Finally, in 1999, the web was untangled when a court dismissed MGM’s claim to Spider-Man. The Spider-Man rights then went to MGM, but Marvel-which was undergoing bankruptcy troubles of its own-filed suit, claiming they were due the rights back because the original Carolco option had expired in the summer of 1996, before MGM put a film into production.įurther complicating matters was the fact that 21 st Century Film had, once upon a time, sold off home video and television rights to Columbia and Viacom, respectively. By 1991, 21 st Century was also finished, and Carolco Pictures picked up the rights, which they held until filing for bankruptcy in 1995. In 1985, amid lagging studio interest in superhero movies (at the time the only major franchise was Superman, and his series was lagging), cult film powerhouse Cannon Films acquired the movie rights to the character from Marvel for $250,000.Īfter several script attempts, Cannon folded, and producer Menahem Golan moved the rights to his successor company, 21 st Century Films. It took 17 years to get Spider-Man made.īefore superhero mania took over Hollywood, it was a 17-year journey just to get the character onto the big screen the first time. The original film, which saw Tobey Maguire in the title role, was a massive cinematic endeavor that required 17 years, multiple screenplays, a costume theft, and a very convincing CGI performance to complete. Today it seems like we’ll never stop seeing Spider-Man at the movies, but back in 2002-when Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was released-it seemed amazing that we ever saw him there in the first place. Later this year, Tom Holland will don his spidey suit for the sixth time when Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in theaters.

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