A few days ago, there was bad news for Marvel fans, Sony suspended its Spider-Man partnership with Marvel!
What's the situation?
On April 24, "Avengers: Endgame" premiered in Chinese mainland, breaking the record at zero point. Because of the suspense at the end of the previous part, this time's return always feels like people are looking forward to it for too long.
"Endgame". While the disaster was once again resolved, the landscape of marvel Cinematic Universe (later referred to as MCU) heroes also underwent major changes: the U.S. team retreated, Black Widow and Iron Man died. Among them, Iron Man is not only the core figure of Marvel, but also the elder and leader of the League of Legends.
This time, Big Brother is gone!
Fortunately, at the end of the film, people hope that the young Spider-Man will become the successor of Iron Man; in the "Spider-Man: Hero Expedition" released shortly thereafter, Iron Man left Spider-Man glasses and a new Spider-Man suit to confirm the mission of his successor.
Didn't you think that it wouldn't be long before Spider-Man would quit the Marvel Universe and no longer be associated with Iron Man?
According to Dealine's exclusive news, negotiations between Disney and Sony Pictures about the Spider-Man partnership have reached an impasse, which has led Marvel (Disney-owned company) boss Kevin Feige to stop participating in the production of Spider-Man.
In other words: Spider-Man will no longer belong to the MCU.
After just losing the soul of the MCU, Iron Man, in just 4 months, we have lost his successor again.
What is puzzling is that Disney and Sony cooperated to use Spider-Man to let Spider-Man "go home" and join MCU not long ago. The rebooted version of its second independent film, Spider-Man: The Hero's Journey, also just cut $1.109 billion globally just a few days ago, making it Sony's highest-grossing film ever made.
"Spider-Man: Homeless"? Behind the netizens quickly making up the title of the third Spider-Man film, it seems to be full of ridicule and ridicule, but more is sadness and helplessness.
In 1962, Marvel screenwriter Stan Lee and artist Steve Dititko teamed up to create Spider-Man. Soon, he became a popular character under the Marvel umbrella.
Fast forward to the '90s, and because of quality and operational issues, Marvel fell into the abyss and began selling the rights to multiple of its characters, such as X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, and Blade Warrior.
In 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy with $700 million in debt.
In 1999, Marvel sold Spider-Man and its related characters to Sony for $7 million. (Note: The copyright sale clause stipulates that as long as Sony produces a Spider-Man film and television work every 5 years, it can always enjoy the Spider-Man copyright.) ）
In 2002, the superhero film Spider-Man, produced by Sony-owned Columbia Pictures and directed by Sam Remy, turned out to be the first film in history to gross more than $100 million in its first weekend, reaching $114.8 million in the first three days and eventually grossing $820 million.
This number exists even today as a blockbuster, and that year was exactly 17 years ago.
Subsequently, "Spider-Man 2" grossed $783 million worldwide, and "Spider-Man 3" grossed $890.8 million. As the first actor, Toby Maguire has also become the classic Spider-Man image in many people's minds.
Even so, the reputation and profits of the trilogy are declining, and it is difficult to collect costs if another one is produced.
In 2012, Sony rebooted Spider-Man, and Andrew Garfield's version of The Amazing Spider-Man was released.
Garfield's version, and Toby Maguire's version, is exactly 5 years apart, and the significance of this version of Spider-Man is more to retain the copyright.
In 2014, after "The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of the Electric Light Man" hit the street, Sony completely lost confidence. Many netizens also believe that after all, it is not a father and son, and Sony's stepfather is getting more and more biased in understanding this role.
In 2015, Sony finally reached an agreement with Marvel, and Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland (Dutch brother), first appeared in Captain America: Civil War. Spider-Man officially joins the MCU. After 17 years, he finally returned home.
The Dutch version of Spider-Man was a great success. Soon he became one of the most beloved Avengers in the audience, and he also became the link between Marvel and Sony.
Sony has also successfully built its own "Spider-Man Movie Universe" with the IP and popularity of Spider-Man - "Venom" and the unreleased "Silver Sable and Black Cat", "Mobias", "Venom 2", "Sinister Six"... The Dutch version of Spider-Man became Sony's biggest cash cow.
It is worth noting that in the process, as early as 2009, Disney had spent $4 billion to acquire Marvel Studios.
Now, the production of "Spider-Man 3" is on the string, and it also ushers in a new round of negotiations between Disney and Sony.
Some people summed it up like this: Marvel is Spider-Man's father, Disney is Marvel's father, and Sony is the post-father who has custody of Spider-Man.
However, the three dads talked about it. More precisely, it was Disney's grandfather and Sony's father who broke down, and Marvel's father could not interject.
In "Captain America: Civil War" released in May 2016, Marvel borrowed the spider-man movie rights from Sony, and the good story of "Sony Returns Spiders" is still vivid. However, in July this year, when Marvel announced the fourth phase of the plan, "Spider-Man 3" did not appear.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand that behind the complicated appearance is the replacement of the resources and interests of the two companies.
Marvel has the dominance of film production, including Sony's Spider-Man live-action series, Spider-Man starring in Marvel movies, and Sony does not participate in dividends. Sony owns the rights to distribute the movie and its Spider-Man films are self-financing, but Disney will receive a 5% dividend on its gross box office profit.
In short, Spiders return, Sony pays, Marvel contributes.
With the Marvel Cinematic Universe on fire, the Dutch brother's Spider-Man became popular, and Sony achieved great commercial success, and the situation is bound to change.
According to Deadline, Disney wants to participate in Sony's "Spider-Man Movie Universe."
Disney wants to reach new terms with Sony to obtain a co-financing stake to get at least 30% of revenue. That is to say, Disney wants to invest in all of Sony's Marvel live-action movies, invest in half, and make money for five or five cents.
In this way, Disney is very domineering, wanting more control and more profits. In fact, this kind of thinking is also expected by many people.
In the case of Spider-Man: The Hero's Quest, the film grossed $1.1 billion, and Marvel could only get $55 million under the agreement.
Disney's idea now is obvious: Diso Shuangni co-funded, interest binding; Marvel participated in the production, creative binding; so that Spider-Man's copyright, they can also use it with confidence.
But as we all know, with the tough tactics and shrewdness of Marvel boss Kevin Feige, once Sony agrees, it will be difficult for them to gain absolute control of Spider-Man and be completely tied up.
Moreover, Sony's overall strength is not under Disney, and its film industry has full confidence due to the success of "Venom" and "Spider-Man: Parallel Universe". Naturally, they refused Disney's request. Negotiations between the two sides reached an impasse.
However, judging by Sony's rhetoric, this is not the case.
The following is Sony's official statement:
Most of today's news about Spider-Man is wrongly described, and we're disappointed about it. We respect Disney's decision not to appoint Kevin Feige as the chief producer of the next Spider-Man movie.
We still hope that the future can change, but also understand that Marvel now has a lot of super IPs, and there is no time to take care of non-home IP. Kevin is brilliant and we thank him for his help, guidance and support, and we will continue to do Spider-Man.
Compared with the deadline "Spider-Man quits the MCU" statement, Sony's tone is obviously much softer, but Kevin Feige is no longer the chief producer of the "Spider-Man 3" movie, and it is far from the point of "talking about collapse".
Therefore, many optimistic netizens believe that now "Spider-Man quits Marvel" is just a signal that the two companies are not cooperating well, and the final situation depends on how the two companies continue to break their wrists.
In fact, as a fan, it may not matter who Spider-Man's father is, the most concerned thing is whether the "friendly neighbor Spider-Man" will always be with us in the MCU.
More intriguing than rhetoric is behavior. At this time, the statements and actions of the people involved in the film are particularly interesting.
Some media claimed that Twitter netizens found that Tom Dutch brother closed Disney and Sony's instagram, and only Marvel Studios was still paying attention.
On Twitter, some fans asked Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, can we still see Spider-Man and Deadpool in the same frame? Ryan responded, "I can see it, but I can only see it in my heart." ”
At the same time, "Spider-Man" director Jon Watts was also exposed, he and Sony did not renew the contract, and the director of the sequel is also uncertain.
Cable said the negotiations between the two sides are still ongoing, but are now at an unprecedented impasse.
Although fans later confirmed that the Dutch brother has never paid attention to sony and Disney's instagram, so it is not a close, but this message alone still cannot suppress the pessimistic idea of the majority of fans about the "homelessness" of the Dutch brother spider.
Stan Lee once said: Spider-Man is his favorite hero, because Spider-Man not only captures the imagination of readers around the world, Spider-Man is also his own self, his dream.
In the future MCU, will there really be no more Spider-Man figures?