Disney inks “multi-year, platform-agnostic” deal with Sony to bring Spider-Man movies to Disney Plus
Film Features Disney
At last, our long national nightmare is over. 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is coming to Disney+. In what Chuck Saftler, head of business operations for ABC, Freeform, FX Networks and Acquisitions for Disney’s Media and Entertainment Distribution calls a “landmark multi-year, platform-agnostic agreement,” Sony will license Spider-Man and “other Marvel properties” to Disney+ beginning in 2022.
The deal will run through Sony’s 2026 theatrical slate and “calls for Sony titles to run across Disney’s array of streaming and linear platforms.” This presumably means that you can finally watch Tom Hardy jump into a lobster tank in Venom or Andrew Garfield search Bing for his dad (or whatever happened in that movie) on any of the Disney-owned networks or platforms, including Hulu, FX, ABC and Freeform. This will also give Disney access to the rest of Sony’s theatrical releases, though they’ll still be released on home video, VOD, and Netflix first.
The six-year deal—plus the similar licensing deal Sony recently made with Netflix—will net the Japanese home-stereo equipment company roughly $3 billion and allow viewers to watch several different versions of Uncle Ben getting iced by a wrestling burglar. But really, Sony and Disney are doing it for the fans, Saftler says in a statement released to The A.V. Club: “This is a win for fans, who will benefit from the ability to access the very best content from two of Hollywood’s most prolific studios across a multitude of viewing platforms and experiences.”
The licensing rights for Spider-man have been a tricky web to untangle over the last 20 years. Originally owned by Sony, who released the first five Spider-Man films across the 2000s and into the 2010s, Disney made a partnership deal with the company, allowing Spider-Man to enter the MCU in 2015. The character has since been the subject of some tricky public negotiations as Marvel and Sony wrestle for control of the character and the billions of dollars he nets. In 2019, when renegotiating the deal, Sony walked away with a mountain of cash brought in by Spider-Man: Far From Home after Disney attempted to make a 50/50 split for the profits. Seeing as Far From Home was the biggest Sony release ever, they were lured back several months later by Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, who reportedly appealed to then-Disney CEO Bob Iger and Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman. But now, it looks like all that’s “water over the dam, or under the bridge, or wherever you like it,” to quote a Sony Pictures Spider-Man movie.
Phew. For a second there, it really looked as though 2021 was going to be a bust, but now there’s hope that one day viewers can watch Morbius on FX.
29 Comments
The big question is…what is Sony going to do with all this cash? (Besides the big exec bonuses, of course.)
Shore up the struggling divisions, probably.
Gold plated PlayStation 7s for everyone!
Send it to North Korea to pay off their blackmailers?
I can only assume a planned trilogy for Screwball, the world’s first live-blogging supervillain.
Bring out a new version of the Memory Stick.
Agnostic? You know, it’s not that I believe that Disney isn’t God, it’s just that I’m not sure.
Do you drink Dr. Pepper?
Now this is news that makes me go:
Just get Spider-verse back on a streaming service, already.
VPN? It is still on netflix up here in Canada
Left Netflix U.S. in December, I don’t think it’s been back since
If you like it so much, why not just buy it?
Why not put on a sundress and marry it?
Why do I need to put on a sundress to marry it?
But does this include the best Spider-Man adaptation (at least until Into the Spider-Verse came along)?
Is anyone else but me offended that the so called “Spider-Man” only has four limbs? Like WTF?
Laserface1242 will probably be along shortly to post images of that time Spidey grew extra arms.
They’re the hero we need
…and allow viewers to watch several different versions of Uncle Ben getting iced by a wrestling burglar.Real talk.
Hey! Muppets Take Manhattan can finally join its felt brethren and sistren over on D+.
Platform agnostics tend to get run over by trains a lot.
GIVE US SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN SEASON 3!!!!
That’s a very nice way of phrasing “All your movies are belong to us!”
Whenever I hear the phrase “multi year platform agnostic” I think of Boom Dot Bust.
Is this it? Does Disney own everything now?
Seems more like Sony has decided not to participate in the streaming wars and just license their stuff over to any platform that will pay, which is nice.
is the MTV spider-man series with NPH anywhere?
I always figured ol’ Walt was an agnostic. Too bad it took 50+ years for the truth to come out.