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Why Sony Only Bought The Rights To Spider-Man From Marvel
The history of comic book characters on film is a fascinating one. We are currently living in a golden age of interconnectedness that approaches what has been done in the comic books for decades, at least in the Marvel Cinematic Universe anyway. That is poised to only grow and continue as deals are made and time goes on, but it was not always so. While we are now enjoying the fruits of a partnership between Sony and Marvel Studios to share Spider-Man, for a long time the Web-Slinger was on an island by himself at Sony. This is due to Sony purchasing the theatrical rights to Spider-Man from Marvel years ago, and that was after turning down the opportunity to buy nearly every other Marvel character.
Way back in 1998, Marvel Entertainment was looking for an influx of cash after the company emerged from the bankruptcy it filed two years prior. At the same time, a Sony Pictures exec by the name of Yair Landau was looking to secure the big-screen rights to Spider-Man. Current Chairman and former CEO of Marvel, Ike Perlmutter countered by offering Sony the rights to nearly every Marvel character, including the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and Ant-Man for, wait for it... $25 million. Yair Landau took the deal back to the brass at Sony who, as he recalled, responded thusly:
Nobody gives a shit about any of the other Marvel characters. Go back and do a deal for only Spider-Man.
Wow! Hindsight makes fools of us all, but this cavalier response as told to author Ben Fritz for the book The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies (via Wall Street Journal) has to be extremely tough for Sony to look back at now. Marvel went on to sell the rights to Spider-Man alone for $7 million, and it's hard to argue that Sony got its money's worth. The first three films were extremely commercially successful, and some of them were quite good, but what could have been has to have some people kicking themselves to this day. For a relative pittance more, we could be talking about Sony's Black Panther and the Sony Cinematic Universe. Disney bought Marvel for $4 billion in 2009, and now that looks like a steal. To think that Sony could have had something approximating that for a cool $25 million is fascinating.
The idea that nobody cares about Marvel characters other than Spider-Man seems so foreign to us now, but back in 1998, this line of thinking wasn't completely off base. There is a reason that Spider-Man and X-Men were the rights that Marvel sold off to Sony and Fox, respectively. Those two properties were the flagships. There were cartoons for each, and I imagine comic book sales numbers backed up who was the A-squad in the Marvel lineup. There is still an argument to be made that Spider-Man is the most popular Marvel character. So while audiences may love them now, there was some concern at the beginning of the MCU that people wouldn't care about B-list characters like Iron Man and Thor. Sony's dismissal of the rest of the Marvel stable looks silly now, but it didn't always.
It is only now with the benefit of hindsight and a decade of the MCU that we see the potential of lesser-known characters starring in well-told stories. After Sony purchased the rights to Spider-Man, it was still another decade before Iron Man hit theaters, and not until 2012 that The Avengers really showed how big these Marvel characters could be. Now Sony, Marvel and the fans are all getting what they want, with Spider-Man in the MCU, delivering his best solo film in ages and teaming up to fight Thanos. You can check out a Marvel character who could have been Sony's making his solo film debut as Black Panther hits theaters this weekend. For all the latest on costly decisions and what if's, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
Marvel sold the film rights to Spider-man at least eight years before Marvel Studios LLC was even formed. At that time, they were just a publishing house (with some TV assets) thrilled that a studio was interested in putting one of their characte
Spider-Man Deal Breakdown at Sony and Marvel - Variety
Why Sony Only Bought The Rights To Spider-Man From Marvel
Marvel has long wanted to put Spider-Man in its movies, but since Sony Pictures controlled the rights to the character since 1999, the web-slinger has been off limits. Making a crossover could
Marvel offered to sell Sony Pictures the movie rights to all of their characters in 1998, but the studio only wanted Spider-Man.Marvel had emerged from bankruptcy in the mid to late-1990s, and leveraging their characters' movie rights was their way of easing themselves out of their financial predicament.
Why Sony & Marvel Partnered on Spider-Man | ScreenRant
Now that Spider-Man has been integrated into the Marvel film universe, it's easy to forget that for years the character has existed in his small world thanks to years of legal disputes. And now, thanks to a new book on the film business, we finally know why Sony has owned Peter Parker, but no other Marvel character, for so long.
Sony Almost Bought All Marvel Character Rights in the 1990s
Rumors and reports that Marvel Studios were in talks with Sony about how to help with Spider-Man surfaced periodically until the infamous Sony Pictures leak of 2015 confirmed these talks to be entirely true.
Why did Marvel give the rights to Spider-Man to Sony in a
Here's the Real Reason Why Sony Only Bought the Rights to Spider-Man. the executive who was responsible for acquiring the rights to the character for Sony. This was back in 1998; Marvel
Here's the Real Reason Why Sony Only Bought the Rights to
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Now that Spider-Man has been integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's easy to forget that for years, the character existed in his own little world thanks to years of legal disputes. And now, thanks to a new book about the movie business, we finally know why Sony owned Peter Parker, but no other Marvel characters, for so long.
The real reason Sony has only bought the rights to Spider-Man
After Sony purchased the rights to Spider-Man, it was still another decade before Iron Man hit theaters, and not until 2012 that The Avengers really showed how big these Marvel characters could be.
The Real Reason Sony Only Bought the Rights to Spider-Man
We Finally Know the Real Reason Why Sony Only Bought the Rights to Spider-Man. In hindsight, the studio could have used a Spidey sense. Due to a licensing agreement between Sony and Marvel
Marvel and Sony 'Spider-Man' Rights Explained - Collider
collider.com/spider-man-marvel-sony-deal-explained/
Marvel would license the rights to its most valuable characters for a fee, like Spider-Man and the X-Men, to various studios (in this case Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox, respectively), and
Here's the Real Reason Why Sony Only Bought the Rights to
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