New Details on What Went Down Between Disney and Sony and How Sony Feels They Don't Need Marvel Anymore

There are a lot of emotions involved when it comes to the Spider-Man situation. Everyone is on board with Tom Holland being the web slinger, now that we have that, where do we go from here? No one really knows what happened or how we got here. Little bits of information have been leaking out, THR has been able to catch some pieces and bring them to us. This is how this all went down:

Disney had been seeking a co-financing arrangement on upcoming movies, looking for at least a 30 percent stake. Sony, which counts Spider-Man as one of its only reliable moneymaking franchises, said no. Before both sides walked away, talks had gone to the top level, with Rothman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra on Sony’s side and Disney Studios' co-chairmen Alan Horn and Alan Bergman involved. In the next month and a half, Far From Home would go on to catch $1.109 billion in the box office web, becoming Sony’s biggest movie of all time. The figure reinforced both sides’ thinking. Sony executives believed they didn’t need Disney anymore, and Disney was in no way leaving money, and Peter Parker, behind, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

In the article it talks about how Disney wanted Spider-Man so bad that they wouldn’t take any producing fees from the first time Spidey was in a movie. As he appeared more in the MCU, the stakes got bigger and the money issue came up again.

There was also the unique merchandising arrangement. Sony had earlier relinquished the merchandising rights to Disney for a one-time payment of $175 million. Also in the deal, insiders note, was a provision that saw Disney making a yearly royalty payment to Sony that was amounting to around $30 million a year. Sources say that Disney tied the royalty to the performance of the Feige-produced movies; the better the pics performed, the lower the royalty. (It is unclear whether this will change going forward.)

I have a feeling that this isn’t done. Sony thinks they can do this just as well as Marvel could.

Sony, meanwhile, also forged ahead with renewed commitment to its Spider-Man spinoff. At a retreat, Rothman, who took over from Pascal when the latter was fired amid the Sony email hack, was convinced by two executives to see superhero films as not a fad but as genres within a larger genre, sources say. The result was Venom, a critically scorned movie that nevertheless grossed $856 million. A sequel is now in the works. Also in postproduction is Morbius with Jared Leto. 

And then there was Phil Lord and Chris Miller's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the animated film that became one of 2018’s critical darlings and won the best animated movie Oscar. The feeling from Sony was that it bounced back to a place where it could strike on its own. “Tom is thinking ‘Okay, we’ve learned everything we need to from Kevin’s playbook. We did Venom on our own and we did Spider-Verse,'” comments a Sony insider.

They think that by copying what Marvel showed them gave them the confidence to go it on their own. Cool, but in the end I think they need each other to make this work because the fans will let them know how they feel about this. I don’t doubt that fans will take this in their own hands. I think both companies are aware of this and are taking their next steps into consideration. Unfortunately, they are in more of a time crunch than previously anticipated.

Sony’s slate is less diverse, and while it is moving ahead with spinoffs and a sequel to Venom, the future of Spider-Man is unclear. Holland, sources say, has an option for one more movie, while director Jon Watts is done with his two-picture deal and is free to pursue other projects. "The big test will be two years or so from now, when an eventual Spider-Man movie is made," says the Sony insider.

Venom will do fine because we as fans cannot wait to see a Venom vs. Carnage battle to the death. After that, what do they do? The bar has been set very high as far as Holland’s character goes. If he fights Venom, cool, but what next? Will Holland still want to do anymore without going back to The Avengers?

At this point, like I have said before, this is 100% speculation. I believe that both parties will come back together knowing that they will make more money than either one of them can comprehend. Let’s not freak out and wait to see what comes out in the wash. Let us know what you think.