2024 has not been a good year for Sony at the box office when it has come to the studio’s superhero lineup. All three of its superhero films of 2024 underperformed at the box office with Madame Web kicking off the year with a dismal run, Venom: The Last Dance coming in as the worst-performing film in the trilogy, and Kraven ending the year with the worst opening ever for a Sony-Marvel movie.
Ahead of Kraven’s debut in theaters, rumors began swirling that the Sony Spider-Man Universe was officially coming to an end with the studio planning not to proceed with additional projects following their string of underperforming hits.
Then reports surfaced that suggested that Sony was still invested in the franchise with their primary focus being on Spider-Man 4 and Beyond the Spider-Verse. Shortly after, additionally, rumors surfaced that suggested Sony wasn’t killing the Spider-Man Universe of films but instead was going to reset the universe by closing the chapter on the existing franchise in order to reset things with a new narrative.
Well, now it seems that some insiders are hinting that Sony is considering taking even more drastic actions by throwing the towel in on the Spider-Man IP altogether.
New rumors suggest Sony is considering selling Spider-Man rights back to Marvel
As insiders continue to speculate about what the future holds for Sony and its Spider-Man Universe following the failed performance of Kraven at the box office, new rumors have surfaced that suggest Sony is reportedly looking to walk away from the Spider-Man IP after taking several losses with its standalone films.
According to scooper My Time To Shine Hello, Sony is apparently so frustrated with the turn of events that they’re “seriously considering selling the Spider-Man IP back to Marvel.” This report has been shared by fellow scooper Daniel Richtman who retweeted the initial report from My Time To Shine Hello, suggesting there is truth to the rumor.
Now, we can most certainly see it being a possible point of discussion for Sony after they took loss after loss with their non-Spider-Man films; however, it’s truly hard to believe Sony would be seriously considering the Spider-Man IP back to Marvel Studios.
Sony has owned the rights to the Spider-Man and Friends catalog since 1999 and, while the studio’s Spider-Man Universe films haven’t exactly made the studio money, they’ve more than made up for it with the success of the Spider-Man franchise films as well as the Venom movies.
While some of its recent standalone projects might not have performed as well as Sony might have hoped, the wins still far outweigh the losses and we cannot imagine a world in which Sony hands the rights to one of the biggest superheroes back to Marvel Studios, even if it meant a big payday from Marvel to purchase the rights back.
What seems more likely is that Sony might take some time to reset and figure out what its next steps will be for the future of the franchise. They have two sure-fire hits in the pipeline with Spider-Man 4 and Beyond the Spiderverse which should give them time to think things through and come up with a plan of action for the future of the franchise.
Of course, crazier things have happened over the years so perhaps Sony might indeed decide it’s no longer worth the gamble to keep trying to produce Spider-Man movies. However, it seems incredibly unlikely that Sony will actually sell the Spider-Man IP back to Marvel Studios, as doing so would give them control back of all of their marquee players and leave Sony without a slice of the superhero pie.