With the recent failures of “Morbius” and “Madame Web,” Sony Pictures is desperate to make a profit.
After Madame Web’s theatrical run, it was announced that all eight Live action “Spider-Man” movies would be getting re-released from April 15 through June 3 and this event was dubbed “Spider Mondays”.
The official statement from Sony said this was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sony pictures, but I found it suspicious that they only released Spider-Man movies, but not the other movies. Despite this (most likely) being an obvious desperate attempt at winning fans back to Sony, many fans were excited. “Spider-Mondays” proved to be a big deal with the re-release of the Sam Raimi trilogy and Mark Webb Duology and with “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, showing that these two franchises are still beloved despite the time that has passed.
It should be noted that the Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man movies didn’t make as much as the previous two Spider-Man series, but this is due to them being the current Spider-Man and still being fresh in a lot of people’s minds and the other two Spider-Man series being more nostalgic. Not to say Nostalgia is the only thing carrying these movies, what was enticing to go see the films was the chance to see more traditional superhero movies. With many superhero movies these days following a similar formula of an origin story or a team up, which ends up making a lot of superhero movies released today feel the same, leading to people getting bored. This was also another factor in these movies doing well during this re-release.
Something noteworthy about this re-release was how many people showed up to see them. Old movies get re-released all the time, but usually, only a handful of people show up, rarely having a full theater.
This is one of the few times where there was hype and anticipation going on Social Media, many people sharing the experience of seeing these movies, and how many people are finding greater appreciation for them.
Something else this re-release proved is that people aren’t tired of superhero movies, but rather, are tired of how boring superhero movies have become recently. Audiences stopped showing up for movies that have no effort, and recent box office bombs from Marvel and DC can prove it Like “The Flash” and “The Marvels”. Both films struggled at the box office.
Superhero movies back then had more of a director’s touch to them, Before Superhero movies were Mainstream Directors had to balance making a movie that both fans and general audiences could enjoy. But after the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Studios got comfortable following a formula similar to Marvel hoping to copy the success. This formula led to studios getting comfortable under the notion that people would go see any superhero movie, which wasn’t the case. Whether it be Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man”, Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” or Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy”, all of these films had passion and heart from the cast and crew, and can be felt through the screen unlike many superhero movies today that are solely made to set up sequels and/or spin offs.
Sony is incredibly guilty of this with their Superhero movies. Since Sony Owns the movie rights to Spider-Man they are obligated to make a movie every few years or they will lose the rights to Spider-Man to Marvel. Instead of making movies or tv shows fans would like, like a Spider-Man 2099 movie or a Spider-Girl movie, they waste resources on nobody nobody asked for.
First, they make movies for side characters who can’t hold a movie on their own except for Venom.
Second, these characters they chose to get movies don’t work without Spider-Man.
With the re-release of the Spider-Man movies and both Marvel and Dc slowing down with movie releases, maybe a little pushback from the audience is what these studios needed to tone it back.
This year, Marvel only released one film with “Deadpool and Wolverine”, and DC is set to release the sequel to “Joker” this October. This is a far cry from previous years when they’d release multiple projects.
Sony is especially toning it back ever since they delayed both “Venom 3: The Last Dance” and “Kraven the Hunter” to rework both films so they don’t have another “Morbius” or “Madame Web” on their hands.
They also canceled unnecessary projects like “El Muerto” , a character who showed up in only two issues of Spider-Man comics or an Aunt May prequel revealing she was a spy.. While it is a shame that Superhero movies took a dive in quality, it’s good that the studios decided to step in before audiences lost full interest in them.
