made official its $3.8 billion acquisition of DreamWorks Animation. It's a clear play to take Disney head-on, but more than that, it's a reminder that family content is one of the last sure bets a content company can place.
But it doesn't make sense for Apple to bring Disney into the fold for a myriad of reasons. While Apple's market capitalization of $3 trillion dwarfs Disney's $150 billion, Apple has historically avoided purchasing name-brand companies, or merger and acquisition in general. The tech giant's largest acquisition was Dr.
According to Deadline, Disney proposed a 50/50 cost and profit sharing arrangement for future Spidey movies. Sony said "no", unwilling to share its golden goose, to which Disney threatened to remove its golden child from the deal — Marvel super-producer Kevin Feige.
Sony technically owns the screen rights to the Spider-Man family of characters, but the rest of the Marvel catalog is owned by…well, Marvel. So Marvel Studios and Sony struck a deal where they can both use Spider-Man, but Venom is technically still all Sony.
Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the character's film rights were returned to Marvel Studios alongside the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.
The film was initially released and distributed by Universal on June 13, 2008, and the company held the rights to the title for 15 years. Now, in a notable shift, the rights have reverted to Marvel Studios, leading to the film's release on Disney+.
He's not for sale. Sony will not give up their number 1 money maker. Every single Spider-Man movie that's been released since Spider-Man in 2002 has never made less than $700 million, excluding Into the Spider-verse.
Marvel Legally Wins Back Iconic Character Amid Content Axing, Production Turmoil. The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary, Marvel Studios, finally have the distribution rights to one of the most iconic Avengers: The Incredible Hulk.
In February 2015, Disney, Marvel Studios, and Sony made a deal to share the Spider-Man film rights, leading to a new iteration of Spider-Man being introduced and integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is not on Disney Plus because of a deal between Sony and Netflix. Netflix will have exclusive access to Sony movies like Across the Spider-Verse for the “pay one window.” This can last up to 18 months, so expect Netflix to have the exclusive license for quite some time.
“This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel – [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie,” Pascal told Fandango. “We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel. We're thinking of this as three films, and now we're going to go onto the next three.
Sony still has the film rights. Marvel worked with Sony on the three Tom Holland "Spider-Man" movies, but they are Sony movies. You won't find them on Disney+.
