I am not really up on how the Disney ownership of Marvel exactly works, but can someone explain why/how this newest Spider-man film is not Disney and has nothing to do with Disney? I mean I understand the concept of a company leasing out a property and getting paid that way, but unless I'm mistaken this new movie is not under the Disney umbrella in any way, and Disney is not even credited.
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Spider-man... I am confused
- Thread starter retroeric
- Start date
champdisney
Well-Known Member
It has everything to do with the film distribution rights that Sony owns. The partnership between Marvel and Sony came years before the Disney buyout, therefore Disney has to honor that. While Disney does own Spiderman, they don’t have any say movie-wise because of Sony’s ownership of Spiderman in that department. The Spiderman in the MCU was a deal made between Marvel Studios and Sony to “fix” Spiderman. Films like Venom and Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse are films Sony greenlit and funded themselves without any of Disney’s involvement. I believe the only thing Disney is banking on with the newest Spiderman animated movie is merch sales.
Hope that clarifies everything.
Hope that clarifies everything.
righttrack
Well-Known Member
I think when it gets confusing is when Spider-man appears in The Avengers movies and how they work out the rights in that regard. I'm sure there is some exchange of money there. Either way, with all the superhero movies, I'm sure Disney can't make them all.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Acquisition does not negate existing licensing agreements.
CaptainAmerica
Well-Known Member
The Boston Red Sox are owned by the Fenway Sports Group, LLC. When you watch a Red Sox game, you don't see any references anywhere to the Fenway Sports Group, LLC. You see references to the Red Sox, Major League Baseball, and the TV network airing the game.
Same thing, basically.
Wendy Pleakley
Well-Known Member
When Disney bought Marvel, Sony held the Spider-Man movie rights. At that time, per the deal, Disney continued to receive a portion of Spider-Man box-office gross. Under 10% I believe.
Kevin Feige at Marvel later broached the subject with Sony, that it would be great to have Spider-Man become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which didn't include Spider-Man (or X-Men, whose movie rights are held by Fox).
My understanding is, Disney gave up their shares in the Sony Spider-Man movies (unless their earnings pass a certain threshold). And why wouldn't they, it's a minimal sum as far as Disney is concerned.
Spider-Man could then appear in the Disney Marvel movies. In addition, Kevin Feige would produce the Spider-Man movie and other Marvel characters could cross over into Spider-Man.
A classic win-win scenario. Disney gets to include Marvel's most recognizable character in the Avengers. Sony gets their Spider-Man films to be a part of the immensely popular Marvel cinematic universe, and they get creative assistance from people who have proven very successful at making popular comic book movies.
I believe the percentage Marvel gets from the box office is about 3%. They get nothing from Spiderman but get all merchandise. I am not sure if the Spiderman family rights changed or not.
Wendy Pleakley
Well-Known Member
Sony still controls the Spider-Man movie rights. They're working with Disney to have Spider-Man be a part of the MCU, but they have the final say over the creative decisions.
Sony could say at any time that they no longer wish to allow Spider-Man appear in Avengers movies, and just do their own thing. But really, why would they?
The only reason for Sony to take the Spiderman production back from Marvel Studios is Marvel gets paid to produce it. Of course they do a better job than Sony did and even with a 10 to 20 percent markup the charges for Marvel would only come to 20 to 30 million so it's about the same as 3% of the worldwide gross. Besides there are surely other clauses in the contract which encourage Sony to stay with the current deal.
champdisney
Well-Known Member
A few podcasters/die hard comic fanatics I listen to are actually fearing that with the commercial success of Venom and now Into the Spider-Verse, Sony may want to pluck out Spiderman and give the MCU a big peace out. I hope not, but with Venom and the forthcoming Morbius film, seems to me that Sony is doing some world building for the apparent arrival of the Webhead.
I hope that’s not the case but then again one of the writers of Venom is teasing a possible Spiderman appearance in the sequel.
Princess Leia
Well-Known Member
I think Marvel will probably be okay not having Spider-Man be the center of their films, and Sony really will have more to do with him (especially if they start incorporating Spider-Woman, Black Cat, Silk, etc.) in their films.
Disney and Sony are sharing film rights of theatrical Spider-Man, though Sony really can reclaim sole ownership anytime it wants.
See... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Homecoming#Production
See... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Homecoming#Production
champdisney
Well-Known Member
Sounds like we’ll be having 3 separate Marvel Cinematic Universe’s colliding. Disney’s MCU, Sony and Fox. Crossing over fluently like in the comics. Interesting times lie ahead.
There will only be one MCU. Sony's Spiderman CU may be created but the Fox Marvel characters will be controlled by Marvel. Also it will be interesting to see what happens to Sony's Columbia Pictures. There are rumors Sony may sell and if they do what happens to Spiderman? I am sure Warner Brothers would not be able to buy Sony Pictures and keep Spiderman because they have DC's characters. Additionally, I would not be surprised if Disney added a clause when they negotiated the Spiderman update that would prevent Universal from gaining the movie rights to Spiderman if they purchased Sony Pictures. I doubt Sony would agree to any other limitations if they were not in the original Spiderman contract.
Fox's version will be eventually subsumed into the MCU and no longer separate. Either all the previous movies will be abandoned and forgotten as the MCU keeps moving forward with the X-Men and Fantastic Four being added without reference to previous movies, or, it will retconned as some alternate universe or timeline that got smashed or mixed-up with the current MCU.
Sony's extended Spiderverse (apart from Avengers and Homecoming 1 & 2) may continue being it's own thing, or, if Disney and Sony can play nice, eventually merge.
fractal
Well-Known Member
it's the real world version of the Spiderverse.
Christian Fronckowiak
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Is Sony considering letting go of Columbia Pictures?
Not likely. Columbia is corporately merged with TriStar (though both still produce under their own brand names) and is basically the heart of Sony Pictures.
Sony would have to decided to get out of the entertainment business to divest Columbia. Ironically, Spider-Man is one of the tent poles keeping Columbia very profitable.