SPIDER-MAN Shuffle: Sony Moves Spidey Back 2 Years, Sets SINISTER SIX in 2016 and Marvel Studios Steals its May 2018 Date
Sony has officially set a release date for their Spider-Man villain spin-off movie Sinister Six on November 11, 2016. But Sony then confirmed The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was being pushed back until 2018. A delay until 2018 has been rumored over the past month and Sony has dramatically changed their Spider-Man release schedule.
Previously, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was set to release in 2016, followed by The Amazing Spider-Man 4 in 2018. Obviously, moving the threequel back to an unannounced 2018 date could have implied Sony was moving the third film to the date previously held by the fourth Spider-Man movie. This was not the case.
Marvel Studios swooped in, as Sony did not set a date for the Spider-Man threequel, and they scooped up the May 4, 2018 release date previously held by The Amazing Spider-Man 4. This makes for two straight years that there will be three Marvel Studios film releases, in 2017 and now 2018.
Here's Marvel Studios' current release date layout with the new addition:
- May 1, 2015 – Avengers: Age of Ultron
- July 17, 2015 – Ant-Man
- May 6, 2016 – Captain America 3
- July 8, 2016 – Untitled (assumed to be Doctor Strange)
- May 5, 2017 – Untitled (assumed to be Thor 3)
- July 28, 2017 - Untitled
- November 3, 2017 - Untitled
- May 4, 2018 – Untitled (now assumed to be Avengers 3)
- July 6, 2018 - Untitled
- November 2, 2018 - Untitled
- May 3, 2019 – Untitled (previously assumed to be Avengers 3, unless its split into a Part 1 and 2)
What does this mean for Sony and Spider-Man? Seems like Sony executives were not pleased with the performance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Even though it did bring in over $700 million worldwide (so far), the Spidey sequel barely topped $200 million domestically.
Instead of rushing to push out its Spider-Man movies, Sony seems content to sit back and develop the next one slower which could be good for the franchise. And in case there is some franchise fatigue domestically, and some will say this is the first step in the pending doom of Sony's Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, the theorists and speculators are already thinking that Disney may be filling up a security truck full of cash to send over to Sony Pictures to buy the movie rights back but that won't happen since Sony did set a date for Sinister Six. Stay tuned as this story has quickly developed and there's sure to be more information about it in the coming days at Comic-Con.
Related Post: Producer Alex Kurtzman Issued an Update on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3, SINISTER SIX and VENOM