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Spider-Man in film dates back to 1977, his rights belonging to Marvel until 1999, when Sony bought them for $7 million.[1] He has been Marvel's most successful character in the cinema industry ever since. After selling the Spider-Man motion picture rights to Sony, Marvel built its own studio, eventually developing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) without its most renowned character. This would change in 2016, when Marvel finally was able to add Spider-Man to its cinematic universe, after a licensing deal between Sony and Disney. The agreement ended up being successful to both companies. The following two Avengers sequels, finally with Spider-Man, crossed the $2 billion mark at worldwide box office for the first time. Meanwhile, Sony in association with Marvel[2] launched a new superhero universe, leading Sony to get in 2022 the biggest deal ever for streaming rights: a $3 billion[3] streaming license to Netflix and Disney platforms.
History[edit]
The fictional character Spider-Man, a comic book superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and featured in Marvel Comics publications, has appeared as a main character in numerous theatrical and made-for-television films.
The first 10 films were linked to television series and screened in theaters only in certain countries. Nicholas Hammond starred as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the 1977 made-for-television film Spider-Man that spawned a broadcast series, and would appear as the character in two sequels edited from those episodes. In 1978, the Toei Company created a theatrical spin-off of their Spider-Man television series, with Shinji Todō reprising his role as Takuya Yamashiro / Spider-Man. None of these films had a theatrical release in the United States.
By 1999, Sony Pictures Entertainment had acquired the motion picture rights to the character for cinema and TV,[4] creating two Spider-Man animated TV series, and two film series comprising their own continuities: the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy of films (2002–2007) starring Tobey Maguire as the character, and the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man films (2012–2014) starring Andrew Garfield in the role.
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. The deal allowed Sony Pictures to continue to own, finance, distribute, and have final creative control of the solo Spider-Man films, with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributing the films with his other appearances in a supporting capacity. Tom Holland portrays this version of Spider-Man, and has appeared in six films to date, from Captain America: Civil War (2016) to Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). In September 2019, following a brief stand-off resulting in the termination of the old agreement, Disney and Sony relented to fan outcry and reached a new agreement for Holland's version to return for future films; the first film to be produced afterward was Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), where he appears alongside Maguire and Garfield who reprise their roles in the film as supporting characters. A fourth MCU Spider-Man film is in development at Sony and Disney.
Plans for an animated Spider-Man film were officially announced by Sony in April 2015, which eventually became Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) from Sony Pictures Animation. Shameik Moore voices Miles Morales / Spider-Man in the film, along with various other versions of Peter Parker and alternate versions of Spider-Man from the multiverse also appearing. A sequel, titled Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, was released in 2023, with a finale, titled Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, currently in production. Potential spin-offs are also planned.
The Spider-Man films have been generally well received. They have collectively grossed $10.2 billion at the global box office, with Far From Home becoming the first Spider-Man film to gross over $1 billion worldwide followed by No Way Home, which became Sony's highest-grossing film of all time.[5] Into the Spider-Verse also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.