Spider-Man: No Way Home and the benefits of an obsessed fandom

Spider-Man: No Way Home has seen plenty of rumors and “leaks” in recent months, but they could be responsible for its inevitable success.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is singlehandedly the most anticipated film in the last two years, due to all the rumors surrounding it and the potential it holds for the greater Marvel multiverse.

It feels like a must-see event in the same vein as Avengers: Endgame or Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Marvel Studios and Sony seem to know what they have on their hands and are doing a great job of marketing this Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to people who feel like they haven’t had a major theatrical event in a while.

If people didn’t go back to the theaters to watch Black Widow, A Quiet Place 2, Godzilla vs Kong, Shang Chi, Dune, or No Time To Die, Sony and Marvel are making sure you are back in theaters for this.

In the age of scoopers and obsessed consumers of IP, it seems like what could’ve been one of the craziest surprises is its indirect selling point. There has been plenty of coverage over whether or not that thing is going to happen. After months of leaks, the release of the latest trailer, and people putting two and two together, it’s almost guaranteed that it WILL happen.

But how is this surprise such common knowledge now? It seems like when fandom culture started to take over, scooping and leaks just became more common. Due to the growing speed of the internet and how fast information can spread through the grapevine, nothing is really a secret anymore.

Spider-Man: No Way Home’s inevitable success was encouraged by the rumors

Scoopers nowadays take advantage of the current culture’s demand for new content surrounding their favorite thing. They reveal whatever they can in order to have engagement on their platforms.

Disney owns Marvel and they could’ve had a lid on these surprises if they really wanted to. Sony makes PlayStations so they have a lot of money and power as well. Let’s be honest, if Disney and Sony didn’t want this information out there at all costs, a lot of these “scoopers” that are seen on YouTube or social media could’ve had their accounts shut down in an instant. But then again, once something is out there on the internet, it never truly goes away does it?  And it seems like big corporations are starting to accept that, and in this case, are using it to their advantage.

Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home were two critically and financially successful films, but the partnership between Marvel Studios and Sony is never a guaranteed thing, as fans learned during the companies’ brief breakup.

The third film in this trilogy had to go big and take advantage of the resources Marvel Studios don’t regularly have access to because Sony and Spider-Man will always be a package deal until the day comes where that IP doesn’t make money anymore, which will never happen.

Once the rumor started to spread about the potential returns of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in this third MCU Spidey film, its own notoriety started to grow to the point where it was starting to get mainstream coverage. Kevin Feige was even asked about it before the first trailer was released.

Then everything just started to come together to give more credence to the rumors and leaks. Casting announcements, certain people located where the film’s shoot was happening, set photos making the rounds, etc.

Once marketing material started to come out, it became the topic of conversation on social media in a way that no movie has since Endgame. Would this have happened if people weren’t excited about an unconfirmed surprise or if they intentionally kept most things vague in its trailers? Most likely not, because if people didn’t have prior knowledge of the rumors and leaks, and the trailers didn’t show anything of importance, then there may not be the rabid demand that is being witnessed.

Sony and Marvel probably weren’t happy at first about the leaks being out there, but that’s the current reality. In a world where fandom/nostalgia dominates and thousands of people are working on major film productions, some things are just inevitably going to get out there.

Gone are the days where people find out about Luke’s father in theaters, because nowadays that likely would have been spoiled well before that film’s release. But Sony/Marvel and everyone involved are controlling the narrative, by being coy and egging on the fans. And the social media frenzy trying to figure out where certain unconfirmed things fit in the trailer is only making people more excited to go to the theaters and find out.

Did Sony and Marvel want these leaks out there? Most likely not, but once they saw how excited people became about it, and by not confirming it outright, the hype around the movie had grown to extraordinary levels.

In a new age where rumors and spoilers can be a selling point, even if this film doesn’t meet those expectations, it’s already won the holiday box office. They’re already advertising Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving) as Spider Monday, which is the day tickets go on sale. That day will be seen as an event, and a lot of fans will feel like they’re missing out if they don’t have a Thursday night show booked. Of course, if they aren’t the first ones to watch it opening weekend, there’s the risk of spoilers as well.

Spider-Man: No Way Home will most likely be the biggest American movie of the year and it has a real shot of surpassing $1 Billion (which hasn’t happened for an American film since 2019). This film will be a shot of adrenaline movie theaters need to go into 2022 where studios and the moviegoing public hope things can get back to normal.

Are you looking forward to Spider-Man: No Way Home? Let us know in the comments below!