As the world anticipates the release of "Spider-man: Homecoming" this July, new details reveal how Spider-man got to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
As reported by Los Angeles Times, currently, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-man which it acquired from Marvel back in 1999. Marvel at the time was struggling so it had to make ends meet by selling its characters' rights to other companies, Sony being one of them.
Sony produced Sam Raimi's "Spider-man" in 2002 which scored $403 million domestically. With a hit on their hands, Sony followed it up with "Spider-man 2" in 2004 and got $373 million.
Since then, Sony rebooted the Spider-man franchise in 2012 with Andrew Garfield playing the lead role. This earned a domestic $262 million and the subsequent follow-up which was panned by critics, fetched only $202 million. This was half of what the initial Spider-man made over a decade ago.
Marvel Producer Kevin Feige then stepped in 2014 to convince former Sony executive Amy Pascal to have the Spider-man franchise rebooted and let Feige's studio produce it. Pascal was not that convinced but after more lobbying by Feige and Marvel Entertainment Chief Executive Isaac Perlmutter, she finally agreed that Spider-man needed to be rebooted and saved from diminishing returns.
Now, Sony Pictures has a deal where Marvel Studios can use the Spider-man character in the MCU. Sony pays Marvel an undisclosed producing fee while Sony's unit Columbia Pictures distributes the movie and gets all the returns. Marvel gets the sales from Spider-man merchandise since it still has the merchandising rights. It is therefore a win-win for both companies.
Pascal, who is now a Sony producer, had weight in key Spider-man decisions like the hiring of lead actor Tom Holland and director Jon Watts. She also pushed for Vulture to play the villain.
"Spider-man: Homecoming" comes home on movie screens on July 7.
