Character Rights

"A few days ago I read that Sony may be selling off their entertainment division so the rights to Spider-Man would be up in the air for Marvel to grab, but upon writing this a few news outlets are saying otherwise. Same with Marvel only just acquiring back the rights to Daredevil, Ghost Rider and Blade."

Sony also said they'll never, with several "evers", let go of Spider-Man.

"Now, I'm not an expert on the ins and outs of the movie industry so forgive me if I come off as a tad naive, but, since all these films are released under Marvel Productions doesn't that make them Marvel properties regardless of the studio?"

No. Marvel benefits from the use of their characters by other studios, but those studios have the exclusive rights to use the characters in films. Only Sony can use Spider-Man in movies, unless a deal is made.

"The Avengers and Captain America were put out through Paramount does that make it a Paramount property? Doesn't seem like they are."

Paramount distributed.

"Or if it's really that nasty, why don't Marvel just buy them back using the Disney money"

Yes Disney owns Marvel Studios, and benefits from it, but they aren't the same company. Marvel actually runs pretty much on its own. Also, they benefit plenty from movies like Amazing Spider-Man and X-Men DOFP. It'll probably cost more than its worth to buy the characters back, especially since Sony and Fox aren't selling. Which means it'll cost A LOT.

"It would certainly please the fans"

While I'm sure they enjoy pleasing fans to a degree, especially when it means theater ticket sales, it's also a business. Like I said, if the cost of buying back these characters is monumental compared to what they'll make from ticket sales, then why bother with it?

"as we are a vocal group of people when we see something awesome"

A vocal minority. Iron Man 3 proved that.

"sales of merchandise would go up and so forth, everybody wins!"

Merch sells anyway, and everybody is winning right now.

Actually, Daredevil went back to them a few weeks ago. They don't have Spider-Man and his supporting cast, the mutants, and the Fantastic Four and their bunch.

It'd be cool to have one big marvel movie universe, but...just not a reality. And not that big of a deal, they're simply separate.

@indigobolt956

And it's not as simple as "buy them back". If Sony and Fox aren't selling them, then that means it'll cost A LOT to buy them back. You'd have to offer them some outrageous figure that would get them to consider losing out on all the revenue these movies will bring them in the coming years.

It'd be nice if it were so easy to simply "buy it back". It's like walking up to someone's house and just asking to buy it. If they don't have a for sale sign in the lawn, they probably won't be too keen.