- Is Disney really trying to buy Spider-Man
for five billion dollars?
The off-again on-again relationship between Disney and Sony
over the film rights to Spider-Man has been well documented
over the last few months.
After some nasty he said/she said,
it appeared that Tom Holland's Sony-controlled Spider-Man
would be done-zo
with Disney's Marvel cinematic universe for good.
Then after this very messy and public divorce,
an eleventh hour Hail Mary
from the young Thomas Holland himself
forced the two sides
to sit back down at the table and renegotiate,
thereby saving the future of the wall crawler in the MCU
for at least one or two more adventures.
But now a potentially new development has emerged
in this on-going custody battle for Spider-Man
that could be as huge as pulling a Black Lotus Turn One
in a match of Magic the Gathering,
basically a game changer,
and yes, we spent more time than we should have
to set up a basic Magic the Gathering joke.
You're welcome.
According to a rumor floating on the internet,
Disney is looking to outright buy the movie rights
to Spider-Man from Sony for somewhere in the ball park
of four to five billion dollars.
That's billion with a B-I-double L-I-O-N.
Now, before we get too excited about the possibility
of Spider Man being at home in the MCU for good,
there's a lot to unpack here, so let's break down
all the reasons this could or couldn't happen right now.
First off, why this could all be a load of BS,
and no, we're not talking about because science,
we're talking about bull(beeping).
(upbeat techno music)
This rumor was first reported from Mikey Sutton
who runs the Facebook group
Geekosity: All Things Pop Culture.
And while he has had a decent track record
when it comes to inside dealings
and finding certain things out that are later confirmed,
this is still just a post on the internet
claiming to have information
on some very high level corporate dealings.
Until the reporting is confirmed
and verified by other outlets,
it needs to be taken with a grain of salt
because journalism.
Second, let's take a look at the price tag
of this potential deal.
Four to five billion dollars is quite a bit
for the old web head.
Especially when you take into account
that the entirety of Marvel itself was purchased
by Disney for around four billion bucks,
similar to the price they paid for Lucasfilm and Star Wars.
So dropping the same amount or even more
for just the rights for Spider-Man
and his universe of characters seems a bit high,
though of course those price tags
don't account for things like inflation.
Next, Spider-Man's box office returns.
While the last Spider-Man film
pulled in over a billion dollars
at the world-wide box office,
and that's certainly nothing to sneeze at,
we're not sure the math adds up to the supposed price
Disney is rumored to be willing to pay.
On top of that, Sony's potential future revenue
is too great for them to want to get rid of it.
Sony has sunk a lot of money into Spider-Man over the years
and continues to do so as they attempt to build out
there Universe of Marvel characters with the likes of Venom,
Morbius the Living Vampire,
and the newly announced Madame Web.
With Venom making beau coup bucks at the box office,
pulling in over 800 million dollars,
and with Morbius already in post-production,
it means Sony has spent a lot of money on the wall crawler
and his supplemental characters.
That's a lot of investment and potential revenue
for Sony to give up on.
Plus with Venom's success,
it shows that the characters Sony controls
have a lot of room for growth.
With all that said, maybe it's true, right?
Well, here are a few reasons why Sony might take the offer
for Spider-Man seriously were Disney to make it.
The first being five billion dollars
is a lot for anyone to turn down.
Second, all the investment
that Sony has put into their universe of Marvel characters
might be a double-edged sword.
While many major film companies
are trying to grow and maintain their large franchises
like Harry Potter and DC over at Warner Brothers,
Universal's Dark Universe
and Fox's previous runs with the X-Men
and the Fantastic Four, the ride hasn't always been smooth.
With every company experiencing their fair share
of expensive flops along with their successes.
Sony could come to the decision that taking the sure pay out
is worth more than taking major risks.
And as others have pointed out,
even Disney head Bob Iger's memoir, The Ride of A Lifetime,
mentions Spider-Man's value,
so Disney could be still seriously pursuing
bringing him completely back into the fold
to the tune of multiple billions of dollars.
Let's also not forget
that Disney has a lot of Spider-Man content
planned at their theme parks.
It would be very synergistic for them
to keep him in the MCU for good.
Also there have long been rumors that Sony was looking
to sell off their film and television assets
so that they could focus again on hardware,
putting them in a similar situation to Fox last year.
While nothing new on this front has been heard in awhile,
if this is something Sony would want to do,
this would be a good start for that.
All in all, while there may have been talks
and genuine interest expressed by Disney
to purchase Spider-Man from Sony,
we don't really count on this happening any time soon.
Spider-Man as an intellectual property
is worth far too much to Sony right now
between Venom's huge haul
and the Spider-Man television series
being developed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller,
Sony has made it clear that they're invested
in the wall crawler, but what do you folks think?
Do you think Disney is trying to buy the rights
to Spider-Man?
How much do you think is a fair price?
And speaking Spider-Man, did you know that he can do
whatever a spider can?
Let's discuss.
Thanks for watching.
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