Okay, so the only time Sony did well with a Superhero movie was the time of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. And at that time as well, they messed up the third Spider-Man movie by fiddling too much with Sam Raimi and not allowing him to control the movie properly. In fact, Sam Raimi confirmed that Venom was never supposed to be part of the threequel but the studio forced him to somehow fit him into the narrative which turned out to be a big disaster.
Since that didn’t work out, they decided to go behind the back of Raimi and started a new Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man. They failed at that too. One could imagine that Sony could not have made any more blunders. Well, they did.
The MCU as we know it is the brainchild of Kevin Feige and he was looking to start a shared Universe of Superheroes back when the first Spider-Man and the X-Men movies came out. Well, people denied the fact that a shared Universe could actually work, and now the result is in front of our eyes as we have seen the amazing MCU build and establish itself in front of our own eyes. Marvel did not have the rights to 3 big guns from the comics and still, they managed to make a better movie Universe than any of those characters ever did.
Well, one of the reasons why Marvel has been so successful is actually due to a blunder Sony committed back in the days. Disney has now managed to get all the characters of the Marvel Comics under one roof, it took a lot of time, but we will see it happening next year as the deal between Fox and Disney goes through within 12-16 months and X-Men and the Fantastic Four will finally come home. It is really astonishing to know that Sony actually had the first chance to do so.
Back in the latter half of the 90s, Sony Sony was attempting to secure the film rights to Spider-Man from Marvel, when Marvel was on the verge of Bankruptcy and was desperate to sell off their rights to characters in order to survive and make a few bucks.
According to the The Wall Street Journal, Sony Pictures executive Yair Landau met with Marvel about the rights to Spider-Man as they already had the DVD rights but wanted the full film rights. Well, the new Marvel Chief, Ike Perlmutter made an extraordinary counter offer. According to this offer, Sony was offered to take every other Marvel character including Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and Ant-Man along with Spider-Man, for just $25 Million, and Sony being Sony just backed off the deal!
Here’s why Sony denied the offer, as after Landau took the offer back to his bosses at Sony, they quickly shot it down saying:
“Nobody gives a sh—about any of the other Marvel characters, go back and do a deal for only Spider-Man.”
So, Sony went back to make a deal only for Spider-Man. Marvel then sold Spider-Man to Sony for $10 Million plus a 5% of any movies’ gross revenue and half the revenue from consumer products. It’s funny how tables change as no one actually gives a sh–t about Sony anymore. What an idiotic deal! Getting all the characters for $25 Million in no way compares to getting just Spider-Man for just $10 Million. Typical Sony!
This is not the only blunder they made. Recently Kevin Feige revealed he literally got a Sandwich thrown at him for asking Sony to share Spider-Man with Marvel during the establishment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sony at that time had gotten out The Amazing Spider-Man which was moderately successful and were looking to create Spider-Man’s own Cinematic Universe with all the characters at their disposal.
During that time, Feige asked Amy Pascal, to share Spider-Man with the MCU instead of creating its own Cinematic Universe with The Amazing Spider-Man franchise. Pascal literally threw her Sandwich at him, and “half-jokingly” told him to “get the f— out.” Just a year later, when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had flowed money like water and did not make good returns, Sony emailed Marvel for the Spider-Man deal, and Spidey finally crawled back home in Civil War and Homecoming.
The first movie in the new Spider-man franchise was titled Spiderman: Homecoming based on popular 90’s ‘Homecoming’ storyline where Spiderman was almost relaunched just like the way he was re-introduced onto the big screen. Tom Holland was roped in to play the lead and he just totally nailed it. The movie also had Tony Stark aka Iron Man in a supporting role, he played a mentor to Peter Parker, gifted him a new upgraded suit designed by Stark Industries and trained him mentally to take down Vulture on his own.
The official synopsis of Spiderman: Homecoming released by the Marvel studios can be read below:
“Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, young Peter Parker returns home to live with his Aunt May. Under the watchful eye of mentor Tony Stark, Parker starts to embrace his newfound identity as Spider-Man. He also tries to return to his normal daily routine — distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just a friendly neighborhood superhero. Peter must soon put his powers to the test when the evil Vulture emerges to threaten everything that he holds dear”.
It became clear that this is the kind of Spider-man we all have been waiting for. The movie’s box office collections worldwide were in excess of $800 million, it is still at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and it paved the way for a sequel.
Amy Pascal, the producer revealed interesting details about the timeline of the sequel and Spiderman being part of larger MCU. She said:
“What we are focusing on is Spider-Man who started in Civil War and then has this movie, and then will be in the Avengers movie. And we are starting now the next one which will start a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story.”
“First, there is Spider-Man happily in the place where he’s supposed to be which is in the Marvel Universe. I think everything comes from that. This is the signpost, the tentpole, the signature and…the other movies that Sony’s going to make, in their relationship to this (MCU) Spider-Man, take place in this new world. Although you’re not going to see them in the Marvel Universe, it’s in the same reality.”
And even Now, Sony is trying to create a Spidey Universe without Spider-Man as they are going to be calling it the Venomverse! Sony learns way too slowly after so many failures, they finally understood that they should just sit back and let Marvel do all the work. There are different projects of Spider-man characters in the pipeline including Silver and Cable.
We have come a long way from the days when the perception was that the fans don’t care about any of the Marvel characters except Spider-man and X-Men. There was a reason why Marvel sold the rights of our beloved web-slinger and favorite mutants to Sony and Fox as they had cartoons, merchandise, and comic book sales numbers to back it up. These guys formed the A-squad and whether you believe it or not Iron Man or Captain America was not even close to the kind of popularity and stardom they have now in 2000’s as opposed to 1980’s and 1990’s.
Well, in the end, it is really good that Sony did not accept the deal of $25 Million back then, as the MCU would not have been the way it is now. Imagine Sony butchering Iron Man movies with their stubbornness and uncoolness. After three decades the tables have turned and now Marvel has bought rights to use Spider-man in the MCU and Sony gladly allowed it to happen. Times change for everyone – actor, directors or studios.
Spider-man will now be seen in Avengers Infinity War, hoping for an amazing spectacle when Avengers and Guardians would join forces to take on the Mad Titan ‘Thanos’ and the Black Order.
Don’t Miss: A New Exclusive Look At Avengers: Infinity War Coming Out Very Soon
