The two studios, Marvel and Sony, continue to co-own and distribute the character of Spider-Man until today.

Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man came into existence due to the underwhelming reception to the third Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man film. The character was and is still shared between Marvel and Soy and they each get a cut of the profits made from merchandising and box office successes of the films. Marvel had been trying to bring the character within the shared universe but was not able to at the time.

Tobey Maguire played Spider-Man in the Sam Raimi trilogy
It seems Marvel and Sony could not put a stop to making Spider-Man films due to a deal that they made and the character was just too popular to resist. After Raimi left the property, there were instant talks of rebooting the IP and the two studios reached a new deal that would further change the level of ownership one had over the character and the amount of profits each would get.

A Spider-Man Reboot Was Happening by 2011 and New Deals Were Made

Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man
The tussle regarding the character of Spider-Man between Marvel and Sony is a well-known scenario in the world of superhero films. From the Sam Raimi films the two studios have always compensated over how much ownership one has over the character and how much profit each gets based on merchandising and box office returns of the films. Spider-Man continues to be co-owned and distributed by the two studios till today.

The new book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, takes us behind the workings of the deal made between the two studios especially when the character was rebooted with Andrew Garfield in 2012. As detailed by the book, Marvel and Sony had a deal that they must produce a Spider-Man film every five years and Raimi leaving the property after Spider-Man 3 meant that the character needed to be rebooted.

Marvel and Sony sat down and discussed a new deal about the reboot. To ensure a continued and productive partnership, Sony amended the deal for the character for $175 million, while Marvel would get 25% of the profits made from merchandising. Marvel also paid Sony $35 million for every Spider-Man film they made and the two studios rebooted the character under these conditions.

Tom Holland Enjoyed Working Alongside Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield

3 Generations of Spider-Man in action in Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home brought together the three cinematic Spider-Man to fight their own cinematic villains. The three generations of the character played by Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield came together for the first time and were instant fireworks on screen and off screen too. Holland especially looked up to the two dudes who had come before him.

He talked about his experiences working with the two actors. He expressed his admiration for the two actors and how he had so much love for their versions of Spider-Man growing up as a kid. Holland told Seth Meyers,
“When you’re 19 and someone gives you this opportunity and your life changes, it’s quite hard to figure out how to navigate. So to almost have two older brothers that had been through it before me, to be able to share that experience with them was amazing. And I remember we were shooting this scene, which was a really emotional scene.

I was struggling to find the emotion just because when you make these big movies, it can take two days to shoot a scene. I’d been crying for days on end. So I went up to Andrew and Tobey, I nearly said Spider-Man and Spider-Man. And I basically just said, ‘Thank you, thank you for being here. Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this. It means the world to me.’”
The film created history making $1.9 billion at the box office. The union of the three Spider-Man actors was celebrated by fans and the film became an event that will be remembered forever.