Summary
Sony had the option to purchase all the rights to the comic book characters from Marvel Comics for $25 million, but paid only $10 million for Spider-Man, thus missing out on the opportunity to create their own Marvel Cinematic Universe. If Sony accepted the $25 million offer, the superhero genre would look very different today, with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man potentially setting the stage for the MCU instead of Iron Man. Thor won’t be able to shine on the big screen like he did in the MCU, but they’ll still have their own Spider-Man universe and a partnership with Marvel Studios.
Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of Disney’s biggest franchises, Sony was very close to getting all the rights to the characters. Since 2008, the MCU has grown into the most successful interconnected cinematic universe of superheroes, continuing to explore the many heroes and villains from Marvel comics. While Sony has had to sell many of the core rights to the characters in the past, most of them are finally back under Marvel Studios’ control, with the exception of Spider-Man, who is still owned by Sony. However, it turns out that Sony could have gotten all the rights to the Marvel characters if they acted, thus getting their own MCU.
On an episode of The Journal (via Bleeding Cool), former Sony executive Yair Landau revealed that Sony Pictures had the opportunity to buy every Marvel comic book character for as little as $25 million when they were pursuing the rights to Spider-Man. (By comparison, Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion in 2009, although that included a lot more than just character rights.) At the time, the Sony team saw no value in any characters other than Spider-Man and only paid $10 million, meaning they could purchase the rest of the Marvel character rights for as little as $15 million. Landau shared the following:
“Marvel just came out of bankruptcy. They had no money, and they knew that we had only part of the rights. They also knew, of course, that we were very interested in making Marvel films, so they came to me and we made a deal for 25 Marvel films for $25 million. Every character they controlled was on the negotiating table as part of this deal. The collective team (Sony) decided they didn’t care about other Marvel properties and didn’t want to invest in them. They told me, “No one cares about anyone but Spider-Man.” I thought they were idiots, that’s what I thought. I was ordered to go back and just pick up Spider-Man.”
What Sony’s Marvel Cinematic Universe Could Look Like
If Sony Pictures did accept the $25 million offer, the superhero genre would look very different today, especially from Marvel’s side. The question then becomes how they were going to create their own MCU, especially since 20th Century Fox was never going to get the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man could essentially be the film that set the stage for the MCU, similar to what Iron Man did in 2008.
From here, the natural direction would be to introduce the X-Men, which could be explored in the Spider-Man films, since Peter Parker has connections to mutants in the comics. The Fantastic Four could also be portrayed as a superhero team operating in New York, while Spider-Man and other Marvel characters would have a group to work with before the Avengers would eventually form. But at the same time, characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, who weren’t even considered major characters until 2008, probably wouldn’t be able to shine on the big screen like they do throughout the MCU.
It’s a very real what-if hypothesis, because the fact that Sony had its own MCU instead of Marvel Studios (and later Disney) is a reality that could be interesting to follow, especially today. For another $15 million, Sony could, to put it mildly, define the superhero genre. However, Sony’s Spider-Man universe still exists, and they also continue to partner with Marvel Studios for future Spider-Man films with Tom Holland in the MCU.