Sony Forced To Sell The Merchandising Rights For Spider-Man; Could The Movie Rights Be Next?

Sony Forced To Sell The Merchandising Rights For Spider-Man; Could The Movie Rights Be Next?

Probably not, but a whopping $1.1 Billion loss has seen the company forced to sell the merchandising rights for the big screen version of Spider-Man. What will this mean? Well, it's not clear right now, but hit the jump for details...

News
By JoshWilding - Nov 03, 2011 04:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Spider-Man
Source: Forbes



Before any of you get too excited about the prospect of Marvel Studios reacquiring the rights to Spider-Man, I don't think Sony will be in that desperate a financial position any time soon. However, having experienced some massive losses (the numerous reasons for which you can find by clicking on the link below) the company have now sold the merchandising rights to Spider-Man. Here is an excerpt from the report over at Forbes.

You know things are bad when Spider-Man – who not so long ago made a literal deal with the Devil in his comic book adventures to restore his ailing Aunt May to health – heads out of the door. However, the ¥21.4 billion ($278 million) sale of of Spider-Man merchandising rights was a rare bright spot in Sony’s Q2, announced today (Wednesday). The outperformance of ‘The Smurfs’ was another bright spot, for Sony if not for civilisation as a whole.


So, what does this really mean for Spidey? In all honesty, probably not that much. The last three Spider-Man movies were commercially very successful for Sony, and it's unlikely that they'd ever get in such a dire financial situation that they'd have to relinquish the rights. And with The Amazing Spider-Man looking so good, would we even want them to? Marvel Studios have a pretty decent amount of characters already on their hands. Of course, should the 2012 movie not perform that well at the box office (highly unlikely) then who knows what might happen?

STARRING:

Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy
Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors/The Lizard
Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben
Sally Fields as Aunt May
Denis Leary as George Stacy

RELEASE DATE: July 3rd, 2012.




Image and video hosting by TinyPic


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Ceejay
Ceejay - 11/3/2011, 5:04 AM
Actually its means a great deal, the merchandise for something like this can way outsell the margins of the movie, especially after Hollywood accounting has finished with a picture. No matter what you pay for a ticket, the amount the average parent will end up paying on merchandise for his kid as well as the kid spending on stuff with his pocket money, way exceeds any margins you get on a depleted cinema ticket. As successful as Return of the Jedi was in the box office, Hollywood accounting in royalties and expenses means that most of the poor saps still aint got a share of the profits. This doesn't happen with Merchandising sales so that's why Lucas made a mint and the rest is history! Sony would have been better off selling the film rights and make money of the merchandising for the rest of their days no matter which idiot forks out the cash production budgets for sequels in the future.
Ace101
Ace101 - 11/3/2011, 5:04 AM
FIRST oh yea :P lol one could dream...
Ace101
Ace101 - 11/3/2011, 5:06 AM
Ur spot on with that @Ceejay
Ichaos
Ichaos - 11/3/2011, 5:10 AM
Yogurt: Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs-the T-shirt, Spaceballs-the Coloring Book, Spaceballs-the Lunch box, Spaceballs-the Breakfast Cereal, Spaceballs-the Flame Thrower.
[turns it on]
Dink, Dink, Dink, Dink, Dink, Dink: Ooooh!
Yogurt: [reacts to dinks] The kids love this one.
[a dink hands him a doll that looks likes Yogurt]
Yogurt: And last but not least, Spaceballs the doll, me.
[pulls string]
Doll: May the schwartz be with you!
Yogurt: [kisses the doll] Adorable.
ComicBuzz
ComicBuzz - 11/3/2011, 5:13 AM
This isn't a bad thing, it makes sense!
PaulRom
PaulRom - 11/3/2011, 5:17 AM
Movie rights better be next. As long as they don't have to reboot Spidey again for the MCU, I'd love to see Andrew Garfield alongside Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.
marvel72
marvel72 - 11/3/2011, 5:25 AM
it would be awesome to see spidey back with marvel studios/disney,but we'll have to wait & see how much spidey makes next year,good chance of being the biggest grossing comic book movie of 2012.

then sony won't sell the rights at all.
comicbookjerk
comicbookjerk - 11/3/2011, 5:29 AM
Please for the love of god stop saying


HIT THE JUMP!

leave jumping out of this!
SuperSomething616
SuperSomething616 - 11/3/2011, 5:32 AM
If the rights do revert back to Marvel studios that would mean they'll probably reboot the series...again!!!

SO at this point now the rights reverting is not necessarily a good thing...unless when they did Marvel studios do not reboot and simply continue with the current cast and stories and just work it into the MMU!!!
SuperSomething616
SuperSomething616 - 11/3/2011, 5:32 AM
Which would be sweet!!!
StuckInPanels
StuckInPanels - 11/3/2011, 5:37 AM
@SS616.....I doubt they will reboot the franchise if Marvel Studios gets a hold of the series, they will make the sequel to it more interconnected somehow into the cinematic universe.
MarkJulian
MarkJulian - 11/3/2011, 5:46 AM
thunderforce
thunderforce - 11/3/2011, 5:47 AM
I hope Marvel and Disney are going over that agreement very carefully who knows maybe not keeping all the rights together could trigger Spidy to revert back , I hope so .
OverCross
OverCross - 11/3/2011, 5:49 AM
@CloneKev

Then they got it all back....plus more.
superotherside
superotherside - 11/3/2011, 5:49 AM
I know you guys are going to hate me for this but:

Please, let The Amazing Spider-man be Next year's Green Lantern, so that it doesn't get much box office and everyone hates it and wants it rebooted.



NUFF SAID!
MassExecutions
MassExecutions - 11/3/2011, 6:30 AM
I've kind of grown to like marvel focusing on characters other than Spider-man and the X-Men. There are some real advantages to having them in their own movie universes too, especially x-men. I'd much rather see marvel get the stuff at Fox back. Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Ghost Rider.
MassExecutions
MassExecutions - 11/3/2011, 6:33 AM
@teabag - Web of Spider-Man??!? Oh Crap! You mean full of characterization of side characters? Dang it! This is as bad as when you told me Ultimate Captain America was the same as US Agent.

Ditto to you on the Batman comment.
superotherside
superotherside - 11/3/2011, 6:40 AM
@ckal In Marvel Studio's hands it wouldn't fail... trust me... :) nuff said! :P
comicb00kguy
comicb00kguy - 11/3/2011, 6:41 AM
Ceejay: You absolutely nailed this one. Hollywood accounting could make The Dark Knight one of the biggest bombs in movie history. The only more creative accounting there is may be the federal government.

When one of these blockbuster movies comes out, and you see its name and images on half the stuff in the grocery store, the company making every one of those items had to pay for the right to use that name and any images on its packaging. That is where a lot of these blockbusters truly make their profits. Obviously, it works, or the cross-merchandising would stop. I would guess that Sony was losing money on these rights now because maybe a lot of these companies are hesitant after the crap-fest that was Spidey 3 to invest heavily in the new one. More worrisome, maybe they've seen something we haven't out of the new one that has those companies spooked. Time will tell.
comicb00kguy
comicb00kguy - 11/3/2011, 6:43 AM
Teabag: Agreed 100%
nuck82
nuck82 - 11/3/2011, 6:58 AM
this kinda goes with my article a few months ago of sony pictures going bye bye http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nuck82/news/?a=40060
Fabs
Fabs - 11/3/2011, 7:07 AM
So who bought the Spiderman merchandising rights?!
CBMfan001
CBMfan001 - 11/3/2011, 7:11 AM
well i for one was not impressed with the first spidey trailer,specially comparing with the earlier trilogy this looks cheap and childish.but who knows,il definitely watch it and then decide :)
mithiama
mithiama - 11/3/2011, 7:18 AM
i dont think we can make any assumptions at this point but green lantern was expected to be very successful but it turned out to be one of the worst movies of the year. I dont know about spiderman but ghost rider might under perform as much as i am looking forward to these 2 movies i want both of them to under perform so that sony is forced to sell the rights of both of the characters to marvel studios and maybe then we can get a heroes for hire or new fantastic four reference somewhere.
Mk616
Mk616 - 11/3/2011, 7:36 AM
I hope that the Amazing Spider-man falls flat on its face. I didn't see X-men First Class at the movies and won't see ASM for the same reason. I want all these characters to belong in the Marvel Universe. Imagine instead of the over rich market of movies we get now these would once again become event movies. Only happening twice a year.
souhunter
souhunter - 11/3/2011, 7:40 AM
It won't happen but a white boy can wish
Gauntlet
Gauntlet - 11/3/2011, 7:44 AM
I'm with Fabs, I want to know who has the merch rights now. Hope it's Marvel.
DrCKasady
DrCKasady - 11/3/2011, 7:44 AM
so many valid points made here already./
i'll just say

this could be such a good thing
Shaman
Shaman - 11/3/2011, 8:31 AM
hillbillyshadow- I completely agree!!! Awesome insight!!!
ICStoopedPeople
ICStoopedPeople - 11/3/2011, 8:47 AM
I really... really... am getting tired of you people that are basically like, "Bring on the reboot!" without ever even seeing the finished product. What if instead of a reboot they decide to just bury your favorite character for another 15 years until people have forgotten about the first attempt? I really do not want to wait until I'm 40 to see another decent Spider-Man flick.
hoodedjester
hoodedjester - 11/3/2011, 8:50 AM
Of all the different movie rights that should go back to Marvel, Spiderman is a definite. When people think Marvel that is usually one of the first characters they think of. He's the Marvel poster boy and I for one, would love to see Marvel Studios put out a Spiderman film.

I like Raimi's first two - they were decent films even if I wasn't a fan of the majority of casting. So far, I could care less about this new movie coming out. Nothing from what I have seen gives me any great desire to see it.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 11/3/2011, 8:51 AM
I would love to see it go to Marvel studios! They wouldn't even have to change the cast or anything.
Jordanstine
Jordanstine - 11/3/2011, 11:26 AM
Crossing fingers...

Avengers 2: The Avenging Spider-Man (2015)
PoPcornDude
PoPcornDude - 11/3/2011, 12:20 PM
please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... P L E A S E !!!!!!!
DeadzPool
DeadzPool - 11/3/2011, 12:33 PM
I couldnt give two flying fricks about who has all the damn rights and what not... jus give me a movie where sony or whatever other place that has marvel supes works with marvel/disney to make it amazingly epic!!! BRING ON THE CIVIL WAR FOR 2020!!! lol
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