Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, under the Walt Disney Studios umbrella and headed by Kevin Feige, have reached an agreement and will team up on production of a third movie in the newest Spider-Man movie series, with Tom Holland continuing in the lead role. The third film is scheduled for release on July 16, 2021, and as part of the arrangement, Spider-Man will also appear in a future Marvel Studios film. Amy Pascal, the producer of the first two Holland Spider-Man films, will be returning as producer.
“I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” said Feige in a statement. “Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”
“This is terrific. Peter Parker’s story took a dramatic turn in Far From Home and I could not be happier we will all be working together as we see where his journey goes,” said Pascal. “This has been a winning partnership for the studios, the franchise and the fans and I’m overjoyed it will continue.”
Amy Pascal was the Chairperson of the Motion Pictures Group of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Co-Chairperson of SPE, including Sony Pictures Television, from 2006 until 2015. She’s got some serious geek cred, and produced Ghostbusters [2016], Spider-Man: Homecoming [2017], Venom [2018] Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse [2018], and Spider-Man: Far From Home [2019]. She left Sony in May, allegedly for a first-look deal at Universal.
SCIFI.radio previously reported on the Sony/Marvel tussle over Spider-Man with Feige initially stepping away over money, with Disney seeking a 50/50 co-finance stake. Feige was palpably responsible for delivery of Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was Sony’s biggest grossing film ever with $1.1 billion. The disagreement had come to loggerheads over the original deal they had cut with Sony, where Disney would get roughly 5% of each first gross dollar. Disney figured out that they didn’t want to keep things at that level, and wanted a much bigger piece of the spider pie.
Did Disney flex at all on the initial terms of the deal they offered Sony? Yes, a little. At one point they were asking for a 50/50 equity split in return for the same equation on investments. They dialed it back a bit after they saw fans reactions to the potential split during D23, realizing that the fans didn’t necessarily have their backs on this one.
Sony had tried to walk away from the deal, but John Watts – Far From Home’s director and co-writer – threatened to walk away if they went through with it, but also partly because Disney had tempted him with the opportunity to work on an MCU movie based on the Marvel character Nova. It was a chess game as far as Disney was concerned, and it paid off. It forced Sony back to the bargaining table.
Under this new deal, Disney will reportedly finance 25% of the third Spider-Man film and receive a 25% equity stake in the film. That’s five times their reported 5% for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Sony basically blinked and accepted the deal after the details of their dispute went public last month.
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