If you’ve taken a look at the Disney Plus catalog, you may have been surprised that there is n’t a single one of the recent Spider-Man movies. Why this fact? Will we ever see it? Is your arrival planned? All these questions do not exactly have a quick and easy answer.
Why did Marvel sell the rights to Spider-Man to Sony?
Today, Marvel is a successful company. It is within the Disney conglomerate, which makes it enjoy unprecedented financial health. But it was not always like this. Marvel had serious financial problems in the mid -90s , even going so far as to declare in suspension of payments due to the enormous amount of debts that the company had.
Luckily, they discovered a short-term method of raising enough funds not to go bankrupt: selling the movie rights to their characters to movie studios. They did it ruthlessly, since they got rid of their best franchises. They would continue to have the rights to the characters to publish their comics, but the audiovisual producers, once they obtained their licenses, had the power to make as many films as they wanted and charge for the merchandising .
Sony Pictures took the jackpot. With Spider-Man. Thus was born the first spider-man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire in 2002.
Can Marvel take back the rights to Spier-Man?
The agreement between Sony and Marvel for the transfer of the audiovisual rights of Spider-Man has its dangerous part. It is stipulated that the rights will remain with Sony as long as it continues to produce films of this superhero. The contract would be broken automatically in case Sony did not produce a film of the character Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in a period of 5 years . If that clause is met, the rights would automatically revert to Marvel.
Since 2002, Sony has honored that contract to the letter, as Spider-Man is one of the most profitable superhero franchises of all time. Losing the rights now would put a big hole in the Japanese company.
Changes in agreements
The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment in 2009. A couple of years later, Marvel was able to renegotiate its rights to exploit merchandising , taking advantage of the fact that Sony was not having a good financial time. Surprises that life gives. That’s why, if you go to a Disney store, you can easily buy a Spider-Man figure or stuffed animal.
They weren’t the only advances between the two companies. When Disney was shaping the plot for Civil War , it was missing Spider-Man. With great tact, they came to an agreement to associate their cinematic universes . Sony was really good for the push that this entailed. The deal would be sealed in 2017. Since then, Disney has produced all of these films:
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
So… why aren’t the movies on Disney +?
That last deal we talked about allows Sony to retain the superhero’s distribution rights.
Although Spider-Man can now appear in his own solo films and also in those of the MCU, the fact that the distribution is still kept by Sony makes us think that we will not see the Spider-Man in Disney Plus unless a new one is produced. agreement.
Is there another case similar to Marvel and Spider-Man?
The exact same thing happened around the same time between Marvel and Fox . In this way, the film rights of the X-Men and their merchandising would be outside the reach of Marvel.
Luckily for Marvel, having Daddy Disney behind you is the equivalent of spending your life in easy mode. In 2018, Disney put 71.3 billion dollars on the table to acquire the American communication group, whose absorption would be completed a year later, recovering the rights of the mutants at once.
