Sony’s Spider-Man Plans Are Brave, But Risk Backfiring

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe continues to deliver films showcasing Spider-Man characters, but their approach could come with some significant risks. In 1998, Sony bought the rights to Spider-Man for $7 million. Marvel was facing bankruptcy during that time, and Spider-Man was the only character Sony deemed profitable. The purchase of Spider-Man also included all characters that fell under the character’s umbrella, including all of the web-slinger’s villains. Per the agreement, Sony had to release a new Spider-Man movie every few years to retain the character’s rights.

Sony originally had plans to use Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to establish its own universe with numerous spinoff projects, but the film’s poor reception and revenue forced the studio to adjust. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off with popular films like Iron Man and The Avengers, Sony eventually brokered a deal with Marvel to share Tom Holland’s Spider-Man between both studios. Despite the success of the new cooperative agreement, Sony had a plan to continue expanding their own Spider-Man franchise, with or without the iconic superhero.

When it comes to live-action films, Sony’s strategy thus far has been relatively fearless with its efforts to highlight the supporting characters and villains in the Spider-Man library. Outside of the Marvel Studios partnership, Venom was a box office success for Sony Pictures, earning $856 million. In addition, Venom’s achievement happened without even featuring Spider-Man in the movie, with the focus completely on Tom Hardy’s titular anti-hero. Venom‘s success created a good foundation for Sony to pursue Spider-Man villain spinoff films such as Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. While news has been scarce, there are still plans in place for a future Sinister Six movie.

The boldness from Sony continued with the production of lesser-known Spider-Man characters. In a surprising move, the studio announced a Madam Web movie and recently revealed an El Muerto movie starring rapper Bad Bunny. This strategy of utilizing more unrecognized characters for cinema has proven to work before. Marvel Studios took the unfamiliar Guardians of the Galaxy characters and won over the general movie-going audience. At the same time, Marvel Studios didn’t reach the same level of triumph with the obscure characters in Eternals. Thus, Sony’s plan could share similar risks.

Sony’s daring moves can still backfire if public reception is poor. The problem with making films with unknown characters is that audiences may not have enough incentive to see the movies in theaters. Typically, a studio can take risks with unfamiliar characters if it’s already gained some audience trust with previously successful films. The problem for Sony is that they’ve had more misses than hits with their recent films, including Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Morbius. Both movies fell below expectations despite having notable talent in Jared Leto and Tom Hardy. Sony would only be piling on more risk by pushing out even more obscure characters like El Muerto and having a novice movie actor in Bad Bunny be the lead.

All hope is not lost for Sony. There’s always a chance their live-action movies could work out despite the characters being so unfamiliar with audiences, although the reaction to Morbius has once again created a reason for doubt. Since his return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, there has been non-stop speculation that Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man could be revealed as the Spider-Man of the Venom universe. This move would give Sony the injection of positivity that it badly needs to stoak interest in the Sony Spider-Man Universe, not to mention offset any potential losses, and could even secure the future of more unique, albeit extremely risky titles like Madam Web and El Muerto.