Sony Bought Spider-Man For $7 Million

Before diving deep into Sony’s success, it’s important to acknowledge that the company no longer owns the rights to Spidey’s merchandise, selling it back to Marvel in 2011.  In terms of how much the Sam Raimi-led films made at the box office, those figures are over $2.5 billion — the films cost under $600 million based on their reported production budget. This doesn’t account for marketing and other expenses. Seeing as the studio paid $7 million for the rights, they probably made their money back with the release of Tobey Maguire’s first «Spider-Man.» 

With Maguire and Raimi’s era done, the studio greenlit a reboot with Marc Webb in the director’s chair and Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. The two «Amazing Spider-Man» films made $1.4 billion together, with budgets of $420 million. «The Amazing Spider-Man 2» generated around $70 million in profit for the studio. Webb’s films notably weren’t as successful, critically and financially, as previous entries, compelling Sony Pictures to team up with Marvel Studios for Tom Holland’s take. 

Sony and Disney’s deal has been revised, but the initial terms saw the House of Mouse only receiving 5% of the first dollar gross for the solo «Spider-Man» films set in the MCU. The «Home» trilogy set in the MCU grossed nearly $4 billion, making it the most profitable live-action Spidey franchise. In 2017, «Homecoming» made north of $200 million in profit, while «Far From Home» brought in some $339 million. «No Way Home,» the last theatrical «Spidey» entry, is said to have made $610 million. These numbers are inspiring considering Sony wasn’t immediately sold on Holland as Spider-Man.