SPIDER-MAN Merchandise is How Disney and Marvel Studios Will Make More Profit Than Sony Will on Box Office Sales



This has been a topic of discussion on The Daily SuperHero when Marvel Studios and Sony announced their new deal to bring SPIDER-MAN in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But let's bring some quotes into the topic to prove the things being said are fact and not fiction or conjecture.

So here's the facts. Sony Pictures brokered a deal with Disney and Marvel Studios to co-produce the first SPIDER-MAN movie to take place in the MCU. Former Sony head and now producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige are both producers. Feige has said Sony is financing the movie, which means that Sony will make all the box office profits. Meanwhile, Disney and Marvel will actually profit more than Sony because Disney bought the merchandising rights from Sony in 2011.

The following quote is from Disney CEO Bob Iger during his report about fourth quarter 2011 results.

"Then in July, Sony Pictures will release The Amazing Spiderman. We're excited about the film and expect it will drive significant benefits for Spiderman consumer products," Iger said via SeekingAlpha. "To that end, we recently completed a transaction with Sony Pictures to simplify our relationship. And then in the deal, we purchased Sony Pictures' participation in Spiderman merchandising... This transaction will allow us to control and fully benefit from all Spiderman merchandising activity, while Sony will continue to produce and distribute Spiderman films. We won't be specific about the economics of this 2-way transaction, but we expect it will drive attractive returns for Disney."

To say Disney enjoyed attractive returns on purchasing the Spider-Man merch rights back from Sony is quite the understatement. According to a report by Variety, "[Spider-Man merch] generated another $1 billion in global retail sales [in 2014], NPD Group said." In that same Variety report it was also stated how Avengers merch sales were catapulted to $1 billion in 2014 because of the huge success of THE AVENGERS in 2012.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 released in 2014 and the one thing fans really got behind was his super hero costume in the sequel. The movie may have been hated by critics, most fans and caused Sony to cancel a third movie in a proposed trilogy by director Marc Webb, but merch sales were as high as they have ever been.

Now just imagine when Spider-Man shows up in the MCU, under the creative oversight of Feige and his Marvel Studios brain trust, and how much more retail sales that version of Spider-Man can (and will) make in merch. Say the next SPIDER-MAN movie breaks into the $1 billion worldwide box office club and joins both Avengers films, Sony will be happy because their only super hero franchise will be a huge success but Disney and Marvel will be happier. That type of box office movie success could/should generate more than $1 billion in retail sales in 2017. 

Starring Tom Holland, directed by Jon Watts and written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the still untitled SPIDER-MAN movie begins filming in summer 2016 and releases on July 28, 2017.

Financial note: Please consider that this SPIDER-MAN movie will probably have a production budget in the range of $150-$200 million. Add another $150 million for marketing to this budget and Sony will profit once the reboot makes over $300-$350 million worldwide. An easier task to accomplish when Marvel Studios is running the creative side of things.



Why the SPIDER-MAN Deal is a One-of-a-Kind Deal Where Both Studios Win and it Could Start a New Hollywood Trend