Reports briefly surfaced that Sony's Board of Directors were considering selling off the rights to Spider-Man. The rumors sparked theories of Marvel buying up the film rights to Spidey in order to add him to the Avengers' stable.
The Register reported that Sony was considering selling the film rights to Spider-Man so it could reintroduce cash into its electronics division. The corporate superpower was allegedly considering spinning off up to 20 percent of its film and music division in public offerings.
Sony would have surely found potential buyers for the cash cow franchise. Marvel has been looking to reintroduce its lost comic book characters back into its movie division. Prior to the release of Iron Man the company sold off many of the film rights to its famed comic characters. The sell offs led to characters such as Spider-Man, Daredevil and The X-Men being owned by other studios. However, the company has recently started to bring back those characters into its extended universe. Marvel just reacquired the film rights to Daredevil from Fox.
Spider-Man would have been a key character for the company's films. The teenage superhero is part of the Avengers in the comics. Spider-Man would theoretically fit in quite nicely with the super group. Unfortunately, any hopes of Iron Man and Spidey meeting each other on the big screen were quickly dashed by a Ain't it Cool. The site contacted Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal who says selling off the franchise has not been discussed. Pascal says that Sony would "never, ever, ever" get rid of the Spider-Man franchise.
Getting rid of the franchise would have made little business sense for Sony. The company just released a revamped version of the superhero series in theaters last year. The Amazing Spider-Man launched last summer to the tune of $262 million in box office profits.
Sony revamped the whole series from its previous trilogy in order to hold on to the rights of the franchise. The company quickly entered production for the film after not being able to re-sign the cast and crew from the original Spider-Man trilogy. Sony Pictures is currently producing a follow up to The Amazing Spider-Man that is set to come out next year. Sony's sequel will see Spider-Man go up against Electro and the Rhino in the next installment of the series.
