Welcome Home! Sony & Marvel Studios Announce New Partnership Deal Bringing SPIDER-MAN into the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Marvel Entertainment made this official at 12:30 a.m. early Tuesday morning Feb. 9 on their site, and here's the official statement:
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man.
Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.
Marvel and Sony Pictures are also exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the MCU into future Spider-Man films.
The new relationship follows a decade of speculation among fans about whether Spider-Man – who has always been an integral and important part of the larger Marvel Universe in the comic books – could become part of the Marvel Universe on the big screen.
Spider-Man has more than 50 years of history in Marvel's world, and with this deal, fans will be able to experience Spider-Man taking his rightful place among other Super Heroes in the MCU.
Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney Company said: "Spider-Man is one of Marvel's great characters, beloved around the world. We're thrilled to work with Sony Pictures to bring the iconic web-slinger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which opens up fantastic new opportunities for storytelling and franchise building."
"We always want to collaborate with the best and most successful filmmakers to grow our franchises and develop our characters. Marvel, Kevin Feige and Amy, who helped orchestrate this deal, are the perfect team to help produce the next chapter of Spider-Man," said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "This is the right decision for the franchise, for our business, for Marvel, and for the fans."
"Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios share a love for the characters in the Spider-Man universe and have a long, successful history of working together. This new level of collaboration is the perfect way to take Peter Parker's story into the future," added Doug Belgrad, president, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group.
"I am thrilled to team with my friends at Sony Pictures along with Amy Pascal to produce the next Spider-Man movie," said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. "Amy has been deeply involved in the realization on film of one of the world’s most beloved characters. Marvel's involvement will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years."
Spider-Man, embraced all over the world, is the most successful franchise in the history of Sony Pictures, with the five films having taken in more than $4 billion worldwide.
Wow! The most amazing thing about this new partnership is that it goes against everything Disney stands for because they traditionally do not work or partner up with other studios. Otherwise, they'd go ahead and make another Hulk movie even though Universal still owns his movie distribution rights while Marvel Studios owns the character movie rights.
Spider-Man is obviously the outlier when it comes to Disney's internal company synergy. The fact remains that five of the Top 10 worldwide box office grossing Marvel films are Spider-Man movies while Marvel Studios and Disney own four of the other spots in the Top 10 (The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Solider) and Fox owning the other remaining Top 10 spot with X-Men Days of Future Past. So it does make sense for business to partner up with Sony instead of spending billions to reacquire all of Spidey's movie rights.
Spidey still has a very large box office draw and bringing him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe could break box office records when he gets his own solo film in July 2017. But first things first... when will Spider-Man first appear? It seems logical to assume that he'll make his big screen debut in Captain America: Civil War next year, but this has yet to be confirmed as of the writing of this post.
Marvel's Spider-Man (not the official title) now releases in theaters on July 28, 2017.
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More Info on the Sony, Marvel Studios and SPIDER-MAN Team-Up Talk Emerges From Studio Sources
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