“First dollar gross” is a practice in film-making finances that means a participant earns a percentage of the film’s box office revenue on the first day of release. Stars like Leonardo DiCaprio used this practice on Inception, making more than double his usual rate as an actor because of the film’s unexpected success.
Deadline’s sources say that Disney CEO Bob Iger had spent the past several months attempting to broker a new agreement for continued Marvel and Sony partnerships. Deadline’s sources also say that Sony has reasoned that the studio will manage without Feige.
It’s easy to see why Sony might play hardball with Spider-Man. Spider-Man: Far From Home became Sony’s highest-grossing film ever in August, reaching $1.109 billion in global box office revenue, beating its previous record holder, the James Bond 2012 film Skyfall.
This is also potentially why Marvel Studios declined to announce a new Spider-Man film at Comic Con 2019. Sony still holds the screen rights to Spider-Man solo films, and is also the distributor, going all the way back to Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man. Marvel, however, owns all the merchandising rights to Spider-Man.
Deadline’s sources state that two additional Spider-Man movies are in the works, and that actor Tom Holland and Homecoming and Far From Home director Jon Watts will still be participating. Producer Amy Pascal, who has worked on every Spider-Man film universe entry since Homecoming (including Venom and Spider-Verse) will also stay on.
Disney completed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox back in May, spending $71.3 billion dollars to take over the studio’s intellectual properties.
Disney’s $4 billion investment in Marvel Studios has since earned the studio more than $18 billion.
This story is developing.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and holy cow, right?
