It appears thatMarvel-Sony dealreally did work wonders for theSpider-Manfranchise. While 2017’sSpider-Man: Homecomingwas a box office success, outgrossing every previousSpider-Manmovie except forSpider-Man 3, this summer’s sequelSpider-Man: Far from Homeis a genuine box office smash to the tune of $1.109 billion worldwide.
In fact, that figure is enough to makeFar from Homethe highest grossing movie in Sony Pictures history, surpassing the $1.1 billion gross of previous record holderSkyfall. That’s an impressive feat, and one can’t help but point toAvengers: Endgameas a contributing factor toFar from Home’s success. Sure,Tom Hollandis adorable and theJohn Hughesspin on the Peter Parker character makes these movies a delight, but there was added interest inFar from Homegiven that it was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie released after Marvel Studios’Avengers: Endgame, which brought all the previous films to an emotional conclusion.
The question lingered: where does the MCU go from here? AndFar from Homepromised to offer a peek at what’s ahead, which no doubt contributed to its high box office numbers. After all, you have to imagine that a portion of the audience that sawAvengers: Endgame—the highest grossing movie of all time—was then spurred to seeFar from Homein theaters. TheSpider-Mansequel also used the whole “see it before the spoilers get out” marketing angle that surged the opening weekend receipts ofEndgame.
To be clear, as far as we’re aware Marvel Studios receives no box office money fromSpider-Man: Far from Home. The terms of the Marvel-Sony deal that led toHomecoming,Far from Home, and Holland’s roles inCaptain America: Civil Warand the last twoAvengersmovies saw each studio fully investing in and keeping the profits from its respective features, meaning that Marvel Studios makes zero dollars from Sony’s new standalone Spider-Man movies and Sony makes zero dollars fromCivil WarorEndgame. Instead, in exchange for taking the creative lead on producing the standalone Spider-Man movies, the annual fee that Marvel pays Sony to keep the toy and merchandising profits to the Spider-Man character at Marvel would be reduced from $35 million ifSpider-Man: Homecominggrossed over $750 million—and it did.
It’s been a mutually beneficial relationship thus far, and there’s no reason to think it won’t continue to be fruitful in the next inevitableSpider-Mansequel. After that, the original deal is up for renegotiation so it’ll be interesting to see what happens at that point. For now, however, I think Sony can rest easy knowing it made the right call in bringing Marvel in to help reboot its prized superhero possession.
To recap, below is a list of the worldwide grosses of every Spider-Man movie released by Sony thus far:
1.Spider-Man: Far from Home- $1,102,883,167
2.Spider-Man 3- $890,871,626
3.Spider-Man: Homecoming- $880,166,924
4.Spider-Man- $821,708,551
5.Spider-Man 2- $783,766,341
6.The Amazing Spider-Man- $757,930,663
7.The Amazing Spider-Man 2- $708,982,232
8.Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse- $375,469,903
