Sony and Disney dispute Spider-Man after arguments over money

After months of speculation the most dreaded news emerged; the deal between Sony and Marvel would not be renewed, meaning Marvel would no longer be able to use Spider-Man in their movies. It was a shock to the world as “Spider-Man: Far From Home” had just become the highest grossing Spider-Man film of all time, grossing over $1 billion.

The move made no sense to anyone, even after the details were released. Disney wanted more money, Sony wanted to connect their characters with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Talks of an agreement fizzled out, until the power of social networking and prodding from Tom Holland himself, led to the two companies finally coming together again to produce at least two more films.

Personally I, like most of the Internet, heavily blamed Sony. How do you just walk away from (potentially) billions of dollars? Even when it was revealed Disney wanted more money from the deals, I stood by Disney. Spider-Man in the MCU had been a dream come true. The re-imagining of the character, the stories, the entrance, it was all too perfect.

But of course, it could not last.

Thankfully, for the time being, Spider-Man is back home where he belongs (with the MCU). The story is able to continue where it left off. If you haven’t seen “Spider-Man: Far From Home” by now, prepare for a spoiler: it has an amazing cameo that is arguably on the same level as, or better than, Stan Lee. J. K. Simmons reprises his iconic role as J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider-Man trilogy.

So much happened at the end of “Far From Home,” it would have been a disaster to remove “Spidey” from the MCU. Lots of foreshadowing and revelation happened (more spoilers): the possibility of S.W.O.R.D., sister to S.H.I.E.L.D., and Peter’s secret identity being revealed, setting the stage for not only the MCU, but the rest of the Spider-Man movies.

While the companies did what they believe was good for them, neither one stopped to think about the fans. People would of course continue to watch these franchises, though the effect on the box offices could have suffered.

Fans want these characters in the same universe. They don’t even need to interact, just co-exist.

Financially, Marvel would have been much better off than Sony would have been. Marvel can introduce any number of hundreds of heroes, write around obstacles, and still bring good stories to life. On the other hand, Sony would have been out of luck having such a limited number of characters and much less ability to write around obstacles. Spider-Man is so heavily tied to the MCU at this point.

When Marvel sold Sony the rights to Spider-Man in 1999, there was a condition to make a Spider-Man movie at least once every five years, or the rights return to Marvel. This aggressively puts pressure on Sony to make these movies as much as possible. Sony would have had to either start completely over, or MacGyver a way out of the death bed they put themselves in. Neither of these would be good decisions.

On the downside of the new deal, Spider-Man only has two movies coming, the third main movie and a cameo in a different movie. It would be best, for the fans, if Marvel bought back the rights to the character.

It’s a probable nightmare to actually accomplish, but worth it all at the same time.

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