Image: YouTube/Sony Pictures
Netflix lands streaming rights to Sony movies, including future ‘Spider-Man’ films
Netflix will be the official streaming home of Sony’s feature films – such as the future ‘Spider-Man’ films – beginning in 2022.
Image: YouTube/Sony Pictures
Good news for Marvel fans! Netflix Inc. has reached a multiyear agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment for domestic streaming rights to the studio’s theatrical movies.
This is, in part, due to Sony being the only major studio of the big five (Netflix, Disney, Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros.) without its own streaming component.
Netflix will be the first streaming home for Sony Pictures
Now to the delight of many fans, the two companies announced the news on 8 April 2021, saying that the deal will start with Sony Pictures’ 2022 movie slate.
According to the Wall Street Journal, as part of the pact, Netflix will have a first-look option to pick up movies Sony is making or licensing specifically for streaming platforms. Netflix has committed to ordering an undisclosed number of those films, the streaming giant said.
Marvel titles coming to Netflix
What’s more, the releases that will land on Netflix after their theatrical runs are future Spider-Man movies and other films based on titles and characters that Sony has the rights to, including Morbius, Venom, Uncharted, Men in Black, Ghostbusters and Jumanji.
It looks like the deal only pertains to Netflix in the United States though. Scott Stuber, head of global Films at Netflix said that: “This not only allows us to bring their impressive slate of beloved film franchises and new IP to Netflix in the US, but it also establishes a new source of first-run films for Netflix movie lovers worldwide.”
The terms for the five-year deal were not disclosed, but people familiar with the deal said it would be worth several hundred million dollars annually and more than $1 billion (over R14 billion) over the course of the agreement. The precise figure will mostly depend on the box office performance of the films.
A key incentive
Getting access to Marvel titles was a key incentive for Netflix, which is no longer getting fresh Marvel content from Walt Disney Co. as those movies and TV shows moved to the Disney+ streaming service.
According to Business Insider, Sony and Disney struck a deal in 2015 in which Spider-Man could appear in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. After a brief feud in 2019 in which neither studio could agree on terms for the character’s future appearances, a deal was reached in which actor Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could star in a third MCU solo movie and appear in another future Marvel Studios film. That third Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is scheduled for release in December.
Some of these films from Marvel are among the highest-grossing films ever.
