Feige in the franchise, that gave Disney a cut of the opening box office and the merchandising rights.
That deal has now ended and Disney wants a bigger cut, reportedly a 50-50 joint venture. Sony is
understandably reluctant to give away such a big piece of its biggest property.
I’ll leave you to speculate about where the suspiciously well timed news of the fallout might have come
from, but if the intention was to hobble Sony it has worked about as well as one of the Green Goblin’s
pumpkin bombs lobbed into a crowded sidewalk.
A PR storm was the result, with outraged fans threatening a Sony boycott.
The first two films’ British star Tom Holland had been expected to play a key role in the development of
arguably the world’s most successful entertainment franchise going forward – a critical and commercial
behemoth that has put even the venerable Star Wars (also owned by Disney) in the shade.
Now he looks set to be airbrushed from it, with future films (Holland is contracted for two more)
presumably set in the nascent spiderverse Sony is seeking to build with the string of wall crawler-linked
characters it has owned since 1999, when Marvel was financially on its knees and resorted to selling off the
family silver. The narrative problems with that could be formidable.
Entertainment franchises have always generated fierce loyalty among fans. Remember the letter-writing
campaign in the 1960s that (briefly) saved Star Trek, one of the granddaddies of them all?
Modern ones feature huge and immersive functional universes, with story arcs extending over many years.
They require a substantial commitment in terms of time, money and love.
Studio politics and penny-pinching regularly conspire to muck up interesting and exciting projects.
The MCU is one of the biggest the world has seen. All the more galling for fans, then, that a wrench is being
thrown at it. No wonder Sony’s taking heat.
The danger today is that Disney has become so big and so powerful it
doesn’t need to take risks anymore and can rest easy on the tried, tested
and familiar
But here’s the thing: over the past few years Disney has typically accounted for roughly half the world’s top
10 grossing films. This year it has five of the top six, all of which grossed over $1bn (£810m).
The lone exception? Spider-Man.
The company’s box office dominance has only been strengthened following its acquisition of Rupert
Murdoch’s Fox. But this comes at a price.
The MCU has proved to be a creative hotbed, but elsewhere Disney has been throwing off an awful lot of
remakes, notably the classic animated properties reborn as live-action films (Dumbo, Aladdin and the all-
conquering Lion King) courtesy of CGI.
The Fox acquisition looks set to add to their number. CEO Bob Iger recently announced plans to “leverage”
a string of the latter’s properties.
So instead of launching the Disney Plus streaming service on the back of new ideas, get set for a reimagined
Home Alone, Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Cheaper by the Dozen. And there’ll be lots and lots
of sequels too.