Rumors were swirling yesterday regarding the current financial situation at Sony and whether or not it would cost them the rights to the Spider-man franchise. After three successful films with Sam Raimi and one with Marc Webb plus THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 slated for next year, it seemed an odd choice for Sony to part with arguably their most lucrative property.
As it turns out, they won't. Ain't It Cool reached out to Amy Pascal, co-chair of Sony Entertainment, to ask if they would relinquish the rights to Spider-man, which one would assume would put the property into the hands of Marvel and Disney. Her response:
"Never ever ever."
The quote that set this all in motion came from Comic Book Therapy who cited a financial report suggesting "Sony has said that it will consider a proposal from activist investor Daniel Loeb that the group should sell off parts of its music and movies business, which includes popular franchises Spider-Man and Resident Evil and the weepy ballads of Brit crooner Adele." The report never specifically named those properties as being on the table, it was just assumption.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 will likely gross more than the first film, which would put it in the $250-$300 million range in the U.S. alone. Sony could likely command a big price from Disney for the rights to Spider-man movies as the character would be a natural fit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. An argument could be made that Spider-man would fit in well at Fox as well since Spider-man has had numerous cross-overs with the Fantastic Four in the comic world.
As it stands, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 will not be the last Sony produced movie featuring the webslinger. But, you cannot rule out the studios making some sort of arrangement, can you?
