Nothing but tears came out of me. I usually shamefully hide my tears while watching emotional movies, but this time, I cried proudly and loudly. Avengers: Endgame marked the end of an era. Although I was devastated even after watching this masterpiece countless times, I held onto the hope that the heartbreaking conclusion would be made up by a new ecstatic start with even more interesting characters. In fact, Marvel Studios had recently announced their Phase Four line up — including The Eternals and sequels for Black Panther and Doctor Strange — at the San Diego Comic-Con, so my hopes were bolstered for the next phase. 

But amongst the myriad of movies lined up for the next two years, something about the announcement kept bugging me. The announcement had no sign of the last Spider-Man movie, the promised end to the trilogy. Clearly, something fishy was going on.

Although Spider-Man has appeared in five Marvel movies since 2015, he has long been Sony’s property. In the 1990s, superheroes were not as popular as this recent boom. Marvel even declared bankruptcy in 1996, forcing them to sell their A-list superheroes such as Spider-Man and X-Men to Sony and Fox respectively. Stripped of their best crowd-pleasers, Marvel was forced to work with B-list superheroes that were not as known to the public, using them to encourage the purchase of merchandise such as toys and figurines. Clearly, Marvel underestimated Iron Man and Thor, as their movies were box-office hits and were stepping stones to Avengers: Endgame, which surpassed Avatar as the highest-grossing movie of all time.

After Marvel and Sony’s agreement to codirect Spider-Man in 2015, Marvel agreed to take 5% of the first-dollar gross and any merchandise revenue. This would have been ideal, had Marvel actually kept this agreement long-term, but underneath the mask of film production, they are indeed economists in the film industry. Like all sellers in a market, Disney seems to be fixated on profit rather than consumer satisfaction. They proposed a 50-50 financing stake in future Spiderman films, which, unsurprisingly, Sony did not accept. Thereby, possible appearances of Spiderman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been ended. For most sellers, profit should indeed be the priority, but surely it should be a different case for Disney. Disney now works shoulder-to-shoulder with Fox, regaining their control over X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and are monopolizing the industry with a higher percentage of box office revenue than any other studio. This directly translates into higher ticket prices for audiences.

Even aside from superhero movies, Disney already has a broad range of movies covering a broad target audience. Without the 50-50 financing deal, Disney can still hold their monopoly power, so why would they not focus on consumer satisfaction? From Marvel’s perspective, Spider-Man may not be so much of a necessity. In fact, Marvel has consistently redefined pop culture using B-line superheroes, from Iron Man to Guardians of the Galaxy. Perhaps it is a logical standpoint to give up on Spider-Man and to solely focus on rebuilding another hero. But this may put Marvel in the endgame. As they have killed off major superheroes, no one can say with confidence that Marvel’s Phase Four will be as successful as the Avengers. Spider-Man could at least assure the success of their future movies, since so many fans have loved his story for such a long time.

Certainly, using Spider-Man without the 50-50 deal would not bring as much return as it could have, had the character still been Marvel’s property. However, I believe that the higher appeal to consumer preferences will boost returns in the long run. It seems contradictory that Disney has chosen to end the contract with Sony, because it could easily backfire in terms of revenue. Sony has recently seen major success with superhero movies such as Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In gaining complete control over Spider-Man, Sony is handed the biggest weapon to dethrone Disney — and Marvel in particular — as the leading superhero studio.

Disney, we consumers brought you to where you are today. It’s time to return the favor.